Confusing or what?

[mangy1983 51]

My Lee loading guide is pretty confusing when stating the maximum OAL. Under the diagram of the bullet it states that the maximum OAL should be 2.260 inches whereas in the loading information area it states larger minimum OAL's than the maximum OAL under the diagram. Am I missing something or is there a mistake in the Lee loading guide.

 

Cheers Callum

[clint 45]

OAL , bes way to find good OAL, use brass shell (no powder or prime), push head in by head ,make so head will push (no slack, no tight). Then load into breech, like you fire bullet, chamber with bolt & eject. This give you OAL to lands, then reduce by 0.010" (english size 10 thou).This should give good result, for you rifle .Every rifle is diffren.

Edited June 29, 2010 by clint

[HUnter_zero 58]

The max OAL is governed by three things.

 

1) The chamber length of your rifle

2) The magazine length of your rifle

3) The physical max length of the bullet before it simply falls out of the case.

 

Obviously the min OAL is critical, as this will cause differing levels of pressure, in fact you can adjust the min OAL to compensate loads for short barrels but don't worry about that!

 

I have a simple rule, if the round is used for hunting, set it at a standard min OAL and forget it. I have seen people out stalking with rounds that fell apart because they were told to seat the bullet 'just of the lands'. Far more important is a strong, stable and dependable round. In some rifles, seating just off the lands will actually have a negative effect on grouping. Obviously if your going to the range and will be competing then squeezing every last 0.000001" out of your group size may help.

 

Clint has suggested a really good way to find the seating depth, the only thing I would add is to coat the bullet in some soot from a candle which makes it easier to see the marks left from the rifling.

 

John

[zook 0]

I do as clint says but seat 0.020" works well in my .222

[jackg 7]

I seat the .222 at 50 hou off lands and the 243 at 70 thou. I tried 20 thou and it was not as good.

As John says.

[mangy1983 51]

cheers for the replies lads

 

cheers Callum

[sako trg 1]

  On 29/06/2010 at 13:21, mangy1983 said:

My Lee loading guide is pretty confusing when stating the maximum OAL. Under the diagram of the bullet it states that the maximum OAL should be 2.260 inches whereas in the loading information area it states larger minimum OAL's than the maximum OAL under the diagram. Am I missing something or is there a mistake in the Lee loading guide.

 

Cheers Callum

not read the lee reloading guide.was it not the size for the oal for the empty brass and the oal for the loaded cartridge.a mistake I made when I started reloading from my speer manual.

[mangy1983 51]

Hi if you click on the underlined Lee loading guide text it will take you to a lee reloading guide image that l uploaded on flickr

 

cheers Callum

 

Edited July 3, 2010 by mangy1983