OAL Question

D

Dan B

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When you are limited to the magazine length for the max OAL for a loaded cartridge, how close should you make the cartridges to the magazine length?
I was thinking 0.020" short would be fine but wanted to see what others had experienced.
The bullets would be about 0.040" short of the lands at that length and shoot well enough there or shorter for that matter.

Thanks,
Dan
 
What rifle and which bullet? Detached Mag or fixed?
You won't know until you have tried running them through a full magazine.
If one "jacks" that will lock the rest below it.
Start long and keep seating 0.010 until the desired clearance is achieved.
 
Measuring the mag length is only a starting point. You have to make up the rounds and test them. Given that there is a significant variation in bullet length, I would want to be at least 20 thou shorter than the length that seems to clear the mag.
 
It will also depend on the recoil, as most rounds will move at least a bit into the magazine while the rifle recoils. If they are too long, then, the bullet tips may crush on the front of the mag.
 
Rifle is a Remington 700BDL with a fixed magazine in Winchester .308.
Have been trying different loads, with different bullets and varying the OAL including loading them longer than the magazine length so I had to single load them.

Under 0.020" OAL shorter than the magazine I would get some jacking/jamming at or above 0.020" that seemed ok, but was curious if there was anything I was missing.

Cartridges loaded to max magazine length would have the least chance of deforming the bullets.

Thanks
Dan
 
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