throat length and seating depth

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Dec 13, 2007
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im having my first custom rifle built. its a 700 short action opened up for a 7 wsm. its in a mcmillian a5 stock and has badger m4 bottom metal and a wyatts mag box. so with that mag box i can load anything under 3.000" c.o.l. i am having a broughton barrel installed and chambered in 7 wsm. i am looking to shoot 162 amax and 175 smk mostly. i was also considering 180 vld's down the road. so how would i get this rifle throated? i have read the amax and smk work best just touching the lands but then the vld should be .001" into the lands. so if i throat it for the 180 vld's can i not really load the other two to touch the lands? if so, if i were to just shoot the other two how would i throat the barrel since these two bullets would contact the lands at different seating lengths. would i throat it for the max c.o.l of the bullets that touches the lands first and then just seat the other bullet a little deeper until it just touches the lands. Do yall understand what im saying or am i confusing you? if so tell me how to ask the question properly. i have another question about reloading this cartridge but im going to just start another thread. thanks for all your help in advance.
 
Re: throat length and seating depth 7 wsm

thank you, i understand that part. my question was if i wanted to shoot 162 amax, 175 smk, and 180 vld's how would i throat the barrel. if i throught it for the 180's it would be too long for the other two and if i throat it for the 162 or 175 than it would be too short for the 180's. any recamondations? im sure theres some people out there who shoot all 3 of these, or at least 2 of them.
 
I understand what you want; a factual fixed point that will shoot great with specific bullets by that fact. Thing is, so such OAL or throat exists. This game isn't a science nor are there any magic bullets; regardless of how they may do for others, your new rifle may not shoot those bullets very well no matter how you throat the chamber or seat them.

Grit your teeth, pick something that will permit a bit of flexability and develop your loads as the rig responds.
 
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If you are having a reamer ground you may want to study a .223 Wylde chamber.
He went with bullet dia. freebore and didn't worry so much about the throat length as
the bullet is not able to flop around in the lead anyway. The Ar15's with that chamber
design are deadly accurate and will handle any .223/5.56 ammo thrown at them. I am
really surprised bolt gun builders have not taken note. It may not be the ideal bench
rest chamber but for a field gun it seems to work well.
 
Real simple.

Call Dave Kiff at PTG, tell him what you are doing, what bullets you want to shoot and let the expert guide you into the best decision for your reamer!

However, you can forget the "magic" seating depth, your gun will tell you what it likes, not what someone else's gun likes.

BH
 
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