Land . . . ?
- Thread starter lckytylr
- Start date
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T3-OleMan
Well-Known Member
When most loaders mention the lands in a sentence it is used as a descriptive term used to explain the seating depth of a bullet when it is seated in a cartridge. The land sticks up in the bore and makes first contact with a bullet entering the throat. Ogive (see pic) is the start of the full diameter of the bullet. When seated out far enough the ogive of the bullet will contact the lands. Many loaders will say the bullet is touching the lands, X amount into the lands or the bullet is jumping X amount to the lands.
If you were to polish a bullet jacket with fine steel wool and close the bolt on a round with a bullet making contact with the lands it would make a small mark for every land in the rifling. A six groove barrel has six lands so there would be six evenly spaced marks on the jacket material near the ogive. Many target shooters like to have the bullet close, lightly touching or several thousandths into the lands with the intent to improve accuracy. Any of these approaches can be tried for a hunting rifle provided the magazine length will allow it AND a loaded round can be extracted without the bullet being left stuck into the rifling.
This picture should help.
If you were to polish a bullet jacket with fine steel wool and close the bolt on a round with a bullet making contact with the lands it would make a small mark for every land in the rifling. A six groove barrel has six lands so there would be six evenly spaced marks on the jacket material near the ogive. Many target shooters like to have the bullet close, lightly touching or several thousandths into the lands with the intent to improve accuracy. Any of these approaches can be tried for a hunting rifle provided the magazine length will allow it AND a loaded round can be extracted without the bullet being left stuck into the rifling.
This picture should help.
