LNL OAL guage

Canuck · Jul 3, 2007

I purchaced an OAL guage from Hornady and was wondering if this is normal. I did as per the instructions and with my 150gr AccuBond, the
OAL is 3.1 inches. The OCL in my Nosler book says 2.860. That's a distance of .25 inches before it touches the rifling. Is this alright???
Btw, the caliber is 300wsm and my rifle is a T3 varmint.

Thanks in advance
Mike

craiger40 · Jul 3, 2007

most handloads will exceed to max OAL . The manufacturers such as nosler must assemble data that will work and be safe in all rifles haveing the shortest chamber for that caliber. if you follow the instructions for that gauge and develope a good feel and technique it will work and its well worth it. Make sure the round will chamber without any force and the round will fit the magazine.

Ol` Joe · Jul 4, 2007

Canuck":76w2xklx said:
I did as per the instructions and with my 150gr AccuBond, the
OAL is 3.1 inches. The OCL in my Nosler book says 2.860. That's a distance of .25 inches before it touches the rifling. Is this alright???

You`re fine. You just have a bit of free bore in your barrel. Nosler and some other manual producers list the OAL at the SAAMI max lenght. This is the lenght the industry stays with to insure all factory loaded cartridges will fit the magazine, chamber, and feed & extract properly. The fact your chamber has a bit more free bore then needed doesn`t hurt. The longer throat will usually lower pressure a bit and the rifle maker might do it as added insurance in all their products. Then again a throat moves forward with erosion from fireing high intensity cartridges and the hotter the round the faster it wears. Yours might be simple wear. The angle of the leade will wear very little and cause the bullet to seem to have gained quite a bit in jump.
Your measured OAL of 3.1" though may not fit your magazine if it is within SAAMI min spec of 2.860". You should try a couple in it before loading all your ammo to this lenght. If they don`t fit and you want to be as close to the lands as possible, slowly shorten your cartridge until it fits with about 0.05" clearance, to allow variation in bullet nose shape, and call that your max OAL. If you shoot a single shot it doesn`t matter how long you go as long as the bullet has enough shank in the case (normally one caliber deep as a rule of thumb) to give good tension and hold the bullet dureing handling.