COAL in a box magazine

[salon_1928]

Hi Everyone,

What's a good rule-of-thumb for setting your maximum COAL to fit the box magazine of the rifle that you're reloading for? I've been using a Hornady Maximum COAL Gauge to measure the absolute max for all of my gun/bullet combos but understanding that if I want to use the magazine, it will probably dictate that COAL.

 

[todbartell]

Load .025" off the lands, or as long as the magazine will allow, as long as there's roughly 1 caliber of bullet shank/neck contact (example, .308" of bullet shank in the neck of a 30-06). Good accuracy can be still achieved with a long jump to lands, I've loaded for and tested rifles with up to 1/4" of freebore with good results

 

[rick357]

The rule of thumb is that if you are going to load ammunition for a magazine then it has to fit in that magazine. That's it. If the bullet is seated to the recommended COAL length, it will fit the magazine and fit far enough into the brass to be held properly and firmly in position.

COAL has absolutely nothing to do with seating bullets so that the bullet ogive is at a specific distance from the rifle lands; other than that most rifles have a COAL that is well short of the CBTO required to get the bullets close to the rifle lands.

 

[Ganderite]

When I think I have loaded short enough to fit the mag, I fill the mag with a strip of ammo box cardboard down the front of the magwell, to make sure there is adequate clearance.

This all assumes that the mag-length ammo does not hit the rifling.