liltank
Well-Known Member
Well.. there are several ways. The first and best option is to buy Hornady Lock-N-Load Overall Length Gage Bolt Action and a Hornady Lock-N-Load Overall Length Gage Modified Case 7mm Remington. You'll want one of these Hornady Lock-N-Load Bullet Comparator Basic Set 6 Inserts. This will be the easiest and most accurate. This is what I use today and nothing else.
The second is to put a bullet in the neck of a sized case without a primer or powder. Just seat the bullet into the neck enough to hold the bullet tight. Close your bolt. This will take a little effort as you are seating the bullet into the neck using the rifling. Eject the round. Blacken the tip with either a sharpy or soot from a lit candle. This is highly in accurate, but you keep seating the bullet deeper using your seating die until there isn't any shiny marks on the bullet from the rifling marking the bullet. This takes a while. That is how I did it when I first learned.
The final one that I know of and used is tedious but works. You need to make to sleeves that fit over your cleaning rod. I used a couple of threaded wing screws that I were threaded into the sleeves. Place both sleeves on to your cleaning rod. Use a cleaning jag with the point cut or filed off. You need a flat surface on the end of your cleaning jag. Close the bolt. Slide the cleaning rod down your barrel until it contacts the bolt face. Tighten the top sleeve so that it does not move. Remove the cleaning rod. Now place a bullet only into the throat of the breech end of the barrel. Using a dial rod or something that you can push into the chamber that will hold the bullet in place, slide the cleaning rod down the barrel again until it contacts the bullet. BE SURE NOT TO PUSH THE BULLET OUT OF THE THROAT. As this will throw off your measurment. Tighten the bottom sleeve. Remove the cleaning rod. Using a caliper, measure the distance between the two sleeves.
You will have to do this process for every bullet you want to try regardless of which method you use. Do your self a favor and order the Hornady stuff. It's not that expensive. If you want to be accurate, this would be the best option of the three methods. The cleaning rod down the barrel with the locking sleeves would be my second choice.
The second is to put a bullet in the neck of a sized case without a primer or powder. Just seat the bullet into the neck enough to hold the bullet tight. Close your bolt. This will take a little effort as you are seating the bullet into the neck using the rifling. Eject the round. Blacken the tip with either a sharpy or soot from a lit candle. This is highly in accurate, but you keep seating the bullet deeper using your seating die until there isn't any shiny marks on the bullet from the rifling marking the bullet. This takes a while. That is how I did it when I first learned.
The final one that I know of and used is tedious but works. You need to make to sleeves that fit over your cleaning rod. I used a couple of threaded wing screws that I were threaded into the sleeves. Place both sleeves on to your cleaning rod. Use a cleaning jag with the point cut or filed off. You need a flat surface on the end of your cleaning jag. Close the bolt. Slide the cleaning rod down your barrel until it contacts the bolt face. Tighten the top sleeve so that it does not move. Remove the cleaning rod. Now place a bullet only into the throat of the breech end of the barrel. Using a dial rod or something that you can push into the chamber that will hold the bullet in place, slide the cleaning rod down the barrel again until it contacts the bullet. BE SURE NOT TO PUSH THE BULLET OUT OF THE THROAT. As this will throw off your measurment. Tighten the bottom sleeve. Remove the cleaning rod. Using a caliper, measure the distance between the two sleeves.
You will have to do this process for every bullet you want to try regardless of which method you use. Do your self a favor and order the Hornady stuff. It's not that expensive. If you want to be accurate, this would be the best option of the three methods. The cleaning rod down the barrel with the locking sleeves would be my second choice.
