# how do you get o.a.l. for rem. 700



## sordy (Aug 10, 2005)

I am having a hard time getting oal. new at this. listend to some people. getting dif. #s


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## markb (Sep 4, 2005)

The easiest way to find the max. oal is take a cleaning brush and clip the brush portion off leaving a flat surface. BE SURE YOUR RIFLE IS NOT LOADED! Screw it on your cleaning rod, close the bolt, insert the rod from the muzzle until it stops, and mark it at the muzzle. Remove the bolt, drop a bullet into the barrel (BULLET ONLY) tap it lightly so it will stay in place, insert the rod into the muzzle until it touches the bullet's tip, mark the rod at the muzzle. TAP OUT THE BULLET! Take your caliper and measure the distance between the marks. The distance will be the max. OAL.


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## Gohon (Feb 14, 2005)

markb said:


> The easiest way to find the max. oal is take a cleaning brush and clip the brush portion off leaving a flat surface. BE SURE YOUR RIFLE IS NOT LOADED! Screw it on your cleaning rod, close the bolt, insert the rod from the muzzle until it stops, and mark it at the muzzle. Remove the bolt, drop a bullet into the barrel (BULLET ONLY) tap it lightly so it will stay in place, insert the rod into the muzzle until it touches the bullet's tip, mark the rod at the muzzle. TAP OUT THE BULLET! Take your caliper and measure the distance between the marks. The distance will be the max. OAL.


I don't see how that would work. What you are looking for is the ogive of the bullet and each bullet is different. For example a 30 caliber 165 grain BTSP, a 180 grain power point and a 150 grain power point would all three give you a different reading by your method. Take a look at your reloading manual and you will find most loads show a different o.a.l/c.o.l for each bullet even of the same weight.


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## .17remman (Dec 7, 2004)

What Mark B. said is correct, but you have to do this for every different kind of bullet that you are going to load. I would also recommend seating the bullet .005" behind the beginning of the riflings for a starting point. From there, you can seat deeper in increments until you find the OAL that your firearm likes best.

The only reason that I say to start .005" behind the beginning of the riflings is that if you "jam" into the riflings, the chamber pressure will be higher because the bullet does not have any space to get a headstart before engaging the rifling.

Another, and much easier way, to get OAL is to buy an OAL guage from a gun shop. Sportsman's Warehouse stocks the full line.

Hope this helps and good shooting.


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## Gohon (Feb 14, 2005)

Maybe I'm missing something here or just don't understand but I still don't see how this would work. For example if you take two 200 grain bullets, one a round nose soft point and one a spitz soft point, they should have the same O.A.L since you are measuring from the ogive to the base of the shell. But with Marks method the Spitz soft point will protrude further into the bore before making contact with the lands, thus giving two different readings. Where am I going wrong? Anyway since I also don't have a o.a.l gauge I have been using this method http://www.larrywillis.com/OAL.html with good results. Once I take the reading I back off a few thousands, take a total cartridge length reading and load that batch from there. If I continue with the same caliber but different bullet I start over again with the new bullet and new measurements.


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## Kiwi98j (Sep 6, 2005)

Gohon said:


> Maybe I'm missing something here or just don't understand ... should have the same O.A.L since you are measuring from the ogive to the base of the shell.


You are not missing anything - it's just a matter of semantics.

The "OAL" measurement as published means "as measured from the base of the case to the tip of the bullet".

The method you are using is accurate in determining the "max OAl" for your chamber for a particular bullet. After setting the ogive to base length using your method, measure the OAL from the tip of the bullet to the base. Remember to check that the bullet's metplat and tip are not deformed or bent.

I use a similar method to make a "dummy load" for each bullet type/weight I load. I insert a bullet into a empty prepped fire formed case, clsoe the bolt to push the bullet into the case neck, remove the "dummy load", then seal the case neck with enamel nail polish. I now have a "max OAL" reference to set-up my dies and to compare to my finished loads.

I also have calibrated and indexed the stem of my bullet seating dies to allow me to set the seating depth in the same manner as a "micrometer seating die". It does takes a bit of math to calculate the linear travel for an increment of turn of the seating stem from the thread pitch, but worth the effort to set seating depth in increments of .001.


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