I'm making a load for my bar rifle in 300win. mag. I followed
the sujgested OCL and the tip of the bullet touches the front
of my magazine. Should auto-reloaders OCL be shorter than
usual and also should they be crimped??
The OAL Nosler gives in their manual is the SAAMI max lenght. This is the max lenght that will fit in any factory built rifle magazine and isn`t always the lenght you should load to. The bullet may hit the rifleing when seated out to this lenght and can cause pressure problems or cause a bullet to stick in the rifling and remain when trying to unload the chamber. Read the section on finding the proper OAL in the manual and set your die to seat the bullet to that lenght. It may or may not be close to the lenght you are already at, but likely is a few thousanths shorter.
Auto loaders and tube mag feed rifles ammo IMO should be crimped. The feeding of the round is much rougher then when it is done manually in a bolt or other action type. Try cycling a few rounds through the action (at a range or other safe area) and see if the bullet moves. If the bullet remains in place with a couple runs through the action you likely can get by without crimping. If the bullet moves you`ll have to crimp to hold it in place.
