How far off the lands

Joefrazell

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How far off the lands would you start with a 30-06 with imr 4350 and 165 hornady interlocks? .020?
 
I start most of my load development around .020-.040 off depending on the chamber/throat setup. I'm just looking to make 100% sure I'm not touching or eating up case capacity while I work on getting velocities up to where I want them. Once I find a powder and charge weight that's giving good case fill, good pressures and good velocities that I want to develop then I pick the few increments of powder charge that gives the best groups and test with jumps to see if it likes close or far and find the spot that gives me the longest time before I have to chase the throat but where velocity/grouping/SD's are the most consistent.
 
Hard to say for sure. .020 is a popular place to start. Another way of doing it would be to find your max load and then reduce it by 2%. Then load 5 shots each at seating depths of .020", .050", .080", and .110' off the lands. One group will likely shoot noticeably better than the others. That way the gun will tell you about where it likes the bullets seated. Take the best performing seating depth and then work up a load.
 
Yeah that's what I normally do. I'm down to around 40 rnds left and trying to find the load with these few rnds before buying more. Just to make sure it will shoot them ok
 
Are they the ELDX? That bullet has given me fits.

I have a 308 win that is at .134" jump to reach lands with the 178 ELDX. That is to fit the mag at 2.830".

I would say it depends on whether the mag box will allow you to seat it at the lands. If it does, I start at .010" off to maximize case fill. Then it's just seating deeper if required. If in the case of my 308, I just seat as long as the box will allow and then work charges from there.
 
No these are 165 interlocks. I trued 178 eldx's and the gun hated them unfortunately. My 300 win hated the 212 eldx but my 6.5 loves the 143's.
 
How far off the lands would you start with a 30-06 with imr 4350 and 165 hornady interlocks? .020?
Just load it to mag length with enough room to spare for easy feeding.

I would personally avoid the interlock in favor of the Interbond but neither have ever shown to be sensitive to seating depth in any of my rifles.

Once you get an accurate load pretty well nailed down you might want to try tweaking it a bit to see if you can tighten up the groups any.
 
Do a seating depth test, it should be done first anyway because it's the one variable that doesn't change. I would not start with touching lands because you'll have to constantly chase the lands. So I would test at .005 off .010 off .020 off .040 off. I personally don't like to go deeper then that but you can if you want.
 
Magazine length or shorter for a hunting rifle. You may be surprised at just how well bullets can group when loaded quite a distance from the rifling.
I had a .308 that required the 165gr Accubond to be .135" off the rifling to fit into the magazine. Interestingly enough, this was the most accurate position for that bullet. Loading close to the rifling isn't nearly as important as was once believed. IMO anyway.
 
How far off the lands would you start with a 30-06 with imr 4350 and 165 hornady interlocks? .020?
That would be a good start, IMO. But also, don't be afraid to try IMR 7828 SSC powder. Slightly slower powders will get you a better case fill, and keep pressures down, while holding good velocity. I have had excellent results in my .30-06 AI using it with Berger 185 VLD's.
 
That would be a good start, IMO. But also, don't be afraid to try IMR 7828 SSC powder. Slightly slower powders will get you a better case fill, and keep pressures down, while holding good velocity. I have had excellent results in my .30-06 AI using it with Berger 185 VLD's.

I have a load with the 180gr Elite Hunter in my 30-06 with H4831sc. I have found the slower powders like the heavier pills.
 
I have a load with the 180gr Elite Hunter in my 30-06 with H4831sc. I have found the slower powders like the heavier pills.
Yep, for anything '06 sized cases or larger, I see no point in using anything slower than 7828...Mainly because I use heavy-for-caliber bullets in just about everything I load for.

Been wanting to get a box of those 180 Elite Hunters to try in it, since it has the 1:12 twist.
 
I start everything .020 off the lands and do OCW test. Once I have optimal charge weight, I do another series on seating depth. The first time I did this I was shocked how much I was able to improve already good groups by optimizing seating depth.
 
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