Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles question for Mule Deer re OAL

Not MD, but here’s an interesting lesson:

I was working up a load for a .30-06 using 185 VLD and Hunter powder. I determined the OAL that just barely kissed the lands and used that as my max. I loaded 6 at that length, then loaded 6 each at a decreasing OAL of .040” in 3 iterations. So 6 each, 4 different OAL. I shot the shortest cartridges first. Here’s my results:

Shortest



Slightly longer



Longer yet




I didn’t shoot the longest cartridges, this is good enough for me, and the recoil woke me right up.

This is how I do it. Swiped it from the Berger folks.




P