Max OAL, SAAMI vs actual.

[kodiakisland]

Finding the distance to the lands is a waste of time. Thusly, equipment to obtain such useless measurements are a waste of money. If you are hellbent on gaining this useless measurement, use your cleaning rod. At least it won’t cost you any extra money.

I seat them to the tested COAL and have never had to adjust seating depth. Adjusting seating depth is yet another waste of time.

I also find measuring base to ogive to be pointless, as well.


I don’t know or care how far off the lands I am.

I suppose reloading is a waste of our time since you can buy from the factory.

I find the lands because that's where I start. Just like you start from a book number. I just choose to start at my actual rifles number. If not accurate I back off. I know where I started and I know where I'm going. Maybe a waste of time for you but I prefer a process over randomness.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Respectfully disagree with this. Not all chambers are cut the same or to SAAMI
spec. My Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor is exceptionally long and I’d have a crazy amount of freebore if I loaded to standard spec.

Not all projectiles are sensitive to seating depth but I’ve encountered some that are (Barnes, Hornady RDFs, ELD-Ms to a lesser extent) and some that don’t seem to care much at all (Hammer, most cheap soft points).

If you’re going to get engaged in something as esoteric as handloading, why not get freaky with it and collect all the data that you can in order to optimize performance? Otherwise, just shoot factory loads.

I too have a Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor and haven’t had any issues with accuracy.

I shoot the bullets you deemed sensitive to seating depth. They weren’t for me.

Handloading isn’t hard. The people doing things that don’t matter, makes it hard.

If you have to do all that stuff to get accurate ammo, maybe you should shoot factory loads.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I suppose reloading is a waste of our time since you can buy from the factory.

I find the lands because that's where I start. If not accurate I back off. I know where I started and I know where I'm going. Maybe a waste of time for you but I prefer a process over randomness.

It’s your time. Waste it how you want to.

 

[kodiakisland]

It’s your time. Waste it how you want to.

Some folks reload because they like reloading. I buy guns in cartridges I want to reload for. I've never wasted time on anything gun related.

I am guilty of wasting about 4 hours of my life playing golf though. Not proud of it.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Some folks reload because they like reloading. I buy guns in cartridges I want to reload for. I've never wasted time on anything gun related.

I am guilty of wasting about 4 hours of my life playing golf though. Not proud of it.

Reloading doesn’t bother me, either. Especially, since I don’t do any of the useless stuff that waste my time with it.

 

[kodiakisland]

Reloading doesn’t bother me, either. Especially, since I don’t do any of the useless stuff that waste my time with it.

So what do you do with wildcats that have no book number or a rifle chambered in a round 60-80 years ago when there was no standard for it?
I'll gladly spend the 10 minutes to find the rifles COAL. I do have to buy a new sharpie every couple of years, but I just work it into the gun budget.

 

[3006Sprng]

Finding the distance to the lands is a waste of time. Thusly, equipment to obtain such useless measurements are a waste of money. If you are hellbent on gaining this useless measurement, use your cleaning rod. At least it won’t cost you any extra money.

I seat them to the tested COAL and have never had to adjust seating depth. Adjusting seating depth is yet another waste of time.

I also find measuring base to ogive to be pointless, as well.


I don’t know or care how far off the lands I am.

I did some tinkering last night and found my .243 also has a short throat, bullets are jamming at tested COAL (below SAAMI). So I think it would be beneficial to know where the lands are so I have safe/reliable base lines for load work ups.

 

[N2TRKYS]

So what do you do with wildcats that have no book number or a rifle chambered in a round 60-80 years ago when there was no standard for it?
I'll gladly spend the 10 minutes to find the rifles COAL. I do have to buy a new sharpie every couple of years, but I just work it into the gun budget.

I don’t do wildcats. With uncharted territory, you got to do what you got to do.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I did some tinkering last night and found my .243 also has a short throat, bullets are jamming at tested COAL (below SAAMI). So I think it would be beneficial to know where the lands are so I have safe/reliable base lines for load work ups.

Never once had that issue with any of the couple of dozen factory rifles that I load for.

 

[3006Sprng]

Never once had that issue with any of the couple of dozen factory rifles that I load for.

I dont doubt you, but this is the situation I have ran into. I have the rifling marks scribed into the bullets to prove it lol. This is why I will measure all distances with the given projectiles so I have a number to go off of for seating depth.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I dont doubt you, but this is the situation I have ran into. I have the rifling marks scribed into the bullets to prove it lol. This is why I will measure all distances with the given projectiles so I have a number to go off of for seating depth.

What factory rifle was it?

 

[3006Sprng]

What factory rifle was it?

One is a savage 110 hunter (new model). One is a ruger american. The ruger didnt surprise me to have a short throat being that its a cheaper rifle, but the savage did.

 

[N2TRKYS]

One is a savage 110 hunter (new model). One is a ruger american. The ruger didnt surprise me to have a short throat being that its a cheaper rifle, but the savage did.

If it wasn’t set to SAAMI spec in a factory setup, I would send that crap back. What did they say when you contacted them?

 

[3006Sprng]

Well Im going to measure accurately first (how this thread started) with a variety of bullets to verify if its certain bullets with respect to ogive position, or if the throat is actually that short.

With regards to throat length, being that I live in canada it would probably be 100x cheaper to have a gunsmith ream the throat out further than to try and ship a firearm back to ruger. I would imagine when your using handloads, they have grounds to say "FaCtOry AmmO FiTs".

Also with regards to the .243, its my wifes gun, all I need to do is find a nice ≤1 MOA load that gets around 2800-2900 fps with a 90-100 grain bullet for deer lol. I dont need a custom job for that. Factory ammo is fine, but I reload for it, so why not reload something potentially better. I dont need to stretch the bullet out, just trying to optimize case capacity.

In the name of keeping the guns reliable and safe for hunting/practice, thats why i have ventured down this road of figuring out OAL for specific loads/guns.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Well Im going to measure accurately first (how this thread started) with a variety of bullets to verify if its certain bullets with respect to ogive position, or if the throat is actually that short.

With regards to throat length, being that I live in canada it would probably be 100x cheaper to have a gunsmith ream the throat out further than to try and ship a firearm back to ruger. I would imagine when your using handloads, they have grounds to say "FaCtOry AmmO FiTs".

Also with regards to the .243, its my wifes gun, all I need to do is find a nice ≤1 MOA load that gets around 2800-2900 fps with a 90-100 grain bullet for deer lol. I dont need a custom job for that. Factory ammo is fine, but I reload for it, so why not reload something potentially better. I dont need to stretch the bullet out, just trying to optimize case capacity.

In the name of keeping the guns reliable and safe for hunting/practice, thats why i have ventured down this road of figuring out OAL for specific loads/guns.

So, is it actually shorter than SAAMI or just can’t fit your handloads? Where did you buy the rifle(s)? They would send it back for you. IF, it’s truly out of spec, then it shouldn’t cost you anything to send back.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

So, is it actually shorter than SAAMI or just can’t fit your handloads? Where did you buy the rifle(s)? They would send it back for you. IF, it’s truly out of spec, then it shouldn’t cost you anything to send back.

Have you read the opening post of this thread?