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

John
when testing loads for a particular cartridge in multiple rifles (as you did for 243 in Gun Gack) how do you decide on OAL for a particular bullet?

thanx

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

thank you
i appreciate the information. i'm wondering what MD does when shooting the same cartridge in different rifles. is OAL optimized, as you did, for each ?

I work up loads on a rifle by rifle basis. Sometimes the same load shoots best in more than one rifle, but OAL frequently changes.

My brother’s 7mm-08 OAL is 2.156”





Mine is 2.183”







P

I load mine to factory length, if I’m getting sub inch groups, I’m happy. I have four 7 mags, they are all sub inch with factory length. It’s the same with the three 264’s and three 6.5 Creedmoor’s. I would have a hard time keeping the ammo separate for each rifle. At one time I experimented with length, but for the hunting I do sub inch is way good.

metricman,

I depends on the bullet and rifle. With lead-cored bullets I started with them seated just shy of the lands, around .02 to .03 inch. If that's too long to fit in the magazine (if the rifle has a magazine) I seat them so they'll feed reliably. If the loads don't shoot well, I try seating them a little deeper, but they usually shoot well with some powder/charge if seated straight.

With monolithic bullets I start with the bullets seated farther from the lands, a minimum of .05 inch but often even more. Same deal: If they don't shoot well, then I seat 'em a little deeper and see what happens.

thank you
must be tedious when testing the same load in different rifles

Hey, I get paid to test stuff!

as you should!!

i was just curious about adjusting OAL for each rifle in which you shoot the same load

cheers!