Too short?

[Baffled321]

Last night i was going through some hand loads and noticed one set that I recently loaded was really short... 2.665 when the book calls for 2.780. This was the result of changing to a drastically different nose shape of the bullet. My questions is: would these be safe to even shoot at targets being that short? That's .115"shorter than the book suggests. thanks for any input!

 

[BoomFlop]

Without knowing your powder charge and everything, nobody can answer that question for you.

My suggestion would be to pull them slightly and reseat to the correct length. Then just use them for sighters.

Good luck
Steve

 

[birddog 68]

Are these totally different bullets? Different bullets will need a different COAL. There isn't just one COAL for all bullets.
You may want to do a search on how to find the correct seating depth.

 

[Marky_mark]

You would be wasting the components. There is a very high chance that these wont perform remotely close to what your other load does

 

[AZShooter]

It is perfectly normal to have a different OAL with a different bullet nose shape. If you didn't change the setting on your seater die, I suggest you don't change the seater die setting. I have built loads with a particular bullet then seated a different shaped bullet without moving the seater die setting, worked up the load and got excellent accuracy. Case in point: A 284 win shoots bugholes with 168 Berger VLDs . Worked up a different load with 120 nosler ballistic tips same die setting and it shoots them very accurately too.

Provided you haven't changed the powder charge you used with the other bullet, you should make some with that seating depth with less powder and work back up to the ones you already made. It would be hard to say how you have affected pressure if the new bullet has a longer bearing surface or sits deeper into the powder area of the case.

 

[chav0_12]

So you loaded some ammo with a different bullet and didn't do any load development? It depends on the bullet and load. It could work great, it could also be catastrophic.

 

[arrow179]

I was wondering what this thread was all about! . Some lady shooters would say the longer the better. Lol . Sorry couldn't resist….

 

[LVJ76]

Without knowing your powder charge and everything, nobody can answer that question for you.

My suggestion would be to pull them slightly and reseat to the correct length. Then just use them for sighters.

Good luck
Steve

Second Steve's comment, pull the bullets and seat again to desired/recommended seating. Not safe to fire like this.

You might create too much pressure and damage the rifle, or worse injure yourself.

 

[Muddyboots]

+1 - Do you have load development for each bullet to confirm powder charges are safe for each COAL.? Loads set with too short of load COAL can elevate up load pressure significantly which can have serious consequences.

Swapping out load components without load development can be Russian Roulette.

Absolute safe approach is pull the load, verify load specifics gave been verified with load development, reset the the brass, reload to proper COAL.

Everyone has done this time to time and best safety approach is to pull load and start over. Just becomes another lesson learned for your loading process. Everyone develops their loading skills from lessons learned.

FYI - I've gotten really good at pulling loads!

 

[SSgt G Cody]

Hmmm. .115" is not really a huge difference. I've seen some big African game rifles spaced .120" off the lands that shot 2" groups at 100 yards. I think I'd try a few shots to see results. If needed, adjust within .020" of lands, and fine tune from there. It may turn out great!

 

[asd9055]

Last night i was going through some hand loads and noticed one set that I recently loaded was really short... 2.665 when the book calls for 2.780. This was the result of changing to a drastically different nose shape of the bullet. My questions is: would these be safe to even shoot at targets being that short? That's .115"shorter than the book suggests. thanks for any input!

Not enough information to get an informed advise.
Too short could mean:
1. Longer jump but same depth in the case, may or may not affect accuracy
2. Deeper depth in case: Could be extremely dangerous.
MHO only