Another question on my first reloading adventure.

Let me preface by saying I do not have a tool to measure from the ogive. It will likely be the next order

I was experimenting the first time with bullet seating on dummy rounds. I have factory ammo and components that match (bullet and case). Per a modified version of the procedure in the Nosler loading manual, I squeezed the neck of a fired case to hold a bullet. I also put a dab of superglue in there. I then carefully chambered the round and let the rifle set horizontally for 10 minutes. I then carefully extracted the round. The method seems to work well. This should give me the cartridge length to my lands.

Comparing it to factory ammo, I find factory Winchester Ballastic Tips premium to be set ~0.050" off of my lands. Remington factory CoreLoK ammo is about 0.090". I may have some error here as I find some variation measuring COL with the lead tipped CoreLok. Just looking at the rounds, it is quite a drastic difference.
The COL of my ammo with the 3.250". The manuals have 3.3" as the max.

Is this normal? Does my rifle have a long throat. The 0.050" seemed reasonable. The factory remington being nearly twice as far concerned me a bit.

I set the seating die to give me 0.030" off the lands. I made dummys and they feed and chamber fine. I inked the bullets and no markings were on the tips.

This is my first time and would appreciate comments. The length of my reloaded ammo and the factory stuff is very noticeable with a quick glance.

From eveything I have read 0.030" is generous, even for hunting ammo.

Every company, well, every bullet, will have a different measurement.

Comparing a Remington bullet to a Winchester is like comparing oranges to grapefruit.

Factory chambers are very generous.

Factory ammo is always loaded short.

That is why God made gunsmiths and barrelmakers.

Until your shooting consistant 3/4" groups (at 100yd), simply stay with the recogmended OAL for what ever bullet your rifle tells you it likes. Once you have burned out a couple of brrels, and never fire a group over 7/8", than start to worry about the "jump to the lands" distance (IOW it's only important to tool manfactures and top ranked target shooters)

Agree with all of the above comments. Muy only pearl of wisdom is to spend the small amount and get a Stoney Point Comparator and be done with it. Nothing better-so much better than smoking a bullet and trying to see where the carbon rubbed off-It is easy to use and extremely repeatable with the measurements and you will find yourself using it more than you thought .

quote:

Originally posted by gab:
Agree with all of the above comments. Muy only pearl of wisdom is to spend the small amount and get a Stoney Point Comparator and be done with it. Nothing better-so much better than smoking a bullet and trying to see where the carbon rubbed off-It is easy to use and extremely repeatable with the measurements and you will find yourself using it more than you thought .

Easy to use? Ask this guy............

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d149/1Savage/100_0267.jpg

but what's factory ammo??

That lad is on the right track!

- mike

quote:

I then carefully chambered the round and let the rifle set horizontally for 10 minutes.

If your rifle has a plunger ejector, how did you compensate for it pushing your case off the boltface?

The neck was pinched to the point where the the bullet would only slide with some effort. The bullet was jammed into the rifling.

I never thought of it before your question, but I assume the resistance of the bullet sliding into the case would overcome the force of the plunger spring. In addition, the case was fired in this rifle and not sized and "should" be relatively tight in the chamber.

I read of the method in the Nosler manual. Read about the superglue modification here.

BTW, My first statement may not have been clear.

I had a box of Remington Corelok 180 grains and a box of Winchester 168g Ballistic Silvertips. Samples were fired in this rifle from each box. I used the respective fired cases out of each box for dummy rounds. I also purchased the same bullets as components for the comparison. I was hoping to use the Corloks as practice ammo. The Ballistic Silvertips were chosen because they have been consistently the most accurate in my rifle.

So, I am not really comparing Remington bullets to Winchester bullets, just giving results in 2 experiments.

In each case, 0.030" off the lands ends up being longer than factory ammo, in one case a surprising amount to this inexperienced beginner.

Was looking for some confirmation that this is normal. I often read of seating bullets to the lands or 0.010" off. 0.030" give me ammo that is quite a bit longer than I the factory.

Thanks for all the help! I am sure I will have a few more questions before I fire off that first homemade shot. I can see how this could be addictive. I have enjoyed every minte of it, expect for some of the repetitive case prep

Metalman29
It sounds like your bullet is selected for you, either the "naked" Nosler Balistic tip or the "dressed" Nosler CT Ballistic tip, in the weight you've had good results with so far. Next thing is to find the powder your rifle prefers, and the best charge weight of that powder *while sticking with the book recogmended OAL*.
If your going to be using this as a magizine fed hunting rifle, the mag will control your OAL. If this is going to be a single shot target rifle, than the lands will come into play. In either case, adjusting the OAL (within the limits discussed) is a final tuning step, not a preliminary setting.
IOW you are a long way from having to start tweeking the distance to the lands.
BTW, what your seeing is fairly common with non-custom chambers (they have to be able to safely fire the longest "base to ogive" ammo made for that chamber, which in the case of the 30-06 would be a 220gr roundnose.

Just an example from my memory, since you asked what was 'normal'. I wish I could remember the others, since I tried several and the OAL at thelands did vary quite a bit. IIRC BT's and matchkings of similar weight were very close to the same OAL, 'cheap' bullets were shorter.

My M70, OAL for factory BST's is around 2.78" give or take normal manufacturing tolerances. Length to the lands with the same bullet is 3.05", give or take. Getting more accurate measurements requires bullets with more consistent manufacture...hence I advise a batch of 5 and averaging the results. It's enlightening to see the variance, to say the least!

For hunting ammo I load BT's 2.95", for target ammo I lightly touch the lands and single load.

quote:

Originally posted by Tailgunner:
Metalman29

BTW, what your seeing is fairly common with non-custom chambers (they have to be able to safely fire the longest "base to ogive" ammo made for that chamber, which in the case of the 30-06 would be a 220gr roundnose.

Thanks!