I am redoing a load for my 270 and I thought I read somewhere of cutting a slit in the neck of a dummy case and chambering a bullet to find the lands.

Am I dreaming or will this work.

I know that the different bullets that I am fixing to try will probably have different measurements to the ogive.

That should work. At least tell you were the lands are based on the shape of your bullet. Provided you have enough friction to hold the bullet in place and not allow it to stick in the lands.

Of course you can buy tools to measure. Since I'm cheap what I do is take the case in question (worn out if possible) partial resize the neck the take any bullet of the right caliber, file it off flat on the rear and stick it in the case point first. Then chamber the round which will then give me where the lands hit bullet dia. I keep that case for each rifle. When I start with a new bullet I turn the bullet into the muzzle scoring where the lands hit. Then use the original case/bullet to compare too, setting the OAL I want.

Well I don't know if that was the correct way to get the job done, but I think it will work.

I was using my RCBS micrometer to measure each different bullet to the lands. Took about a dozen different readings and then took the average. The Hornady 130 grn. SST set further out of the case than the Sierra Prohunter 130 grn spitzer. There was a .009 difference between the two.

It appears that the bullets are seating at least 2/3rds into the neck. That looks about ok.

I have moved the bullets .0010 off the lands and will load 5 each to see if that has any effect on this load.

I was shooting 59.5 grns of H-4831SC in Remington cases and CCI 200 primers. Will try this load again and move the bullet in and out to see if it makes a difference. Before the Hornady's shot for cockaa, the Sierras shot under MOA at 200 yards.

I think I will need to go ahead and get a membership to the gun range if I have to work up the loads in this 270, the new 7mm STW and my bosses 300 RUM. While I am at it I might as well tweak the 257 Roberts as well.

I keep reading about off the lands for accuracy.
I agree the lowest pressure will be just off the lands.

But so far, the best accuracy for me is jammed into the lands for .223, 257RAI, 270, 7mmMag, 30-30, 308, 30-06, 300WM, 7.62x54R, 8mm, 45acp, and 45/70.

The only thing that got the best groups off the lands was 45 Colt in a Win94.

Hey Harold

You gonna buy a membership to the American Shooting Centers off Westheimer Parkway?

Woods,

That is what I am thinking. I like shooting their longer ranges. The 100 yard is just to busy. Plus I have been shooting pigs pretty far off and need to work on dialing my guns up and down.

I probably should have got the membership already because I have gone enough this year to make it worth while.

quote:

Originally posted by Harold R. Stephens:
...I was using my RCBS micrometer to measure each different bullet to the lands. Took about a dozen different readings and then took the average. ...

Hey Harold, That seems to be the way all those "thingys" work - unreliable.

Here is an old fashioned way that actually works with "one" measurement. Once you get the distance Into-the-Lands, then you can change OCL-to-ODL and get nice consistent (Ogive-to-Lands) Seating too.

Best of luck to you.

PS Sure would be nice if ya'll quit hoggin' all the RAIN!!!

I know this isn't answering the question you asked, but I gotta say it anyway. The Sinclair depth tool is the handiest thing available. I've owned one for years. I liked it a lot better when it was $19.95 but I also liked gasoline better at $1/gal.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?catego...em=09-400&type=store

Buy one and it works for most rifles you own or will own. They sell different bolt guides for rifles with odd sized bolt such as Sako.

An easier way to make a dummy is to seat a bullet using the rifleing. Adjust your die F/L or Neck does not matter so it only resizes about a third of your neck. Lube that bullet up with Emperiel Sizing wax. on a deprimed case seat the bullet long just enough that it will stay in the case. Then chamber it. That will give you your jam length. I make one up each time I change bullets. I then use that to set my seater die. Once you find the perfect seating depth reseat that dummy and mark it with a sharpie. Most times I find my seating depth + or- .005 from the rifeling on 20 cal up

Hot Core you can have any of this rain you want. A lot of us a getting hungry not being able to work. I guess it beats the three years of drought we had in some areas a few years back. I printed the link and stored in my reloading folder.

Thanks for the tips guys, just need to get back to the range to test the new lot.

I use the same method HotCore refers to. Dowels are cheap at walmart, I buy 1/8" and 1/4" dowels.

Hot Core, I agree with Harold, you can have all this rain you want! Man, it's really screwing my fishing up. I haven't been able to hit my favorite spots on the Red River yet due to the high muddy water and swift current. It has rained at least 3-4 times a week for the last few weeks.

I wanted to go night fishing thursday night, yep, it rained. Got up early friday morning and hit the lake, 2 hours in here it came and it rained 4"!!

Ya'll have a good one.

Reloader

Having to water - EVERY NIGHT - or the vines wilt. Had one really mean person, from down your alls way, send me a flick of some kind of nice BIG(Trophy Buck size), ready-to-eat, fresh-picked, Cherokee Striped Tomatos.

Just to make myself feel better, I keep thinking the flick was from "last year" or he bought them at the Farmers Market.

And to make matters similar to what you all had a couple of years back, the Gumbo Clay ground up here is "Cracking Open". Soooo, once we do get some rain, the ground will be so hard, all the water will head to the low country. Hopefully there are enough Cracks to stop some of it.

A really good Tough Man Contest could be made out of digging a 9sqft hole in this stuff with a pick and shovel. Huumm, better make that 6sqft if we wanted anyone to survive.

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:
Having to water - EVERY NIGHT - or the vines wilt. Had one really mean person, from down your alls way, send me a flick of some kind of nice BIG(Trophy Buck size), ready-to-eat, fresh-picked, Cherokee Striped Tomatos.

Just to make myself feel better, I keep thinking the flick was from "last year" or he bought them at the Farmers Market.

And to make matters similar to what you all had a couple of years back, the Gumbo Clay ground up here is "Cracking Open". Soooo, once we do get some rain, the ground will be so hard, all the water will head to the low country. Hopefully there are enough Cracks to stop some of it.

A really good Tough Man Contest could be made out of digging a 9sqft hole in this stuff with a pick and shovel. Huumm, better make that 6sqft if we wanted anyone to survive.

He He He

Had to pick these tonight HC cause the tomatoes were bearing the vines down too close to the ground. They are a little green but the squirrels could have got them tomorrow since they are getting so low. Some of my plants are over 7' tall so the squirrels have a hard time finding all the high tomatoes.

Got a couple of really big about to turn but these will do




Now these are regular tomatoes not the larger Cherokee Purples that HC was talking about.

BTW those are 338 cases there not 22 long rifles.

Thats one big 'matter there. It is amazing how we can complain about the weather in one part of the country only to have someone else wish they had that problem..

HC, at the place Ive been hunting south of San Antonio, they have gotten so much rain that they have to mow the senderos. Just had 3" more this weekend. Last year they were so dry they were burning off the needles on the cactus to let the live stock have something green and moist to eat.

I call that "Global Not Sharing"



Cheers,

Dan

Hey Woods, That 2 week old kid holding the "alleged" Whopper Tomato is a good Trick Shot. You can still see where some Klutz darn near slit the kids wrist cutting the Hospital Band off.
---

I did see a bunch of you Texans out on roofs and wading around in the flood waters, just this morning. Darn shame to have none one year and then floods the next.

Mow the senderos sounds like a "little used phrase". Amazing what does happen when water hits those kind of places. Huuumm, you all should be arm-pit deep in all kinds of Game and Varmints for a couple of years. Forage all over the place sure seems to help the birth cycles.
----

Those aleged Tomatoes are probably "Ceramic" with a poor color job. Yes indeed, probably ceramic!

The method I use for my OAL may be different than others but I figured this method out when I was just a boy and it has worked for me for 30+ years without a hitch.
Take a loaded round of your choosing and tap out the bullet using a kinetic bullet puller.

Seat a bullet back in the case but leave it seated out extra long.

Insert case and bullet in your bolt action rifle and close the bolt seating the bullet to the depth where it engages the lands.

Remove case and bullet from the rifle and measure the OAL, that is the OAL to the lands for that specific brand, weight, style of bullet. Repeat a few times to insure you get a consistant reading.

I then start loading bullets deeper than this in whatever increments that tickle your fancy until you find the distance off the lands that the load or rifle prefers to digest accurately.

I keep notes for all my rifles and for all brands of bullets in each rifle as to their OAL to the lands so that I can start working loads up with different seating depths without having to repeat the process. I only have to repeat when I change to a new bullet that I don't have a recorded profile for.

I've had many experts tell me this way is no good because of one lame reason or another but it has worked consistantly for 30+ years without a problem.

The trouble I see with the stick or cleaning rod method is that you are visually lining up a mark on a stick to the muzzle with your naked eye, I think you could be off a fuzz or two without too much trouble. Widgets and gadgets like the variuos tools for seating depth measuring don't thrill me either.
Your opinion may vary from mine but it won't change the fact that this simple process works.
Good luck with your project.

Isn't the internet great. This one question has gotten response from Alaska to the Carolinas. Thanks for all of the ideas.

Back in WW2 we grew veggies just to have something to eat. Grandpa dug up the flower beds and put veggies in them.

He planted some kind of beefsteak tomatoes that were about that size. Grandma used to cut them so thin one 'mater lasted all summer.

When your feeding 16 people in one family you had to inovative.

Best wishes, Bill

We got "maybe" 1" late Tuesday and it did help settle some dust and wash the Birds off. Looked out and the Squirrels were out running around in it. No ground cracks closed.

However, it looks like the Illinois and Indiana folks are sending some rain this way, maybe before noon. Only real benefit seems to be the Birds aren't eating any worms, so the Truck isn't getting bombed!

Plenty of Blooms, still no Tomatoes.

Hi Harold
I can't compete in the tomato stakes (out of season over here!) but I can vouch for the case with the slit neck. I only reload in .223 but have been happy with this technique. I've repeated it a number of times and get measurements that are consistent to about +/- 0.001" which I reckon is about the limit of accuracy with the Stoney Point tool anyway.
Incidentally, I tried from 0.020" off the lands to 0.004" into the lands in 0.008" intervals and found 0.012" off the lands gave the best results with 25.6gr of BM-2 behind a 52gr Amax.
Cheers
Alex