OAL advice needed

[Ccctennis]

I tried using the hornady OAL gauge for my 220 swift today. I started with 42 grain sierra match kings but to touch the lands they fell out the case. I switched to 55 grain varmegaddons and finally got so,e measurements. I know need the vets advice on how to use this properly.

Here are my measurements. (Website said to measure multiple times)
2.624
2.787
2.780
2.784
2.783

At this depth it feels like the bullet is barely in the case mouth. How far off the lands would you seat with these numbers? Do you take the average? I posted my powder charge test with 220 swift a week ago and I do have a couple of nodes I can try with tinkering with OAL. Thanks in advance for all the good advice I usually get!

 

[earlcurtis67]

Minimum seating debth is bullet diameter, not counting the boattail (if applicable). Its been my experiance that with short bullets and long chambers, it's better to use the bullet manufacture's tested COL, 2.680 in you're case. Even at max COL I doubt you would see much improvement. Sounds like you getting good results with you're earlier load, maybe just tweek charge weights, or try different primmers

 

[Ccctennis]

Thanks for the input and yes i may be on to a decent powder charge. I haven't shot that accurate with factory ammo so I hope it wasn't a fluke.

 

[Mikecr]

Minimum seating debth is bullet diameter, not counting the boattail (if applicable). Its been my experiance that with short bullets and long chambers, it's better to use the bullet manufacture's tested COL, 2.680 in you're case.

This is not true.
Many common cartridges do not even offer bullet diameter's worth of neck length.
Also, NOBODY knows the best place for you to seat bullets. This cannot even be guessed at, much less predicted.
You should do seating testing, like Berger's seating testing pinned in this forum, and identify best for your components.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I like to have my bullets stay in the case so I like to have around a bullet diameter's worth of depth in bullet seating. As Mike mentioned though, some cartridges (the 300win comes to mind) don't even allow 1 bullet diameter's seating as the neck is shorter than a bullet diameter. Seating depth is as much trail and error as anything else.