Help in OAL, Pleeeeeese

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calgarycanada

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Please read post #7, I have another question.

I'm new to reloading so pls excuse me if its stupid question.
Reloading for savage 10 .308, amax 178gr, brass is Norma full length resized.
Oal according to manual is 2.780"
I measured the chamber using method shown in following video
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GmDi7v530Og

I'm coming up with 2.761" to rifling which means if I go with book I'll be jamming the bullet in the rifling which is not a good idea.

My question is am I doing something wrong in measuring and just follow the manual or should I come up with my own oal and keep it upto or bellow 2.761"

Thanks in advance.

Figured it out, bad tool was giving wrong reading. Thanks guys for helping out a newbie.
 
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Not to worry my friend. Load up a dummy round(with no primer nor powder) at 2.80 and back it off as needed til the bolt closes without much force. Each bullet has a different ogive, thus OAL may not mactch the exact bullet profile you are trying to reload. I ran into this exact problem while I was trying to reload for my Swiss K31.
 
Youtube isn't exactly populated by people who know what they're doing.
"...just follow the manual..." Yewp. Hodgdon give 2.800" as the OAL for a 180. Two grains won't make any difference.
 
Sunray, I thought you were getting better for a while there. But here you are again with dumba$$, potentially misleading information. While I agree that 2.800" is likely safe and that there's a reasonable chance the OP's method or application may be flawed in some way, it doesn't mean that his gun is not an odd one. Please consider stuff like this before spewing next time.

Are you using the Hornady manual to reference your OAL for 178 A-Max or are you going by another manual for a similar bullet? It does make a difference! Hornady vs. Sierra vs. Speer vs Nosler, etc. are each likely to show different max OAL (don't have my manuals close by at the moment). The 2.800" regularly quoted / seen is just the default SAAMI length for maximum length for a short action.

samsplacci71 has it mostly right. When you get to the point where your bolt closes without "much" force, I would seat a fresh bullet in an unloaded / unprimed case because the bullet you started with will have been engraved multiple times by the rifling. Some guys then smoke the bullet with a match or lighter and some guys colour the ogive with a sharpie marker. The reason for this is to show more easily, that the bullet is touching the rifling even though you can't feel resistance.

If you choose to do it this way, keep smoking or colouring and seating shorter in .002" increments (or whatever increment you choose) and chambering the unloaded / unprimed round until you can't see rifling marks. At this point, you know fairly closely, where your max OAL is. Since you already derived a measurement of 2.761", I would start there with the colouring and chambering to see if you can identify rifling marks.

I have to add that unless you remove your ejector pin, you may get false readings, as the pin will push the base of the cartridge away from the bolt face, resulting in a shorter measurement. There are ways around this but a shorter measurement is not a bad thing in this case, especially if you're new to reloading.

Rooster
 
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Thanks guys. I'm using layman manual.
I just had time again to double check everything after putting kids to bed, problem was my calliper was off, tried it with my digital calliper and I got 2.870", confirmed with my good micrometer(Mac tools) and found my calliper is somehow off, probably skipped teeth. So I loaded some rounds at 2.860"(10 thou off) to start, I will be trying different lengths after I find the node I need.

I really appreciate your help guys and sorry I should have checked my tools before posting.
 
Is it normal to have throat of savage rifles to be shorter than magazine length? I have measured two and both are like that. So their chambers are designed for shorter & lighter bullets? Their barrel twist rate suggests otherwise. My model 10 has 1:10 twist but maximum oal for 208 amax when it touches lands is 2.929". Magazine length is little over 3" so I can load upto 2.990" and still feed from mag but throat is so short that I can't increase OAL more than 2.929". Is it easier and cost effective to increase throat length? My only reason is so I can have little more room in case for these long heavy amax bullets, hence dropping pressure and safely put little more powder in.
 
Comparing throat length / chamber length to magazine (overall length) is like comparing apples to pineapples.... There's a length involved with both of them, but they're both different lengths...

The throat length measurement will vary, depending on the bullet make / model and most likely will be shorter than magazine length, no matter what manufacturer. I've read the Weatherby rifles typically have a long throat length, but I have no personal experience with this.

What I have done with a couple of rifles is to make up a dummy round (no primer or powder), full sized, with the neck slit part way down (use a Dremel tool with a thin abrasive blade, if you have one), insert a bullet to just start it seating in the case, and load it into the chamber. If you're lucky, the bullet will not jam into the lands and pull itself out when you open the bolt. I have also marked the ogive of the bullet with a Sharpie marker to verify that it is hitting the lands.
If that works (it should if you didn't slit the neck too much - try 1/3 of the way for a start), you will have a dummy round with the length of the lands set for that particular brand / type of bullet.

One shortcoming of the Lyman manual - it has no illustrated glossary like the Hornady manual...
 
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