Hi, I'm just setting up my dies preparing to develop some loads for the Woodleigh 350g PPs in my CZ 550 375 H&H. My reloading manuals call for an OAL of 3.60" I have a really cheap Lyman plastic dial caliper that measures my factory 300g Swift A-Frames at 3.54" The Woodleigh PPs are actually blunter in profile.

So reaching back into prehistoric memories I put a 350g Woodleigh bullet only in the barrel until it just made contact with the lands put m cleaning rod into the muzzle until it barely contacted the bullet and marked where the barrel end was. I then seated a 350g Woodleigh out to the same 3.54" and it was almost a 1/4" different. It seems to me that's a lot of freebore. I usually seat my bullets about 1/16" off of the lands, 1/8" if I want to run a little hot. So I seated another dummy round to 3.57" OAL. At this point you can almost make out the top part of the crimping ring in the bullet. I believe the CZ 550 will allow a longer than 3.60" OAL.

So my questions:

1. What OAL should be my nominal starting point with the Woodleigh 350g PPs?

2. Can I seat them longer than 3.60 because I'm shooting out of a CZ 550 and is there any advantage to doing so?

3.My Forster Bench Rest seating die following the instructions is almost out of range. I can thread it back out a bit so there would be a bit of a gap between the shell holder and the bottom of the die when the shell holder is at the full up position (which does defeat the idea of a bench rest seating die a bit).

Sorry for the long post, if I'm doing something stupid please tell me. I had set my OAL for my .270 30 years ago when I knew what I was doing and haven't changed it since ...



Chuck

Chuck
do the max aol thing with the 350gr bullet, and subtract either .03 if the groove aint important, or verify that the groove crimp makes it shorter than max oal on the rifling

fired and unprimed case

if you have a fired case, bend the edge until it will barely hold the bullet, seat way long, and close the bolt on it, measure resulting aol.. do this 10 times ... you can't feed it from the mag.. average the oal, and subtract either .030 or at the grove, which ever is shorter

Thanks Jeffeosso, I've got to believe my POS plastic dial caliper is junk, so I'm going to get a new one, but that doesn't explain the amount of freebore I'm getting with factory Swift A-Frames. It must be my chamber/barrel or there are some real short ones out there.

I will do what you suggest and see what number I come up with then redo my cleaning rod test as well. I'll probaby use my old method of loading a bit short, finding a good but not max accuracy load then playing with the seating until I get best accuracy. Then using that OAL work up to a max load.

Good thing I'm not in a hurry lol,

Thanks again,

Chuck

I just crimp them on the cannelure and get MOA accuracy with 67 grs. of RE 15 in my Model 70.

All that is fine with varmint rifles, even plainsgame and deer rifles, and if your trying to squeeze that last drop of accuracy out of your rifle, but for a dangerous game rifle and IMO any hunting rifle you don't much in return for your trouble...

I would suggest you seat your bullet by the room in the magazine, set them out as far as the magazine will take them less enough to insure 100% feeding...NOrmally I will suggest that your throat is a lot longer than your factory magazine.

Bullet jump is not the problem its rattled up to be..In my long throated Brno 21 and 22 a 130 gr. Speer has to jump a mile to the lands and I get 1 inch groups in both guns..If your competitive bench resting or perhaps shooting squirrels at long range, I suppose it would make a difference in some guns.

BTW, I love those 350 gr. Woodleigh PPs on Buffalo...

Thanks Ray, I'm going to seat out the bullets to within .100 of the lands or 3.60 OAL whichever is shorter to start. I'll make dummy rounds to make sure they feed and extract easily. I bought a brand new stainless Lyman dial caliper today only $25, but of course found out my 25 year old plastic one was within .002' of the new one lol. Hopefully to the range this weekend with some new handloads.

Regards,
Chuck

Well I measured from the bolt face to the tip of 350g Woodleigh PP seated so it just contacted the lands was 3.70" OAL, the magazine is larger. So I seated a bullet in a dummy round (this is getting expensive) to 3.60" OAL and then measured the difference between a bullet seated to the lands and the dummy round with OAL 3.60". Of course it measured .100" which is what I wanted. I made two dummy rounds and made sure they functioned flawlessly (including ejecting a loaded round). So that's what I'm going to seat the 350g Woodleighs to, the case mouth is just below the beginning of the crimping grove so that should be good also. Going to start with H4350 as Geoff recommended 68g, 70g, 72g, (that's the range Geoff recomended) then 73g and 74g if the pressure looks low at 72g, chronograph and measure groups. So now to the range ...



Regards,

Chuck

Be very careful because the most problematic scenario I see in Africa or in any hunting camp is folks unload their rifle and the bullet sticks in the lands and they have powder and a mess in the chamber and magazine as a result...

Always set them back as much as you can without hurting your accuracy...actually its best to crimp on the cannalure with DG calibers. the bullet jump won't hurt accuracy on Buffalo etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Be very careful because the most problematic scenario I see in Africa or in any hunting camp is folks unload their rifle and the bullet sticks in the lands and they have powder and a mess in the chamber and magazine as a result...

This happened to me, but at the range, not on a hunt in Africa. I loaded some 404 bullets to the crimping groove, assuming that the groove would be in the "right" place. Cartridges fit nicely in the magazine, I fired off a couple. Then I chambered a round and for some reason decided to eject the cartridge. A little stiff on the bolt lift and a mother to pull the bolt back and voila! a bullet in the barrel, a magazine full of powder. I took the rifle apart of course but the trigger no longer worked. I had to take it apart as well as a single grain of powder had somehow lodged in the trigger mechanism. When this happens to you become very, very careful about COAL.

Thanks Ray and Wink, I understand the concern, someone on the NitroExpress forum also cautioned me about that. That's why I seated well short of the lands (.100"). I made two dummy rounds (no powder, no primer) and both are feeding and extracting (obviously with the bullet still intact) flawlessly. The 300g Swift A-Frame factory loads are seated well back (3.54") overall I'm assuming to accomodate shorter magazines. I plan to do quite a bit of shooting before I go hunting and while it's not hot here compared to Africa, it does get in the 90s. If I notice any issues I will seat the bullet deeper. I will also make sure I'm a couple of grains below MAX for the same reason.

Thanks again,

Chuck

Things worked out well at the range.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4711043/m/624103678

Thanks for all of the advice,

Chuck