.338 Win Mag COL?

[Northman999]

Fellows,

Last time I used my .338 win mag I ended up with a very hard to extract case on a reload from a friend. I went back this morning and checked all my reloads with a micrometer, and then several rounds of factory Winchester 250 grain silvertips and found that my maximum COL (I'm pretty sure this is the lingo for the overall length of the whole loaded round...) was 3.39 inches, and that was on the silvertips. They were, in fact, all longer than my reloads. I then checked on the internet for some measurements on the .338 win mag and found max COL is supposed to be only 3.34. Seems everything I've been shooting is over this, including (especially?) the factory stuff. I found all my brass was under the 2.50 inch rating for brass, so that seemed right on.

How critical, or accurate, are list COL ratings? Is this one of those things where "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

I'm sort of thinking my stuck case was due to a mistake in regards to powder charge of the reload; I didn't do them myself. Originally I thought my brass needed cutting, but it's all 0.01 under the max.

 

[Eagleye]

It's highly unlikely that a factory round would be seated too long. Where COL is listed in a reloading manual, it is only the COL of that particular round/rifle that was being used in testing. I usually measure up the throat and then adjust COL to give me .015-.020 clearance, as long as it will still fit the magazine, all is well. I will "tweak" the COL if groups are not quite as good as I think they should be, but it is important to know that throats vary a lot and adjusting the COL for your rifle has benefits. Regards, Eagleye.

 

[Northman999]

Okay, thanks Eagleye. I'll relax about the official COL then. My cartridges all fit in the mag and cycle properly and (except that one round sticking in the chamber) I've found no evidence of pressure problems and I've also been using the same recipe for this load in this rifle for years.

 

[blargon]

I load my .338WM to a COL of 3.4", and they're still .070 off the lands. My manual has 3.34" as a MINIMUM OAL, not max.

Is it possible that one case was not resized properly, or over-charged?