Need some advice.

Was helping a mate work a reload for his bruno 30-06 when i went to messure the freebore to get the distance to the lands with a 180 grain hornady. it was huge.like 12 mm longer than the recommended oal for the round with no seating depth at all. When i did the same thing in my whinchester it was not that far off what my oal i use for my rounds .has anyone experienced this in the bruno? Is this normal shoul he get it checked he has been hunting fine with factory rounds.

what do you recommend that we go with a standard oal and work from low load and see accuracy?

Book OAL is a much misunderstood thing; it's not a recommendation, as such, it's just the the OAL they used to develop the published data.

Individual firearm's chambers AND likes demands we simply start someplace that chambers properly and experiment to adjust our OAL as carefully as we do the powder charge if we wish to achieve best accuracy.

quote:

Book OAL is a much misunderstood thing; it's not a recommendation, as such, it's just the the OAL they used to develop the published data.

Doesn't this also take into consideration the magazine box length? i.e. they are establishing a COAL that should feed well out of the magazine and also provide enough room in the case to get 'typical for cartridge' velocities?

With that much freebore, I would start all my load development with the bullets seated as far out as the magazine would allow, given that you still have enough bullet in the neck for good grip, say .225". With 180s and heavier, this should not be problem unless you have a magnum length action.