Recent content by Carey Farmer

You have to measure the case length at the shoulder with a "bump gauge" and a caliper. Measure before sizing, then size and lightly "bump" the shoulders, then measure again. Adjust your die (or change your shell holder) as needed and try again. Here's a source for bump gauges...

28 Nosler case is .464" longer at the shoulder than 7 mm WSM. Both are 35 degree shoulders. Long action magazine is about 0.8" longer than short action. That extra 0.34" of space for the bullet makes a world of difference for accommodating heavy-for-caliber bullets. And the long action's...

Yep. Fixed my 3.850" comment.

The only reason I have ever bought any short actions is because from time to time I find screaming good deals on used short action rifles and just can't pass them up. Otherwise I would only buy long actions. My family has three short action rifles, all rebarreled to 6.5 SAUM. If you shoot...

You might want to try MDT or Accurate-Mag magazines without the front binder plate. That will give you another 0.07" or so of COAL. Ditto magazines from Knight's Armament. Their magazines are really nicely constructed, TIG welded, but are set up only for .308 case size though.

I would like to hunt a whale with a harpoon cannon. When I lived in AK I tried for 20 years to get on a whaling crew out of Barrow. Never was successful.

26 Nosler. With 88 gr of US869 powder the muzzle blast was unbelievable. I rebarreled to 28 Nosler and am much happier with that chambering.

Exactly. Neck tension is a function of how much cold-working you do after annealing. Brass is pretty ductile, so it takes quite a bit - something like 30% - of deformation to develop full hardness. But brass also work-hardens remarkably well. Fully annealed cartridge brass has yield strength...

Yep. Backwards from the way I started out annealing, too. But seems to give a little lower muzzle velocity Es.

Yes, I size and clean (in a vibratory tumbler) before annealing. That makes sure there isn't any lube left inside the case neck when I seat the bullet.

My brass after annealing only has about .0015" spring back after bullet seating. So any "tension" (that is, case neck sizing down below bullet diameter) over .0015" in my annealed brass adds little gripping force - just a little extra yield strength from extra work hardening. Before annealing...

Agreed. Given a bore size, case capacity and bullet weight, you'll get the best speed with a powder that is slow enough that you can fill the case up, but fast enough that a case full of powder will hit your pressure limit. My point wasn't that you should use fast powder in short barrels...

For me, it all comes back to the burn rate of the powder I plan to use. Slow powders need long barrels. Fast powders don't. In general I use 22" barrels for Varget, 26" for H4350, 28" for H4831sc, 30" for H1000, and 32" for Retumbo. The more overbore the case (and the heavier-for-caliber the...

This is a great way to approach this question. I feel the same as Mikecr about muzzle blast. I hunted for many years with a 338 Winchester Magnum, 25" barrel. Then I bought a 300 Weatherby Magnum, 24" barrel. Couldn't believe the muzzle blast. Now when I build rifles chambered with big cases...

Not sure I'd ever want to be without a 28 Nosler. But if you have the 4" version of Wyatt's box magazine, a 300 RUM would be a significant velocity and energy upgrade compared to your 300 PRC.