How to measure chamber depth to seat bullets?

[tacsniper0888]

How do I measure the lands in my rifle to figure out how far to seat my bullets so that they are 0.050" off the lands? I have a Remington 700 Sendero .338 win mag. It has a 26" heavy fluted barrel. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

 

[webs]

Hornady Lock-N-Load Overall Length Gage Bolt Action

Hornady Lock-N-Load Bullet Comparator Basic Set 6serts

But the Hornady overall length gauge to find the lands. Then buy the comparator set to measure loaded ammunition. The system works pretty well.

 

[remington01]

How do I measure the lands in my rifle to figure out how far to seat my bullets so that they are 0.050" off the lands? I have a Remington 700 Sendero .338 win mag. It has a 26" heavy fluted barrel. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

I use a Hornady OAL gauge myself. All though there are a few method's you could use simple & economic way would be to resize a to have neck tension just start to seat desired bullet tip then use a black maker to color bullet tip. Insert in fire arm & close the bolt/ remove the bullet & tip . This will show you where your lands is. There are a few other way's. I hope this help's you out.....let us know what you come up with.

 

[g0rd0]

simple!
deprime and sise a case, lube the bullet at the base now useing your press seat the bullet JUST enough to hold it in place and chamber the rnd, if it is shorter than when you chambered it you now know where your rifleing is just put it back into the seating die slowly screwing it down untill you have your .050 thou and you have a dummy for that bullet to set aside for " a checking rnd"
Mark and keep that with your bullet selection so that when you reload you can check that your seating die is where you want it.
YOU should know that when you change bullet brands, weights, or designs your seatting depth can change, so I keep a "checking rnd" for each brand/weight and type that I load

 

[Fire306]

I always just use a fired case, which a bullet should practically fall into. Pinch it just enough between your fingers to gently hold a bullet. Set the bullet in the case so it is out of the case as far as it will stay there. Gentle chamber the "dummy" round, the bullet will be pushed into the case as it comes up against the lands. Gently remove, and measure. That shows you the distance to the lands, seat your bullets to your desired jump from there.

 

[Reloader222]

Go to this site to find a good and inexpensive method to determine Max OAL. Then click on Reloading and Shooting Tips:

Innovative Technologies - Reloading Equipment

 

[royinidaho]

I'm with the fired case method fella. Too cheap to pay 90+ bucks for something that can be for pennies.

I slot the neck from mouth to shoulder and squeeze with fingers to get proper tension.

Greatly reduces risk of sticking the bullet in the rifling.

 

[woods]

There is a tool that will measure the jump for ALL your calibers and costs $25.00. It is from R-P Products called the C.O.L. E-Z Check. Made by an entrepreneur named Randy Reeves [email protected] (there is an underscore between r and reeves) , phone number 318-424-7867

It is a stainless steel rod with a removable brass tip and 2 lockable collets shown here with the Hornady OAL tool

You insert the tool down to the bolt face (make sure the firing pin is retracted) and lock the outermost collet

insert the bullet to the lands and hold there with a dowel (or the Hornady OAL tool if you have one)

insert the tool back down the muzzle to the bullet tip and lock the innermost collet

measure between the collets

Don't have to worry about the headspace on the modified cases and extremely accurate. The only variance comes with how hard you push on the bullet base and if you imbed it into the lands.
__________________

 

[daniel brothers]

Here is another simple way...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZ8u8e7mSc&feature=plcp]DIY Seating Depth - YouTube[/ame]

 

[tacsniper0888]

Thanks guys. I'm a newbie. My father has reloaded for years but just basic pistol and "deer" rifle stuff. Nothing to this degree I'm going. His precision long range deer hunting is out to 200 yards. Lol. My goal is with the .338 win 700 Sendero to take a whitetail at a thousand this year with the cutting edge 225gr D62 bullet and possibly even farther. Trying to tailor my hand loads to be the best. I bought the frankford arsenal tool which is similar to the stainless rod although cheaper quality its all plastic and you have to supply your own rod. Oh well lesson learned. I'm also trying the neck tension thing and can't get it to work. I'm using RCBS full length dies and right now experimenting with bore tech solid brass 245gr vld bullets that have grooves and seal tite bands on them and I can't get proper neck tension on the bullet with my setup as it slips into one of the grooves between two seal tite bands and then jumps around. Why I went ahead and bought the gauge. Also another method I found on YouTube some of the benchrest boys use is to remove the bolt nose and firing pin assembly from the bolt on a 700 and use a micrometer seating die and seat the bullet long and try to chamber it and gradually, by 0.001" at a time, seat it deeper until when they push the dummy roun forward with the bolt the bolt handle falls into the locked position on its own. I can't get this to work either though even with a fired or resized case with no round in it as my shoulders are blew all the way forward from being fire formed in my chamber. The bolt still has ever so slight resistance to where I have to close it but less resistance than with a loaded round and the firing pin installed. Is there a due I can buy to push my shoulders back to where they should be or does this mean my brass is close to or beyond the reloadable point and needs to be tossed and replaced? Being as I'm going with such precision should I start with new brass anyway? Or dies this mean I have a headspace issue? I was wanting to replace my factory bolt with the PT&G fluted one piece bolt anyway and a badger knob but $300 for both then I don't know how to headspace it and no telling what it will cost at the gunsmith to have this done so if someone can tell me how to properly headspace a replacement bolt myself I would do this but if not I will reuse my factory bolt if nothing is wrong with it. Thanks again guys and have a great day.

 

[1SevenZero]

Here is the technique I use.

1. I'll use a fired casing that has been neck sized, trimmed and deburred (no primer and no powder). I do this because this is how I reload regularly. If you plan to full length resize every time than use one of those.

2. Take a bullet from the same box I'll be reloading from and color it black with a marker.

3. Seat the bullet in the casing just enought to hold it in place.

4. Chamber the round, making sure to fully close the bolt.

5. Open the bolt and extract the round.

6. Now seat it with the desired off set using your die and now you have a reference round when you are setting up your dies.

*Now the reason I color the bullet is because sometimes the bullet will stick in the barrel. When you close the bolt and the round is forced back the casing scratches the marker off of the bullet. You can use a cleaning rod to push the bullet out of the barrel and then seat the bullet back in the casing, with a die, using the scratched off marker as your reference. Then you just go on to step 6.

 

[Bart B]

Note that the exact distance you want the bullets to jump to the lands will vary a few thousandths for several reasons.

One's the fact that all bullets whose front half is formed by the same pointing die will have slightly different shapes. The diameter where the bullet first touches the rifling will vary up to a few thousandths across a box of bullets.

Another's the fact that bottleneck cases headspacing on their shoulders will have a small difference in their head to shoulder measurement; typically a few thousandths. Which means when they're fired with their shoulder hard against the chamber shoulder, the bullet will be different distances off the rifling even if the case head to bullet contact to rifling point's exactly the same.

All of which means that with some cases and bullets combinations, they may be several thousandths spread in the distance bullets jump to the rifling. But that's usually not a problem.

 

[tacsniper0888]

If it matters or helps any, the bullets I'm loading and shooting are not "formed" they are CNC machined on a Swiss style CNC controlled lathe out of solid copper alloy and solid brass alloy! Actually from what I can tell/measure the tolerances and amazingly consistent and all bullets are unbelievably concentric in all measurements. The brass ones are manufactured by bore tech. They are the V3 match bullets. The copper ones are made by cutting edge bullets and they are hollow point for match or hunting.

 

[MNbogboy]

What has worked for me is a variation of the "split necked case" method as Fire306 and Royinidaho use......I drill trough the primer pocket and tap the case head....I then machine two flat spots on the opposite sides of the case head (you can do this with a file if you have to)....Using a long eye bolt in the threaded end and a wrench across the two flat spots a person can easily "push" the bullet back out or remove after using....

I do not split the necks but rather set the neck tension on the case to about .001 or so...this tension is enough to overcome the ejector plunger or even the extractor from prematurely pushing the bullet into the case before the bolt is fully closed....The modified neck tension will allow you to close the bolt with the bullet against the lands just as the split neck version.....

"Magic marker" or similar coloring will allow you to re-check and verify your findings....This system has worked for me for over thirty years...I have a number of them hanging on the wall at my bench....I use 1/4-20 for .473 head calibers with 7/16 flats....and use 10-24 on my .222 & .221 with smaller flats (can't remember).....I have never tried this with a belted mag but see no reason why it would not work.....

This system is fast and very functional....Again results will vary if you are not consistent with closing pressure & speeds...

My .02,
Randy