I just started reloading for my .308 and just finished 40 rounds and seated the bullets. I did 10 groups of four cartridges each working my way up from 10% lower than max load in 1% increments.

On the first four loads, the bullets seated .005 deeper than recommended. The recommended Case Over All Length is 2.8" and these four are at 2.795". Would you reload these? Do you think that .005" out of 2.8" will make that much difference? These four are all at 10% lower than max load, so hopefully since they are not near max load they will still be ok for test loads.

You should buy a OAL gauge from Hornady. They are cheap and well worth the money.

I've got a caliper gauge, what would an OAL gauge do differently?

quote:

Originally posted by SavageHMR:
I just started reloading for my .308 and just finished 40 rounds and seated the bullets. I did 10 groups of four cartridges each working my way up from 10% lower than max load in 1% increments.

On the first four loads, the bullets seated .005 deeper than recommended. The recommended Case Over All Length is 2.8" and these four are at 2.795". Would you reload these? Do you think that .005" out of 2.8" will make that much difference? These four are all at 10% lower than max load, so hopefully since they are not near max load they will still be ok for test loads.

.005 short of what you want is not an issue in what you are testing. Once you find a load that shoots well, you may want to "play" with the col to fine tune the load.

SHOOT 'EM.

Jim

Col doesn`t affect bottle neck cartridge pressures as much as straight walled small pistol type cartridges. The 2.8" COL in your manual is the SAAMI max over all that will fit in the magazine of any factory produced rifle chambered for the 308. I would suspect you won`t see any effect on pressure from the change and it may even aid accuracy a bit from the target lenght. The important lenght is the distance from the lands the ogive of the bullet sets. You don`t want hunting ammo jammed in the lead but at a distance the barrel vibrations are the most consistant. This is different from rifle to rifle and can only be found through trial and error. The caliper you have will measure COL from tip to the base of the bullet very well. The distance you will want to measure to check the difference moving closer or farther from the lead with the bullet ogive will require a bullet comparator such as was suggested earier.
I wouldn`t worry over the load and would shoot them. Keep the COL at the same lenght until you have worked up your load and then if you wish play with it in small increments (0.005" for instance) and see if accuracy improves.

Good luck......

Another consideration for OAL is the mag box restrictions and what cycles better through the rifle. It would be bad if your pet load did not cycle smoothly.

Thanks for the replies.

I'll have to look into getting one of those OAL gauges.

For this first time, I'll just fire these also and see where my load comes out the best.

Seeing as you have a caliper gauge, I assume a dial caliper or vernier caliper, save your money on the OAL gauge.

Measuring with the caliper is the same thing and your manual will give you the measurement as you already have.

If you get an OAL gauge alll you will accomplish is to know your cartridge is equal to or shorter than the SAAMI specs and you already know that!

All correct. The Max COAL has nothing to do with reloading safety as such. Ignore it.
Your COAL will probably change markedly depending on the weight/length of the bullet.

A 110gr loaded bullet is likely to be much shorter than a 180gr bullet load.

You can check your self what fits in your magazine, and what doesn't get jammed into your rifleing.
I would use a length anywhere from almost touching the rifleing, back to where not much bullet end is below the sholder. The main thing is to have it fit in the mag. and also have enough bullet in the neck to hold it firmly. One cal. is about normal. IE .308 length held by the case neck.

Then later you can muck around adjusting seating depth between the two extreems to fine tune for accuracy. Don't be supprised if you don't see any difference. The powder load will probably make much more difference in accuracy.

Looking at the Hornaday OAL gauge description last night and it wasn't clear to me how much difference it would give compared to my dial caliper measurements.

However, just like always with gun accessories, the page at Hornaday also showed a bullet comparator and a headspacing gauge that looked interesting..

BTW, I have just started competing in 1000yd tactical competitions. Right now most of my accuracy issues lie directly with me, but over time I will be looking for more accurate ways to improve my loads.

Until next time...

Well, I did my first test firings today and all went well. These were my first handloads and I'm pleased with the results. My goal was to try to match the performance of the Federal GMM 175g ammunition ( I use that for competition ) and my seventh set of loads came within .7% in velocity and the 3 shot group was 30% smaller than the Fed GMM group.

Thanks for the help!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SavageHMR:
Looking at the Hornaday OAL gauge description last night and it wasn't clear to me how much difference it would give compared to my dial caliper measurements.

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If you get the Hornady OAL gage and the modified .308 case, you should also get the Bullet Comparator and an insert #30 (for .308)
This is going to tell you the dimension from the bullet ogive (where it touches the rifling) to the face of the bolt when closed.
This is the only way to measure your rifle chamber that I am aware of, and all rifles differ. OAL is not even a consideration except to answer the question of will the cartridge fit into the magazine.
If you want to set the bullet a certain distance off the rifling then you must have the comparator set up..........pg

When working up a load for a hunting rifle, I seat my bullets as far out as my magazine allows. Some bullets are slightly longer than others from the same batch, so I use my bullet comparator to cull any loaded cartridges that are excessively short or long. I then adjust my seating die to set the ogives at a uniform distance from the lands. This is what I use as a starting point. When I find a good load, I fine tune by seating progressively shorter by .005" to see if there is a sweet spot that gets better groups than my initial seating depth.

Measuring cartridge overall length using the bullet ogive insted of the bullet tip allows you to change bullets and know seating depth for your rifle. Sinclair International has the "Davidson Depth Checker" which works with your existing caliper.