Just want to make sure I am doing this correctly. My Rem 700 in 30-06 has such a long magazine well and leade that I never felt I could load against the lands. I typically load so that .308" or more of the bullet is in the neck. My most accurate load is either the Nosler 180 Accbond or Ballistic tip in front of 57.6 gr of H4350, Win case and lg rifle primer. My barrel is turned down to a toothpick (.550" at the muzzle) so I'm very happy when I can reach MOA or better. This load gives me that or just above with the OAL at 3.395". The past few days, I've experimented with a "range rod" technique. I take my Dewey cleaning rod with no tip on and carefully insert into the muzzle until it touches the "cocked" face of the bolt. I carefully wrap some masking tape around the rod at the muzzle. Now, I remove the bolt, insert a 180 gr Nosler BT into the leade and lightly hold it there with a shorter section of cleaning rod in my left hand. With my right hand, I reinsert the Dewey rod into the muzzle again, until it touches the tip of the bullet. The rifle is laying on its side, muzzle to the right and breech to the left. With this setup I can move the bullet into and out of the leade fractions of an inch at a time. This allows me to get the right feel of the bullet set against the lands. When I feel it is right, I again place masking tape around the rod at the muzzle. Once I remove the rod, I can measure with my calipers, the distance of the leading edges of the tape. I come up with 3.556" with a clean barrel. If I seat a bullet to 3.555" that should give me a safe margin with a dirty barrel, which I prefer to hunt with. Now, If I seat that far out, I figure I have about .200" of the bullet seated into the neck. I've read somewhere here on LRH.com that as long as you have 1/2 or .154" seated into the neck, I should be ok. I'll probably back off my powder charge 1 full grain and go to the range with a bunch of prepped cases and my Harrell's Premium powder measure and start playing around with seating depth, working deeper into the case.
Any opinions or concerns?
Big Al