# 204 Ruger - WTF am I doing wrong



## sdbaydogs (Jun 11, 2004)

I am very new to reloading and I am trying to determine what the overall length of my cartridge should be to seat the bullet just off the lands of the rifling. I have a Hornaday O.A.L gauge and the measurements I am getting are 2.437". All the factory rounds I have all measure between 2.242" and 2.244". I believe the max OAL for the 204 is 2.260". What pray tell am I doing wrong. The gun is an AR with a Shilen barrel.


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## STexhunter (Sep 11, 2007)

Are you having chambering problems? Anyway just my 2 cents worth but, are you re-sizing all your brass the same? Have you checked to make sure all the brass is the same length. If not you need to trim it all the same and within specs. You also need to watch bullet ogive when you are setting your seating die to just off the lands. Different brands of bullets have different ogives.


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## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

sdbaydogs, I don't think you are really having a problem. I started reloading about 4 months ago, and ran into the same thing with some of my rifles. Factory rounds are made to fit almost any rifle, so they have to be set at a certain standard. While I am definately no pro at this, and you should probably ask some of the guys on here with more experience, you should be able to load this bullets out longer to fit your chamber as long as you have enough bullet to be firmly seated into the neck of the case. My current .204 40gr Nosler & V-Max and my 39gr Blitzkings are loaded to the recommended length. the Bottom of the bullet is seated into the area where the neck starts to flair out at the shoulder. I am pretty sure I could pull them up .193 and they would still have plenty of neck to seat them properly. I think this is why reloading is so great, you can customize your load to your rifle, not just shoot what every one else is shooting.


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## Boonedog (Sep 10, 2006)

I would add that you need to make sure your overall length will fit in the magazine.


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

The Max OAL that you'll find listed in your books is a specified length that gives ammo manufactures and/or reloaders a length that will be safe in ALL guns with the same calibration. Rifle manufactures then make the throat of the rifle a little longer than that so that all manfuctured ammo will be safe. You can run into a couple of issues when trying to seat bullets out the lands. The most common one I have had is that the ammo won't fit into the magazine. Also, if you are loading light for caliber bullets or bullets with a long ogive it is not totally uncommon that the lands are so far out that the bullet would not even be in the case if you try to seat the bullet to the lands. I also had one gun, where the loads would fit in the magazine and would chamber just fine, but if you tried to unload an unfired round, it would not clear the receiver. I had to remove the bolt to get an unfired round out of the chamber. You also want to be sure that when you seat the bullets, all of them are either slightly ingaged in the lands, or none of them are ingaged. If some are and others aren't it can affect the pressures from round to round as well as accuracy. I am personally not a fan of seating the bullet clear into the lands. I like to pull mine back between .005 and .020.

Hope this info is helpful for you.


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## ritcheysr (Mar 28, 2008)

anytime you change the bullet's seating depth for a given load you change the chamber pressure.The change in chamber pressure can be extremely effected by just a few thousands change of bullet seating depth. The numbers in the reloading manuals are not just for chamber fit, but even more important for safe chamber pressures for a given load with a bullet seating depth given (OAL) of a loaded cartridge. When changing the bullet depth the powder charge should be adjusted also and without the corrected amount of powder change, etc. you shouldn't try extending the manuals OAL for a given load with a particular bullet and powder charge.


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## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

> When changing the bullet depth the powder charge should be adjusted also and without the corrected amount of powder change, etc. you shouldn't try extending the manuals OAL for a given load with a particular bullet and powder charge.


So how do you know how much to adjust your powder charge when seating your bullets longer than the book suggests? All the info I have gotten says start 10% below max and work up, but I thought that was for all loads no matter your seating depth?


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

The way I start a new cartrage in reloading is to look the specs up in the reloader manual for the bullet weight and charge weight with the powder I want to use. 
From there I resize the case and knock the spent primer out. 
I then take the bullet of choice set it into the case at the book oal settings. Then I try it in the rifles chamber. If the bolt locks up easy I remove the dummy round and pull the bullet out a bit. I then retry the dummy round till the bolt won't lock up easy. 
After I have that dummy round at the right oal I then start loading with powder and bullet of choice. Since I am lucky enough to have my own private range I take about 6 to 10 rounds out and Try them. Sme times I have to reset the bullet as the rifle may not like the bullet touching the lands. 
After that I keep climbing the charge weight till I find the one the rifle likes.

I have to seat the bullets in my 220 Swift much deeper than what the books OAL states. But it is a tack driver.

 Al


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## 223 widow maker (Nov 26, 2008)

:beer:


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Boonedog said:


> I would add that you need to make sure your overall length will fit in the magazine.


No you dont, you just wont be able to use the magazine. :lol:

Im not a "pro reloader" by any means but all ive read says for optimum performance you want the bullet to be seated as close as possible to the lands and grooves when the bolt is closed. This means trying to keep at the upper end of "maximum OAL".


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