Highdesertwolf, you might be wrong here. It depends where he hits his lands. If he hits them at 2.857" with his ogive then he would be fine and dandy with that light load. My 308's hit a 2.83" and 2.8" (in a custom throated barrel) with 165gr gamekings and TSX's hit them at longer COL's due to the aerodynamic shape. Sometimes going past SAAMI COL specs can lower pressure/Velocity. Then when you get close to the lands, you start getting pressure (hence velocity). And vise versa, the deeper you seat, the more it can raise pressure. Its a give and take game. When You push a bullet out more, you are giving more space in the case but less jump, and vise versa. I did alot of experiements with my 300RUM's on this. I found I could load up to compressed loads easily at 3.67" COL, where SAAMI says not to go past 3.6. If I loaded to 3.6 with this load I load at 3.67, I wouldl lock the brass up in the chamber. Then as I reach out to 3.82" COL, same thing would happen. Now this was with 200gr Nosler Accubonds. Long Ogive.

Highdesertwolf, when I go to load a rifle round, even a new and unfamaliar one to me, I couldn't care less what the factory rounds are loaded like, or what the suggested cartridge O.A.L. may be listed as in a load book. Speers reloading manual # 11 doesn't even give rifle cartridge O.A.L.s in their data, unless it is a casual mention in the notes.

Factory rifle ammo is loaded to be fired in any factory rifle, of the same caliber. That means that factory ammo can be fired in a semi-auto and the ammo will fit in a magazine of a rifle. I load ammo for my rifles, not any rifle.

With respect to ammo, consistent accurate performance depends on uniformity, round to round, you want every thing the same. That means primer pockets uniformed to exactly the same depth, flash holes debured, and brass sorted by weight. Annealing case necks not only makes them last longer, but also gives a uniform neck tension on the projectiles, very important. Really meticulous fellows go to geat lengths to achieve this uniformity, too numorous to mention here. For one they will have a rifle reamed with a tight necked chamber. They will turn their bass necks down to slip fit into this chamber. Their neck tension almost non-existant, they will purposfully load their rounds all the way to the lands. This provides for a consistent start for their projectile, and the projectile is kept in alignment before firing.

I just worked up a load for one of my rifles. My O.A.L. put me .003" from the lands. With another rifle, I have been evaluating a solid brass CNC lathe turned projectile for a local manufacurer. In this rifle, I loaded the projectile jammed to the lands. Neither is a tight necked chambered, that's just the way I worked up the loads. Trick is, you've got to shoot these when loaded. The bullet will pull out if you extract the round. Then you have got to knock it out with a dowel. Now, for hunting, requirements are different. You don't want your ammo to fit tight as a glove, for obvious reasons.

The key here is the speed of the powder. With a large straight walled magnum pistol like a .44 mag a good roll crimp does more than prevent bullet jump of the unfired projectiles, which can lock up the cylinder. It gives the slow burning powder in that case a chance to ramp up it's pressure curve and burn uniformly. Critical for accuracy in those types of cartridges.

With respect to rifle, you do not want to crimp, with very few exceptions. (Please, any one wants to argue this, go start another thread.) However, if you go to a powder on the slow end of the spectrum for that cartridge, you can work up loads with the projectile all the way to the lands, if you wish. This acomplishes the same objective as the heavy crimp in the .44 mag. Note, a load developed with some bullet jump will not be safe for this. And, a faster powder would not be wise to load in this fashion. Aslo, some projectiles may need bullet jump. Barnes used to suggest .030" jump for their X bullet.

Thats what I was hoping for someone to correct me since I am new to rifle reloading For safety I figured id stay within the limits in my load data untill I am more experienced. I was wanting to see the other side of things though. Thanks guys for showing me the light

Your next question may very well be, "How do I determine the distance to my lands, the throat lead?" Well, there are several different methods for doing this. There is the majic marker method, aka the smoked bullet method, there is the split neck method, the partial neck sized method, ect, ect.
These methods have two things in common. 1. they all work, 2. they are a real big pain in the kiester. When you are ready to start loading rounds tailor made to your rifle's freebore, I would suggest spending a few bucks and getting one of these, a
Stoney Point O.A.L. gauge They are not expensive.
It's common practice to work up a load with the projectile .010" from the lands. After a good load is found, more hairs may be split by adjusting that bullet jump, in slightly, or out.
To measure those projectile and loaded cartridge lengths more accurately, I would suggest a Stoney Point bullet comparator I don't know if you have noticed, but bullet tips are far from uniform, notoriously so. The worst offenders, believe it or not, are HP Match bullets. Bullets that have the jackets drawn on by a die get their jackets drawn on from the base forward. The HP formed by the leftover jacket is usually different, bullet to bullet. Softpoint designs are not much better. Long ago it was thought that the bullet tip was very critical to accuracy. They found out it is not. The shape of the tip has an effect on B.C., but it is the bullet's base that is super critical with respect to accuracy. One small scratch or dent on the bullet base will have a negative effect on accuracy.
Because the bullet tips are very seldom uniform, it is best to measure a bullet from the base to the ogive to get an idea of the uniformity of a particular lot/box of bullets or loaded rounds, with respect to length. That data would be for comparsions only, of course. It would not replace any load data.

If you decide on a Stoney Point product, shop around, you will probably get a better price than the factory offers.

I should have wrote "It's common practice for me to work up a load with the projectile .010" from the lands. Just starting out and considering that you are working up hunting loads, it might be best for you to begin by working up your loads .020" from the lands, if you decide to start determining O.A.L. in this fashion.

I have loaded many different bullets for my Savage 10 FP and I have to admit it does have a long throat . The Barnes TSX bullets are very slender and aerodynamic and I have repeatedly measured my OAL for this rifle and bullet to be 2.90 and I back off .050 as Barnes suggests for a longer jump than conventional bullets which ends up being 2.850. There are no pressure signs whatsoever on the bolt lift or brass and the accuracy is very good. Also there is plenty of bullet left in the neck of the case for proper tension. Barnes bullets are longer than conventional bullet lengths in the same weight catagories which allows you more room to play with as in my case, no pun intended.