30 June 2004, 21:57
Aussie FrankCase Length and Accuracy
A friend of mine has just sold his Reminton 700 chambered for 22.250. He was always complaining that he couldn't get consistant groups with it no matter how many different powders he tried or how many different projectiles he used.
I was in his shed the other night having a quiet beer when I noticed a tray with about 200 22.250 cases in it. I said that seeing as he hasn't got his Remington anymore I would take them of his hands. He said no problem they are all full length resized & trimmed to length ready to load.
After getting them home I decided to check them out and found the following. They were all clean, trimmed, necks champhered inside and out and ready to load. After checking the length of each case I found the they varied in length from 48mm (1.889inches) to 48.5mm (1.909inches) could this have been his accuracy problem?
Frank in Sunny Queensland OZ

01 July 2004, 01:24
GadoliniumHi Frank
You did not mention how "bad" the groups were, but it could possibly have a quantifiable effect. If the cases are not of uniform lenght, one could potentially load to the same OAL, but have multiple seating depths. This could be detrimental to accuracy, but how much depends on the rifle.
Was this the brass he commonly used in the rifle?
I can't say that .002 in case length does not matter.
I can say it does not matter much to most of us who do not measure groups with micrometers.
Travis F.