O. A. L.

[Deleted member 16014]

$32. It does all calibers and all cartridges. Very accurate. Use with your dial or electronic calipers for OAL.

I have never understood why someone would want an OAL tool that requires a different adapter for every cartridge.

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What I use as well, love it. The marker method works fine too.

 

[Don Fischer]

Amazing! Get a cleaning rod, a new wood pencil and felt tip pen. Your good to go then. Run the rod, with a broke off tip down the barrel to the bolt face and mark the rod at the muzzle. Remove the bolt and drop a bullet in the chamber. Hold it there with the new wood pencil. Slide the cleaning rod till it touch's the bullet tip and mark the cleaning rod again. Now measure between the marks on the rod and that is your OLL with the bullet touching the lands. Works every time and no special tools needed!

 

[ImBillT]

And Don swoops in with a killer tip. Put that one in your tool box if you feel the need to know the distance to your lands!

How different ogives interface with your lands obviously varies, so I change my setup every time I change bullets. I do two things at once. I check for the maximum powder charge I can use with that bullet at the same time that I find my seating depth to the lands. I load at the range, one cartridge at a time. I load a bullet close to the length I expect to be right. If you know how long your throat is, you can tell just by looking at a loaded round if it’s pretty close. Then I chamber the round, and remove it to examine the marks that the lands leave on the bullet. I’m looking for a square shaped mark on the bullet. If the marks are shorter than they are wide, the next round gets seated longer. If they’re longer than they are wide, the next round gets seated deeper. I fire the round and check pressure signs. Obviously I start low, so the second round gets a slightly increased powder charge and an adjusted seating depth. Once I have a maximum powder charge and seating depth to reach the lands, I write them down and move on to other testing.

Don’t measure the COAL. Measure the length to the ogive, or measure the die. The base to tip measurements of bullets tends to vary quite a bit more than the base to ogive measurement regardless of band. It’s best to use base to ogive. I take a shortcut though. I really only care where my die needs to be set in order to give the desired seating depth, so I just measure the length of my seating die and write that down. It’s not quite as reliable as a base to ogive measurement, and it won’t be valid if you use your die in a different press or change the lock ring location.

 

[Millsworks]

Amazing! Get a cleaning rod, a new wood pencil and felt tip pen. Your good to go then. Run the rod, with a broke off tip down the barrel to the bolt face and mark the rod at the muzzle. Remove the bolt and drop a bullet in the chamber. Hold it there with the new wood pencil. Slide the cleaning rod till it touch's the bullet tip and mark the cleaning rod again. Now measure between the marks on the rod and that is your OLL with the bullet touching the lands. Works every time and no special tools needed!

Got to say, there are a lot of specific, special equipment now.
Most all of it is more than just a waste of money.

 

[std7mag]

For the love of Christmas!

Your not loading for National Benchrest competition. Not a 280AI, anyways.
KISS (Keep It Simple, St****)

If your not sorting bullets, then the COAL is fine for hunting. Most hunting bullets are fairly jump tollerant anyways, VLDs excluded.

Only tools needed is sizing die (or pliers), and a set of calipers.

Size fired case, or squeeze neck with pliers till bullet can be moved in neck with some pressure with your fingers.
Chamber in your rifle & close the bolt. Don't squeeze the trigger!
Extract & measure.
For most cup & core bullets my rifle likes 0.020" off the lands.
Thus i take measured reading & subrtact 0.020" for COAL.
For mono's i subtract 0.050".

If this is longer than your magazine allows, then unless your single feeding, it's a moot point anyways.

 

[Don Fischer]

And Don swoops in with a killer tip. Put that one in your tool box if you feel the need to know the distance to your lands!

How different ogives interface with your lands obviously varies, so I change my setup every time I change bullets. I do two things at once. I check for the maximum powder charge I can use with that bullet at the same time that I find my seating depth to the lands. I load at the range, one cartridge at a time. I load a bullet close to the length I expect to be right. If you know how long your throat is, you can tell just by looking at a loaded round if it’s pretty close. Then I chamber the round, and remove it to examine the marks that the lands leave on the bullet. I’m looking for a square shaped mark on the bullet. If the marks are shorter than they are wide, the next round gets seated longer. If they’re longer than they are wide, the next round gets seated deeper. I fire the round and check pressure signs. Obviously I start low, so the second round gets a slightly increased powder charge and an adjusted seating depth. Once I have a maximum powder charge and seating depth to reach the lands, I write them down and move on to other testing.

Don’t measure the COAL. Measure the length to the ogive, or measure the die. The base to tip measurements of bullets tends to vary quite a bit more than the base to ogive measurement regardless of band. It’s best to use base to ogive. I take a shortcut though. I really only care where my die needs to be set in order to give the desired seating depth, so I just measure the length of my seating die and write that down. It’s not quite as reliable as a base to ogive measurement, and it won’t be valid if you use your die in a different press or change the lock ring location.

The base to ogive measurement can be awfully close using the cleaning rod. Deal is set it every time with the same bullet until you no longer feel the lands and can't see them on the bullet. Measure OLL from the last time you saw marks till the marks disappear and the difference in the OLL is pretty much how far off the lands you are. If you don't use the same bullet every time, it does matter. The length of the bullet can change every time if you change bullet's!

 

[ImBillT]

The base to ogive measurement can be awfully close using the cleaning rod. Deal is set it every time with the same bullet until you no longer feel the lands and can't see them on the bullet. Measure OLL from the last time you saw marks till the marks disappear and the difference in the OLL is pretty much how far off the lands you are. If you don't use the same bullet every time, it does matter. The length of the bullet can change every time if you change bullet's!

I was agreeing with you. That’s a simple and easy way to measure if one wants to know that measurement, and a lot of people do.

 

[Don Fischer]

I know you were! But I think I failed to mention that the same bullet needs to be used every time the get it right. My understanding is that the distance from ogive to bullet tip can change between bullet's.

 

[ImBillT]

I know you were! But I think I failed to mention that the same bullet needs to be used every time the get it right. My understanding is that the distance from ogive to bullet tip can change between bullet's.

That would be correct. AND IT CAN BE DRASTIC.

 

[antelopedundee]

I know you were! But I think I failed to mention that the same bullet needs to be used every time the get it right. My understanding is that the distance from ogive to bullet tip can change between bullet's.

Probably within the same box. why not take one or more unprimed cases and use them to make a reference standard for each bullet that you intend to use.

 

[Don Fischer]

Probably within the same box. why not take one or more unprimed cases and use them to make a reference standard for each bullet that you intend to use.

You certainly could but you'd need to be better at storing things than I am. I tried it one time and lost the reference case's!