CRNA
Well-Known Member
I will try to make this as brief as possible. I ordered a Hornady LNL OAL gauge to help me more precisely measure my handloads. I may be doing something wrong, (as I am known to do from time to time), but I need a little help here. First off I measure my OAL (from the ogive) with this tool using my SMK 168gr bullets that I have been using for my rifle. I get a little variation in my measurements, but I feel like it's probably just me getting used to the tool and putting varying amounts of pressure on the ram driving the bullet to different depths into the lands/touching the lands etc. So I make about 8 measurements until I can can get a good idea as to where the lands are. For example, I may have some measure a few thou one way or the other, but I see the same repeating number on the calipers for several measurements and determine that is my OAL. Now I try some Berger 168gr VLDs that I just ordered. (They were on sale at Midway and I thought I would give a box a try.) The thing is, I would expect that since I am measuring from the ogive (with a bullet comparator) the OAL would be the same. Makes sense to me. But I am getting a different OAL value from the SMKs. After measuring multiple times, I have determined that the OAL of the SMKs is 2.720". The Bergers however measure 2.750". It seems like a HUGE error to me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Or maybe I just can't wrap my mind around why they would be different? Any insight here would be greatly appreciated.
Steve
Steve
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