What is the point to going to the trouble of measuring distance to the lands when I have to seat my bullets to factory specs for the OAL in order for them to cycle in my rifle's magazine. Nosler gives the OAL for the 300 saum at 2.825 (this is a head to tip measurement) and that is the longest I can seat my bullets and them still clear my magazine. To the lands in this rifle using Nosler 180gr AccuBonds is 2.9915 but I have to seat the bullets to no longer than 2.825 or they won't clear the magazine and will not cycle through the gun properly so for all purposes I seat to clear the magazine regardless of how far off the lands the bullet is. It was the same way when I was reloading 180gr Scirocco 2. In order to seat just off the lands or even close to the lands I would have to shoot the rifle as a single shot[/align][/align]

Some rifle manufacture's magazines are longer than others, and some cartridges have a longer freebore than others. That is just the way it is. I have loaded for many Weatherby Magnums, and their freebore has never been a problem for me. I have also loaded the 7mm, .300, and ,.338 RUM's which also have freebores with no problems. The whole trick to handloading is uniformity. Try to make each round exactly as the last.

I have noticed thatBrowning A-Bolts have short magazines.

Good luck.

Seat for flawlessfunction within mag box confines, rock on, and never look back..............

Well, I'll admit it-----I spent the first day of deer season many years ago with a bolt action .270 in single shot mode for just the reason you talked about. Load workup and development and establishing OAL for your particular gun is fine, but magazine constraints can sometimes really foul things up. That's just the way it is.

I don't know whats happened in the last 10 years. But my all my rifles from before 1995, I can seat to the lands. In fact some 1980 700's I have, you have to be careful because the lands are well short of SAAMI specs. But every rifle I have picked up in the last 8 years, I can't think of hitting the lands. From A-Bolts 308, 7mm-08 and 243s to any 700 you pick up, even a sako 75 270 I picked up, the bullet is loaded so far out, its almost fragile. But in the end, I generally have been able to get them to shoot. If not, they are promptly out the door.

I have a funny story you guys won't believe. I used to go to Newfoundland every year. One guy that was in camp out of NY, did months of load development. Said he had it shooting .5MOA all day. Gets up to camp, and first morning stepped out can't put his shells in his mag. He never tried to put them in his mag. How does that happen? Long story short, most guides up there will not hunt with you with a loaded round in the chamber. So he went around and kept his rounds in his pocket. With his one round in his hand at a time, he did kill the biggest moose that year.

depends on the action the manufacturer built the gun around my 7x57 and 257rbts mountain rifles both have long actions. others don't. look before you buy.

I have noticed that if it has the detachable box mag like the newer rem mtn rifles, you lose there also.

I agree thats a part of it. But when you get standard rounds like a 270win and a 30-06 with throats so long you can't hit the lands unless you load a 200 gr bullet or the bullet would fall out of the case, the companys reamer is pushing the throat out.

I talked to my gunsmith about this, and his claim is companies desire to get a certain number of reams with a reamer. If you get a gun with a fresh reamer, chamber will be loose, and with a used reamer at the end of its servicable life, you will have a tight chamber, but possibly other issues arrise from a wore out reamer like chatter and out of round chambers.

I don't know the truth behind it, but it was interesting never the less.

When the 300RUM's first came out, I was the first in the area to recieve one. I thought the whole idea behind them was to have a 300weatherby but no belt and no freebore. I still found over .2" of freebore. Not as much as a weatherby but you wasn't kissing the lands. So I took my trusty stoney point around and measured throats at the gun store that would let me. I measured anything from 3.65" (180gr partition) to 3.86" if I remember right. These were all 700 bdls. Thats a huge variation. Any machinist eyes would light up if you told them that. So I had a custom rifle built with a short throat. Clymer has some reamers with that if you request. So my gunsmith would not buy the reamer, soended up getting it, and having this gun made. Long story short is I didn't see a huge difference in the short throats. It builded pressure quicker, much quicker than factory rifles. And I couldn't hit the velocity I could with factory guns. I think AJ on here did the same. I just found certain bullet depthes where accuracy was optimal, sometimes far from the lands.

Thanks y'all for the great info. I am fairly new to reloading and even though I didn't see any other explanation or remedy I thought maybe I was missing something and wanted to hear from some of the experianced ones here. I appreciate it.

Good point.

About the only way you can approach the lands with a short magazine is to go with the heaviest for caliber bullet. Or go with a bullet that has a longer measurement from base to the Ogive. These two ideas will get you as close as possible. Tom.

I have a Sako 85in .25-06 that I can load all the way to the lands. This is because the .25-06 shares a common action and box magazine length with other longer cartridges. Doesn't really matter though, as my gun likes bullets at least 0.025" off the lands.

I think many people fail to realize that optimizing barrel harmonics is the key, and loading close to the lands matters less than finding the optimum combination of powder charge and seating depth that minimize harmonic vibrations in the barrel. You'll never getWeatherbyrifles (in Weatherby rifles) loaded out close to the lands due to freebore, but mine shoots MOA with factory 180 grain spire points. Harmonics.