Have played with several bench bolt guns and as I developed loads that worked started easing them in the lands to further shrink groups. Now I have a semi auto .223 and .308 that I have worked up loads that consistently punch 1" 5-shot groups, sometimes less, espicially the .223. I would like to start lengthening the oal but I do not want feeding probs and DO want to be able to feed from a magazine. What methods do you use to succesfully lengthen oal without trial and error on the misfeed side? Are the chamaber guages from Sinclairs and the like the ticket. What are the tricks here? Thank you Gentlemen

Buy a Stoney Point COL tool.Be sure and get the angled one.It works on everything. Most bullets that will work at magazine length will exceed magazine length before you hit the lands. There ARE exceptions. Stay below 2.25 COL for best function thru a magazine.
Covey

PS
The best trick I ever learned about reloading for semi auto's and .223 especially was buying Glenn Zeidecker's books Reloading for Competition and The AR15 Book.

[ 11-25-2003, 19:30: Message edited by: covey16 ]

In the 308 Win. Auto I have had best results around 2.79" main thing do not exceed magazine and injection port length.

[ 11-28-2003, 04:14: Message edited by: Alaska Bush Man ]

Thank you for both of your posts. I got out early the other morning and had a zero wind condition for trying some loads. I shot 2-5 shot strings that were .8" with 43gr of IMR 4895. I will try stepping that up gradually and extending OAL a bit to tighten. The rifle seems to be very consistent. Thanks for the advice