.311 Frontier bullets seating depth

FAQMAT

FAQMAT

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Hi all. I have ordered some Frontier CMJ from Marstar for my No4MK1. It's the .311 174gr. flat point. I will be using between 43 ang 46gr of Hogdon H414 powder with CCI 200 primer. I am just not sure of the seating depth and i can't find any info online or in my reloadins books for the Frontier bullets. Anyone have an idea or a good receipe with the mentioned powder?

Thanks
 
I do 2.980 on mine with 174 Gr Hornady FMJs. I've been thinking of getting the Frontiers too, as they seem cheap and good, but when factoring the shipping, sadly, it doesn't match up to Hornady's .312 frm WSS.

What do the Frontiers look like? Do they have a cannelure? Perhaps seating to there and see if it fits. I have no experience with H414, so can't help you there. I find mine do pretty good with 38 Grs of Varget.
 
Correct OAL is whatever happens to fit your gun.

Make a dummy round. Start off by seating the bullet to the maximum length that will fit the magazine. Colour the bullet black with a marker so that you will be able to see if it makes contact with the throat. Close the bolt on the dummy round, extract it, and check to see if any ink has been rubbed off. Adjust the seating depth until the OAL is just short enough to keep the bullet off the lands. Save your dummy round as a "master" that will help you quickly set up your seating die when you switch between bullet types.

Given that most Lee Enfields have generous chamber dimensions, I predict that magazine length will be the limiting factor.
 
I'm using the Frontier bullets in .308 and .311 So far, so good.
The throat/leade in your #4 is probably plenty long, so that even seated to the maximum length that will feed through the mag, the bullets will still have to jump to hit the rifling; but it's something you should check. The ogive is very short between the meplat and the full diameter shank.
I'm not saying that seating the bullet hard into the rifling is a bad thing; just that if you are doing it, you should be doing it deliberately.
 
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tjhaile said:
Correct OAL is whatever happens to fit your gun.

Make a dummy round. Start off by seating the bullet to the maximum length that will fit the magazine. Colour the bullet black with a marker so that you will be able to see if it makes contact with the throat. Close the bolt on the dummy round, extract it, and check to see if any ink has been rubbed off. Adjust the seating depth until the OAL is just short enough to keep the bullet off the lands. Save your dummy round as a "master" that will help you quickly set up your seating die when you switch between bullet types.

Given that most Lee Enfields have generous chamber dimensions, I predict that magazine length will be the limiting factor.
Click to expand...

You and I and several others have answered those questions like you did, many times. I seriously doubt if we have convinced a single new reloader!
They will keep looking until they find some manual that will give them the length, down to the last 2/1000 of an inch. Then they can reload.
 
H4831 said:
You and I and several others have answered those questions like you did, many times. I seriously doubt if we have convinced a single new reloader!
They will keep looking until they find some manual that will give them the length, down to the last 2/1000 of an inch. Then they can reload.
Click to expand...

Well said and true!
 
All I can add is that after following tjhaile's advice, you will likely find the bullet seated deeper than 3.075", which is what many of the various reloading guides specify as a "generic" length for a 174gr bullet. This is due to the odd cylinder shape of these bullets ("pointy" goes farther without being stopped by the rifling). If it's more than 0.100" shorter than that, you should drop the max load by one grain (work in the 43.0-45.0 gr range with H414).
 
H4831 said:
You and I and several others have answered those questions like you did, many times. I seriously doubt if we have convinced a single new reloader!
They will keep looking until they find some manual that will give them the length, down to the last 2/1000 of an inch. Then they can reload.
Click to expand...

You are correct. I don't feel confident enough to "try" things, i want to be sure. I finally find something from Frontier: 2.840" OAL no crimp.
 
OEM said:
I do 2.980 on mine with 174 Gr Hornady FMJs. I've been thinking of getting the Frontiers too, as they seem cheap and good, but when factoring the shipping, sadly, it doesn't match up to Hornady's .312 frm WSS.

What do the Frontiers look like? Do they have a cannelure? Perhaps seating to there and see if it fits. I have no experience with H414, so can't help you there. I find mine do pretty good with 38 Grs of Varget.
Click to expand...

They look like this: http://www.marstar.ca/ammo-etc/images/FMB-031-L.jpg
 
FAQMAT said:
You are correct. I don't feel confident enough to "try" things, i want to be sure. I finally find something from Frontier: 2.840" OAL no crimp.
Click to expand...

Here's their 230 gr bullet seated so that it chambers in two of my 303 Lee Enfields.

IMGP0670.jpg


IMGP0676.jpg


The throats are plenty long enough to take this bullet seated out so more than .350" of the cylindrical portion of the bullet is ahead of the case mouth. I don't really think the 174 gr should be a problem.

Velocity using IMR 4320 or Re15 with this bullet is right at 2100 fps out of 22" barrels. :)

Ted
 
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