T3 - Long Throat- help with distance from lands

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CourtenayBoy

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I have a new tikka t3 lite in 7mm rem mag and I am trying to load 160 Barnes TSX. From what I read, Barnes like to be back about .050 thousandths off the lands. I dont have any fancy tools for measuring distance to lands, so I made a dummy round with a cut neck and chambered it multiple times. I came up with a steady 3.338 COL. I'm lead to believe this tikka has a deep throat. S.A.A.M.I. Specs state max COL for this caliber is 3.290 inches. If I go by the .050 rule about TSX bullets, I would be at 3.288, just below the max. Barnes manual states 3.240 COL which woukd put me .098 off the lands. As I am pretty green in the reloading department I would really appreciate some advice from you veterans out there as to where to start. Thanks so very much

Mike
 
My Tikka in 204 has a long throat, you will find the magazine is the limiting factor in most of these rifles. I don't have any numbers for my rifle as i didn't bother writing them down, i'll never touch the throat unless i single load and not use the mag. I don't use the col figures published in reload manuals and load for each bullet in which ever cartridge i'm using. I find each rifle is different, dependent on the reamer and how many times it has been ground.
 
I have Tikka T3's in 22-250, 260 Rem and 300 WSM. My buddy has one in 308 which I load for as well and definitely agree the magazine is the limiting factor. Of course if you want to use it as a single shot that's up to you not sure if you are hunting or target shooting. That being said of the T3's that I own the 22-250 appears to have the most real estate than the other calibers I own.
 
Thanks guys. My tikka is definitely a hunting rig. I will try and load at 3.288 and see how she likes it as that should give me my .050 off the lands. That bullet is going to be hanging wayyyy out there
 
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