OAL or the powder charge. Which comes first?

smak_daddy

smak_daddy

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
75   0   0
Location
big sky country
I have been reloading for a long time but never paid much attention to OAL. I would always just load to the max OAL in the manuals. Recently I bought a Remington 5R. I decided to get a Hornady OAL guage and a bullet comparator. I want to start getting these bullets closer to the lands.

Right now I am working with:

  • Berger 175 long range BT target bullets
  • Varget
  • Lapua brass

My question:

Do I hunt for the best powder charge first and then find OAL or vice versa?
 
Thats a dam good question. You can do the OAL first, like I do and then work on powders, but, I have seen the different powders change things enough you might want to revisit you OAL again. Its a fun process as long as you are not in a hurry.
 
Not an expert but I have always wondered they same I tend to search like mad for recommended powders and primers settle on a primer get one powder, prep all the brass, and do a ladder load test at max col.
That said some calibres do prefer either a long jump and some bullets berger VLD I found to like being just of the lands.
I use COL as a fine tune just as I would then try a couple of the more recommended primers, I tend to stick with fed or win benchrest primers for magnums cci bench rest for standard rifle calibres and remington 7.5 bench rest for small rifles, they have proven to give good shot to shot consistancy and never failed to fired.
 
I start 15-20 thou off the lands , the ones I find the charge I want I play with the OAL. You have to find the rifles accuracy nodes first (speed of givin weight bullet down the barrel) other wise you basically at a stand still. Example if the 175 needs to be going say 2650fps to hit that node , and your shooting at 2480. You can play with OAL all you want and won't ever reach full potential . Some bullets are very tolerable to jump while others aren't


For the 5r , using 175smk , varget powder , mid 42s and few tenths above or below 45gns has always yielded great results in any 5r I have owned or friends have owned
 
I used to start with powder, but have recently realized this was a mistake. some modern bullets are very sensitive to OAL, so results with powder could be masked by wrong OAL.

Take a popular powder and a less than max charge, and make 5 each of well into the rifling, and them shorter in 10 thou increments to at least 30 thou off the rifling. Shoot these for groups (preferably at 200 or 300 yards) and see which looks to be a nice round group.

Then do your powder charges in 0.3 or 0.5 gr increments to see what looks good, using the best OAL. When you have a powder charge, you can try 5 thou more and less OAL to fine tune.
 
I like Ganderites method, seems to work the smoothest without having to revisit charge weights or OAL's over and over.
 
I load them to SAAMI length, play with powders, pick the best one and then tighten up the OAL. Often I get a really good result at SAAMI lenght and don't bother.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom