260 Remington OAL

[bower4311]

I'm new to reloading. I have a Savage 11 in .260 and started right off with reloading, I'm 20 years old. I'm seating the bullets at 2.800" OAL. How can I know if I should be seating them further or shorter for increasing accuracy? I have a good gunsmith I work with, but wanted to get some opinions here. I don't know a lot about the lands and where it meets the rifling. I'm using Hornady A-max 140's, if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

[42769vette]

Originally Posted by bower4311

I'm new to reloading. I have a Savage 11 in .260 and started right off with reloading, I'm 20 years old. I'm seating the bullets at 2.800" OAL. How can I know if I should be seating them further or shorter for increasing accuracy? I have a good gunsmith I work with, but wanted to get some opinions here. I don't know a lot about the lands and where it meets the rifling. I'm using Hornady A-max 140's, if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

If your using 140 amax's and your oal is 2.8 you probably need to seat the bullets further out.

Im running 140gr amax's 2.97. If the AI mag would hold longer I would go longer.

The only way im aware of to be certain if its a more accurate load is to try it and see what happens

[bower4311]

Do I have any safety issues to worry about? Ways to check to make sure I won't stick one in the gun?

[Truc]

Make a dummy round, seat a bullet then pull it (this will lossen the neck a little) then seat a bullet long and close the bolt. The bullet should push back into the case and still just touch the lands. Then double check length to see if it will fit in your magazine. You may have to seat the bullet and pull several times to loosen the neck tension.
As always start low and work up load, don't just start at max powder load.

[bower4311]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try those suggestions.

[jkrueger]

WHat I usually do is take a fired case, put it in my press with the ram up then screw in my neck sizing die makes contact with the case mouth, lower the ram and turn the die in 1/2 turn. then when you size the case you will only size the case mouth down about .035" that will give you enough tension to hold your bullet from moving but allow it to be seated deeper in the case by the lands in your barrel.
Load a round real long and then chamber it, eject that round and measure to the tip for OAL and you should have a good starting point, if you have a comparitor then measure to ojive and you will have that distance to the lands for any bullet you might want to load in the future

[bower4311]

I only have a full length sizing die. Will it work the same or no?