I've been playing with the Hornady OAL gauge. I've got modified cases for most of my cartridges I shoot regularly.
A couple of things have become apparent.
Some chambers seem to be cut quite tight as there is very little difference in length to the shoulders of fired and modified cases. All of my rifles are off the shelf standard brands, Winchester, Remington and Ruger.
I've got a 257 Roberts Remington Classic which is actually tight on unfired cases and sets the shoulder back when fired leaving a little groove.
This rifle is my most accurate with a variety of bullets.
Others show quite a bit of stretching taking place with the fired cases.
My years of just guesstimating an OAL are over as some of my loads will take a bit of adjustment to get them to the recommended jump.
Will be interesting to see if accuracy improves. I've definitely got some where it most likely can't get worse.
Besides the OAL I've also been measuring to the ogive as I've found some discrepancy in bullet length, especially those with lead tips.
A couple of things have become apparent.
Some chambers seem to be cut quite tight as there is very little difference in length to the shoulders of fired and modified cases. All of my rifles are off the shelf standard brands, Winchester, Remington and Ruger.
I've got a 257 Roberts Remington Classic which is actually tight on unfired cases and sets the shoulder back when fired leaving a little groove.
This rifle is my most accurate with a variety of bullets.
Others show quite a bit of stretching taking place with the fired cases.
My years of just guesstimating an OAL are over as some of my loads will take a bit of adjustment to get them to the recommended jump.
Will be interesting to see if accuracy improves. I've definitely got some where it most likely can't get worse.
Besides the OAL I've also been measuring to the ogive as I've found some discrepancy in bullet length, especially those with lead tips.
