308 win over all length

[usmc1974]

What is your OAL for your long range 308's? My 308 175 bthpm rounds for my bolt action is 2.830

[Dirty Rod]

2.800 for 175gr SMKs

Edited December 4, 2014 by Dirty Rod

[Bradford]

I reload for a SR 762 (.308). I measured the seating depth on the 175 grain bullet I am using and measured about 2.720. Every gun is different. I try to make my bullets OAL 2.720 but I get from 2.714 to 2.728 because of the differences in each bullet. I first tried to make them 2.8 like the manuals say and bullets were jamming in my gun. You must realized that each bullet has a ogive that meets the riffling in the barrel and that is a far in as that bullet should be when going into battery. Now the ogive is different on every type of bullet. Even bullets of the same type some will be a few thousandths longer or shorter. If your bullet is too long when going into battery the bullet will be forced back into the case or the bolt wont close and lock. If your bullet is too short this is called the "jump" distance that the bullet needs to move before it contacts the barrel. Your riffle will perform best somewhere between these two places. You need to figure out where and it will be different for each style bullet. Now I have totally confused everyone..lol

[BlueOvalBandit]

^ One of the reasons why I got a comparator and measure off the ogive of a bullet and base OAL off of jump. That and the nose isn't really that consistent of a datum point.

[littlehendrick]

Since I am running an AI mag in my 700, I am limited to around 2.820" If you are going to single load them, or put them into a long action, you can load longer.

And Blue Oval hit it on the head, meplats vary from bullet to bullet and lot to lot. The O-give comparator makes things more consistent if you know how short or long your chamber is. I can't get my 308's to touch rifling without going beyond the magazine length (Seems like this is true for most Remington 700's from the factory).

[dauntedfuture]

There is lots and lots written about this all over the internet. Short answer is that it depends on your rifle. 168 and 175 SMKs generally don't shoot much better when they are close to the lands or jump so seat them so they fit in the magazine.

[Corey]

Measuring to the ogive is much better than measuring to the tip of the bullet. As said above, the best depth if where you rifle will shoot most accurately. It all boils down to the application being used. Are you needing to feed the rounds from a magazine capacity or are you willing to single feed the rounds? If you can single feed, there are a lot of options for to seat bullets closer to the rifling and find what the rifle likes best. Bullets like the Berger VLDs usually like to be out longer as do others.