Coal??

[drine]

I've been tinkering with the reloads probably more than I need too. The 16in AR is only going to do so much. My 30-06 custom shoots very accurate so I thought I'd tinker with the COL. A friend of mine shoots bench rest and loaned me a COL gauge. My question is why I'm getting much higher COL readings on the 30-06 and the .223 with 6 different bullets. I know the bullets will give a different COL based on the ogive but I'm .100 higher across the board on all the bullets and calibers. That is after taking off .010 or so to back away from the rifling. Are the SAAMI specs that low? The 223 will definitely not be able to go way longer because of mag clearance. I haven't tried to reload an '06 to the longer length and see if the bolt closes without binding. To sum up, the COL taken with a gauge is @.100 higher than the COL called out in the books. Make sense?

[7.62guy]

are you baseing all your lenghts on the ogive?

[drine]

I'm thinking not. You put the cleaning rod in with just the bolt, put clamp on rod. Remove bolt put selected bullet in and hold with pencil or similar and put rod back in. Clamp at that point. Measue between the "clamps". So I guess it is really COL since it is the tip of the bullet. It seems straight forward enough in the directions and easy to do. I expected it to be different but not that much. They say ignorance is bliss so I should stick with it!

[7.62guy]

ok i'm lost for sure now.:rockon:

[bladeworks123]

Are all the cases on your six different cartridges in reloaded cases? And if so were they full length sized or neck sized when reloaded?

[woofert]

drine,

you refer to your "30-06 custom", what make rifle is it and is it built by a smith or a "from the factory" custom?

has the rifle been shot a lot, possibly having some throat erosion?

No disrespect intended, but are you sure your using the COL gage correctly?

Measure the thickness of the locking collars on the rod, if they are 0.100” thick that might account for the higher reading.

You may want to try the “smoked bullet” COL check.

To do this, make up a dummy round with the bullet and case only but seat the bullet longer.

Using a stick match, smoke the bullet (deposit soot from the match onto the bullet), chamber the dummy round, remove and check to see it there are rifling marks in the soot.

If there are marks in the soot, re-seat the bullet 0.005” deeper and repeat the smoking, chambering, and examining.

Keep going until no rifling marks are seen in the soot on the bullet, then measure with a calipers, this should be within 0.005” of max COL.

Good luck,

woofert