How do I find "Distance to the Lands"?
- Thread starter gillamboy
- Start date
Seat your bullet long in an unprimed case. Blacken the bullet with a magic marker. Chamber the round. You will see the rifling marks on the blackened bullet when you eject the dummy round. If you want to seat to the lands, you just want to see a small square where the bullet touches the lands and rubs off the marker.
Like the man said,just part size a dumb case.barely start a bullet in,then let the action shove the bullet deeper. The depth it shoves it to is to be shortened by .050 as a good start point...Mind you this length is all useless if your gun wont feed it
X2daniellybbert said:
Unless you can be shure there is very little pressure holding the bullet in place you will get a false reading trying other methods. The bullets usually get pushed into the case and sometimes they even get pulled out of the case if the neck tension is not just right. You are trying to position the bullet as accurately as possible the smoking marking tricks are approximative indicators. Sinclair and stoney point both make OAL guages. This is only half of your battle now you have to measure your length, how are you going to do this? The OAL of the loaded round is not an accurate measure since the bullet tips vary so much! You will have to buy additional tooling that allows you to measure to the Ogive of the bullet if you want any meaningfull information for your troubles.Save your self the headache and get a proper guage, and tooling.
bigbull
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As stated already a proper gauge is the best way.
Here is another way, not as accurate, and you'll need calipers for this method.
Point your gun muzzle down, drop a bullet into the chamber and lightly tap it into the lands using just enough force to keep the bullet from falling back out.
Place your gun in a vice and insert a rod or wooden dowel into the barrel from the muzzle.
Lightly make contact with the nose of the bullet and mark the rod at the muzzle with a sharp pencil.
Tap out the bullet, close the bolt, reinsert the rod again until it contacts the boltface and mark this point.
Remove the rod and measure the distance between the two lines, this is your overall length.
Here is another way, not as accurate, and you'll need calipers for this method.
Point your gun muzzle down, drop a bullet into the chamber and lightly tap it into the lands using just enough force to keep the bullet from falling back out.
Place your gun in a vice and insert a rod or wooden dowel into the barrel from the muzzle.
Lightly make contact with the nose of the bullet and mark the rod at the muzzle with a sharp pencil.
Tap out the bullet, close the bolt, reinsert the rod again until it contacts the boltface and mark this point.
Remove the rod and measure the distance between the two lines, this is your overall length.
1-Take a fired case and put a dent in the neck so that a bullet can just be seated with your fingers.
2-barely start a bullet in the case,insert it into the chamber and close the bolt gently.
3-slowly open the bolt and remove the dummy cartridge and measure the overall length.
4-repeat steps 2 to 4 a few times verifying that the results are consistant.That is the overall length to reach the lands with that bullet.
You must repeat this procedure with every bullet.This method requires no special tooling and is as accurate as most other methods that do require special tooling.
2-barely start a bullet in the case,insert it into the chamber and close the bolt gently.
3-slowly open the bolt and remove the dummy cartridge and measure the overall length.
4-repeat steps 2 to 4 a few times verifying that the results are consistant.That is the overall length to reach the lands with that bullet.
You must repeat this procedure with every bullet.This method requires no special tooling and is as accurate as most other methods that do require special tooling.
Here is there web site and it does not sound to hard to use this OAL gauge
Another toy to play with
http://www.stoneypoint.com/
Another toy to play with
http://www.stoneypoint.com/
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jesse99/frugaldevice.html
Frugal Cartridge Length Measuring Device
There are many devices on the market for sale to assist one in measuring the maximum cartridge in one’s chamber. They all are good tools. Nevertheless, why not make your own? The following is how I made a very inexpensive measuring device for maximum cartridge length. This device lets me seat a bullet into a special case using the reloading press or actual rifle chamber for measuring the overall length. Then the seated bullet maybe unseated, or pushed back out using a screw, after measuring and reused repeatedly. This system works great and is very handy when setting up a new bullet in the seating die. If you over seat a charged round during set up, then shoot it or pull it. Using this device for initial set up prevents you from having to shoot some of those short rounds now and again
full article can be found with pics at the above web site.
Larry Medler is the author of the article.
P.S it is similar to what Maynard described the threaded rod should allow you to have more consistant reading.
I connected the link as hotlinking to reference material is ok
Frugal Cartridge Length Measuring Device
There are many devices on the market for sale to assist one in measuring the maximum cartridge in one’s chamber. They all are good tools. Nevertheless, why not make your own? The following is how I made a very inexpensive measuring device for maximum cartridge length. This device lets me seat a bullet into a special case using the reloading press or actual rifle chamber for measuring the overall length. Then the seated bullet maybe unseated, or pushed back out using a screw, after measuring and reused repeatedly. This system works great and is very handy when setting up a new bullet in the seating die. If you over seat a charged round during set up, then shoot it or pull it. Using this device for initial set up prevents you from having to shoot some of those short rounds now and again
full article can be found with pics at the above web site.
Larry Medler is the author of the article.
P.S it is similar to what Maynard described the threaded rod should allow you to have more consistant reading.
I connected the link as hotlinking to reference material is ok
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PerversPépère
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Shawinigan (Quebec)
Simple method
There is another method you can use to determine the ideal seating depth for each ogive profile ina given rifle:
First, have a sized and trimmed case at hand. drop a HEAVY, LONG, FLAT-BASED bullet POINT FIRST in the neck and just push it so it is held in place.
Coat the bullet with a permanent felt marker. Chamber the dummy then extract it carefully.
If the bullet hasn't pulled out (you'll see it on the ink-marked section) you can measure the total length of the round. This will be the absolute length where a bullet's ogive will contact the rifling in this rifle.
Now, take any kind of bullet you want to load in this rifle, push it POINT FIRST in the muzzle of your rifle and rotate it just enough to mark the ogive all around on the jacket. This mark will be the point where that particular bullet's ogive will be in full contact with the rifling. Every ogive design and profile will contact the rifling differently.
Now, if you put that marked bullet in a sized and trimmed case and seat it so the mark on the ogive is set at the ABSOLUTE LENGTH you recorded first, that bullet will just contact the rifling when chambered.
Allow yourself some leeway by substracting 5 to 20 thousands to that ABSOLUTE LENGTH and seat all your different bullets at that mark. Then record the OAL for that bullet style and weight.
Make one seating dummy for each different bullet's weight and profile, crimp them so they don't move and you can use those dummies to set your seating dies from then on.
Mark the weight, brand and model of the bullet on the case with an electric engraving tool, not with a marker: oil and solvents remove permanent marker...
No more guessing.
Have fun!
PP.
There is another method you can use to determine the ideal seating depth for each ogive profile ina given rifle:
First, have a sized and trimmed case at hand. drop a HEAVY, LONG, FLAT-BASED bullet POINT FIRST in the neck and just push it so it is held in place.
Coat the bullet with a permanent felt marker. Chamber the dummy then extract it carefully.
If the bullet hasn't pulled out (you'll see it on the ink-marked section) you can measure the total length of the round. This will be the absolute length where a bullet's ogive will contact the rifling in this rifle.
Now, take any kind of bullet you want to load in this rifle, push it POINT FIRST in the muzzle of your rifle and rotate it just enough to mark the ogive all around on the jacket. This mark will be the point where that particular bullet's ogive will be in full contact with the rifling. Every ogive design and profile will contact the rifling differently.
Now, if you put that marked bullet in a sized and trimmed case and seat it so the mark on the ogive is set at the ABSOLUTE LENGTH you recorded first, that bullet will just contact the rifling when chambered.
Allow yourself some leeway by substracting 5 to 20 thousands to that ABSOLUTE LENGTH and seat all your different bullets at that mark. Then record the OAL for that bullet style and weight.
Make one seating dummy for each different bullet's weight and profile, crimp them so they don't move and you can use those dummies to set your seating dies from then on.
Mark the weight, brand and model of the bullet on the case with an electric engraving tool, not with a marker: oil and solvents remove permanent marker...
No more guessing.
Have fun!
PP.
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You asked how to find the distance to the lands - not the overall length. I suggest you seat a flat based bullet backwards, being careful with neck tension. Chamber the round, and the bullet base will be very close to the start of the lands, and you can measure the distance from the case head. You may have to juggle a bit from your press to your rifle, seating deeper and deeper until you're close enough to get the bolt to close, but it can be done.
