OAL Trouble
Finding the best OAL
Instead of going by store bought ammo OAL, purchasing a Stony Point tool or the recommended OAL in the Lyman manual I determined the OAL to the lands in my guns the old fashioned way recommended by threads on this board and reloading manuals. I use exclusively Barnes TSX bullets and due to the groves sometimes the bullet rattles around instead of slides nicely in when you close the bolt on the dummy ammo. So I had to use make sure the dummy ammo was tight in the neck otherwise it would slide out a bit when I extracted the cartridge. Some of the OAL measurements were longer than the maximum OAL in the Lyman manual and much longer than purchased ammo. Is this normal? Did I screw it up?
This is what I ended up with:
My measurement Lyman OAL
243 Ruger Compact 2.755 2.71 (mine is a bit long)
7-08 LSS Mtn. Rem 2.811 2.800 (looks good?)
300RUM Rem 700 BDL 3.640 3.600 (mine is a bit long)
30-06 760 Rem. 3.448 3.340 (way long)
348 Model 71 (going with Lyman OAL)
Barnes bullets are long, maybe the measurements are OK?
The 760 Rem. is a pump and maybe I should just stick with the recommended OAL?
I was going to back off these measurements .050 then focus on charge weight and powder type to work up best load. Then I was going to fiddle with seating depth some more. Maybe I should just go with Lyman recommended OAL and get a Stony Point tool (now Hornady)?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks K-man