I finally found a load that my .30-06 seems to like. 55.0 gr of H4350 behind a 165 gr Accubond with a C.O.L. of 3.360 which is about .01 off the lands. I charged 15 cases and began to seat the bullets, used the last 8 from a box, opened a new box only to find that all of the bullets from that box end up .008 shorter C.O.L. Is this normal? Is the ogive slightly different between lots? Do I have to pull out the Hornady C.O.L. gauge every time I open a new box?

.008" is not too out of spec I would imagine. When you say .008", are you saying .008" from the tip to the end of the bullet? If so that is normal. I only measure from the ogive to seat my bullets. I never use the tip.

I pulled some of the older Accubonds and measured them against the new. The newer seem to have a shorter polymer tip thus giving me the shorter C.O.L. I guess it would be safe to assume that the ogive is the same between the two lots.
When measuring from the ogive, I assume you still use the overall gauge but add the comparator to take the measurement. Is this correct?

Yup that's how it's done. You measure it using a comparitor.

Tom

I have not had good quality control with my last box of bullets. My oal measured to the tip has always been 3.42 to the lands with the 200 grain accubonds but my last box measured 3.385. Upon examining the tips they were badly deformed like a melting ice cream cone. I could not get them to shoot at all. My prior boxes were shooting sub moa and my best grouping with this box was 1 3/4" with some as bad as 3". I am going hunting in 5 weeks so I have got to get something that works soon.

I've never gotten good consistence measuring to the tip of any bullet, so I always use the comparator to the ogive. However, Accubond tips should not look really deformed, I would return them. Mine always look pristine.

I finally got my comparators in. Ran the measurements with the Hornady OAL guage. Seated 7 bullets from an old box of Accubonds, seated 8 from a new box. The new ones consistently measured .006" longer when measured from the ogive without adjusting the die. I understand that when measuring to the tip, OAL can fluctuate. When measuring to the ogive, shouldn't the bullets be more consistent from one batch to the other?

Well, .006" isn't a ton...but this is also why when I am loading ammo that I want to be the very best, I use only sorted brass, powder from the same lot, bullets from the same box/lot, etc.

Do you realize what .006" is? We are talking paper, less than paper. If you rifle shoots different with .006" different then its not a dynamic good load.

Big, yes I know what .006" is. As a relatively new reloader, my main question was whether or not it is NORMAL for bullets from different boxes to vary this much when measured from the ogive.