how important is a bullets OAL

[Moose02]

If you follow the 223 reloading guides it will tell you the maximum. Is it a huge deal you your over and your mag can take it? The reason for asking, is I already tweak it over by a hair and now that im going to do some 70gr, I would like to have them seated just touching the lands and that takes me over. Ill get number is the morning

any thought

 

[joe-nwt]

Max OAL is just an industry standard number. If they fit in your mag and they fit the way you want in the gun, the only other consideration is if you have enough bullet left in the case neck for proper tension.

 

[GSoD]

I think there may also be a consideration for proper feeding from the mag, not just fitting in it.

As for seating them long, as long as the bullet stays in - go for it.

 

[burnt_servo]

you need to measure your chamber , and how far you can seat the bullet out before it hits the rifling .

for each rifle i have , i set my oal length to 10 thousands of a inch shorter than this maximum measurement .

you then need to find out if your are now able to seat your bullets out this far , while keeping them securely in the case mouth .
then you need to check to see of the rounds will properly function in your magazine .

failure to measure how far out you can seat a bullet before it hits the rifling , and you run the risk of actually seating the bullet into the rifling when you chamber a round , and risk causing a presure spike / overloaded condition .

some people actually do have their bullets hit the rifling , BUT they also start their loads a bit lower than normal and very carefully work them up .

 

[Ganderite]

Like they just said.

In my target rifles, that get shot alot, i find I have to seat the bullets out about 5 thou longer each season, because of throat erosion. Singe shots, so mags not an issue.

I generally get best results at arount 20 thou off.

 

[dead meat]

Like the other guys have said it depends on your chamber, throat and mag. Use book data for sure but as you gain experience try small changes.

 

[thebigslide]

Depending on the rifle, it's important to be able to eject a live round also. If you get too long, you may have issues ejecting due to insufficient bolt travel.