Need help with COAL

[farpiece]

I recently purchased a savage 12 LRP in 260 rem. I've got 200 140g VLD, 8 pounds of H4350, and 100 lapua cases. I'm loading with a Forrester coax. I'm new to reloading, but have done a lot of homework. My question is What is the most reliable method of determining COAL, or maybe better phrased, how can I determine seating depth to kiss the lands.

Thanks in advance

 

[boomtube]

You're still a noob, you have LOT to learn before any "kissing the lands" will mean anything at all to you and it does open the door to the hazards of a pinched bullet. Stick with book oal until you know what you're doing.

 

[farpiece]

That will help a lot with the VLD's. Thanks for nothing.

 

[dmuffman80]

hey check out this website for sinclair products.
SINCLAIR BULLET SEATING DEPTH TOOL | Sinclair Intl

I like this tool and you will need to watch their video. It is very helpful.

The main goal is safety. The measurement COAL is very deceiving due to the curvature of the bullets we use in rifles. Since we can not climb in the chamber and measure from the bolt face to the point of the rifling that touches a curved surface of the bullet, we must use a COMPARATIVE measurement.
This can be done with the above instrument, with a Hornady OAL gauge, a RCBS CASE MICROMETER ( they don't advertise a .260) or the old fashioned way of using a bullet just seated into the neck of a resized case.
All of the above will need to be compared to SAAMI specs and carefully approached.

Hopefully this will point you in the right direction to get more info. Buy a reloading manual and read it and then you can get a more experienced reloader to check you out in person with measuring the length to the rifling.
I like to start with a box of factory bullets and use a bullet comparator to measure the ogive and then keep ten to compare to your reloads. I usually shoot the other ten factory loads and then measure the used cases to determine the headspace and use them to set up my full length resizer.

All of this will require some practice and supervision. With a little help you can do it.

 

[Mikecr]

farpiece, There are many tools out there & I have a bunch myself. But soft seating with a split neck case is simple enough to begin. This, as described here:
OAL

Larry's indicator works good, I use it for case shoulder bumping. For cartridge base to ogive(CBTO), I measure & log seating using a Sinclair nut & calipers:
SINCLAIR HEX STYLE BULLET COMPARATORS | Sinclair Intl
Has always worked good for me.

My favorite tool for determining Max COAL is called an R-P tool. I don't know that they're easy to find anymore. But one could be made with the best in cleaning rod and cleaning rod stops. WOODS has posted info about this setup with pics.