Hi all, I apologize if this has been covered. I did a search, but couldn't find anything. I read in the Lee reloading manual that you can find the oal for your specific rifle by just seating a bullet in the casing, then chambering it and letting the chamber seat it to the length it should be for your gun. Obviously done without powder/ primer. Is this B.S.? I tried it and it came out as 2.9" when all the books say it should be no longer than 2.8" Being fairly new to this, I wasn't sure if that'd work and what it'll do to pressures and velocities. Thanks in advance and again, I apologize if I missed it somewhere else.

All depends if the round will fit your magazine, Remingtons mags will fit up to about 2.830", Brownings no more than 2.8, if youre loading them one at a time like for target shooting then you can set the bullet out to touch or just off the lands if you like.

JW, In a hunting rifle the limiting factor is usually the magazine. THe general rule on a hunting rifle is load to magazine length. If you are unable to get acceptable accuracy at this length, bring your length in until you find your sweet spot.

Good deal. I appreciate it, guys! Will that little extra length change the pressures much if the same load is used?

Not really.

Where you have to be careful is taking an established load where you had plenty of clearance betweent he bullet and the lands, and increasing the OAL to but the bullet against, or into the lands. That's when you get the serious pressure spikes.

On more then one occasion I've taken max loads and shortened the OAL length at .005 increments until my groups can in with no problems.

If I even went from say, .02 or more off the lands to touching the lands I'd back off from any previous max loads and work up again.

That makes sense. I was wondering about a decrease in pressure from having more case volume, I didn't even think about a pressure increase from the bullet being right at the lands. Thanks again!!!