Oal question

[philipxhuff]

I'm wanting to load my 308 .01 off the lans like I read about everywhere so I took a fired case and slightly crimped it so it could hold a bullet snug and chambered it repeatedly and measured it after every time and decided my oal on the LANs is 2.891 which is longer than I expected so before I load and shoot some loads at 2.88 does that seem ok to everyone else and any other inputs on the subject would be nice.

 

[vdub]

Are you planning on single feeding them or loading them from a magazine? What rifle are you loading for? I know of very few guns that will allow you to magazine feed bullets that are jammed into the lands. My rifle allows loading from the magazine at longer lengths so I load mine jammed into the lands and load to 2.9XX" base to tip. The XX is as close to 00 as I can get it. Variances do occur.

 

[Old Fart]

I've loaded long on a lot of my rifles. Mostly milsurp.
I would suggest not loading max or near max.
For me I always make sure the bullet is still firmly seated also.
And I usually end up loading one at a time from the top.

 

[Ksmirk]

Ya know what I have found to be the best is to set your COL at max (2.810") and adjust the powder charge. Keep in the loading book specs but load (For example only not real numbers) from min to max;

25.0 to 28.0 powder load
25.0
25.5
26.0
26.5
27.0
27.5
28.0
shoot groups and say you find out that you get good groups at 26.5 and 27.0gr of powder I go home and load,
26.5
26.6
26.7
26.8
26.9
27.0
you'll find a load in there that will be accurate! now they have a load tool called the ladder test which saves a mess of time and components but I'm an oddball I guess cause I can't get it to work. I only have one rifle that I had good luck on changing the COL and that is using a ogive tool cause just measuring the tip to base of a load will never be the same I promise. Hope some of this helps ya! Later,

Kirk

 

[Rod Snell]

Suggest loading at SAAMI max length and carefuly testing for accuracy to use as a baseline, then test the longer loadings.
You might be surprised at how little difference long loading can make in a typical hunting gun.
At any rate, loading into the rifling is a good way to get a bullet stuck in the field.

 

[philipxhuff]

I'm loading for a howa 1500 and I already know they won't fit in the magazine at that length. I plan on shooting one at a time. I've also narrowed down which powder weight shoots best I just wanted to see if getting the bullet right up to the LANs would help in acuracy. Has anyone noticed if it's worth the hastle loading 1 at a time for the acuracy difference if any difference.

 

[HiredHand]

This from http://www.6mmbr.com/308win.html

When choosing a load to test, keep in mind that seating depths can make a HUGE difference in pressure. Remember that seating bullets into the lands can raise pressures but moving 0.020" or more AWAY from the lands can also raise pressures, because you are reducing the effective case capacity. Many readers ask us "should I jam or jump my bullets." There is no right answer for every gun. For every guy getting great results at .015" jam, there is another guy doing well with a 0.025" jump. In general, most popular .308 match bullets (Bergers excepted) are tolerant of jump. This is certainly true of the 168 and 175 SMKs. So don't worry that you may be sacrificing a great deal of accuracy by loading to mag length, even if that puts you pretty far from the lands.

 

[Bruno2]

This is the technique that I use . I take a b-day candle and smoke the end of the bullet. Then I adjust my seater plug until the bullet shows an area of very light contact. I leave it there instead of backing it off .01.

Its always best to use an empty case for this process. The first time you have a charged case and the bullet gets stuck in the lans then dumps powder all in your gun when extracting it you will wish you did something different.

I have a Howa 1500 in .223.That is one of the best shooting rifles I have ever owned.

I understand wanting to be familair and experienced with different loading techniques, but , if you are not shooting BR comp I really dont see why you would be wasting time using this method. I load to maximum magazine length and that picks the accuracy up a notch. I dont shoot comp , but , I do like to punch nice groups.

 

[Shriner]

Or Phill you could just get a hornady lock & load overall length gage and find were the bullet hits the lands in one step.

 

[JCW355]

I have a Stoney point OAL tool that measures to the ogive of the bullet. I take 10 measurement and look for the measurement that comes up most often and use that, loading .XXX" from the lands. I then take my powder and start low, load 5 rounds at that powder charge and then increase by .5 and load 5 more. I'll load maybe 20 or 25 loads with different powder charges then shoot for accuracy. Some rifles have a long throat and loading to the lands won't work.