Can I safely reduce my OAL by .050 in a rifle?

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  • shawnba67

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    Nov 6, 2012
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    I have an 8mm-06AI and the limited load data all show 3.250 as the coal. My chosen 200gr hot cor bullet kiss's the rifling at 3.200. Anything over 3.230 pulls the bullets on unloading very messy and aggravating. I am trying to figure out if I should lengthen the throat a little or load a little short ? One costs a little money $45, the other one costs a little FPS. Has anyone ever dealt with such a problem What should I expect to loose in FPS for .050 oal?? Will this make all the available data just a guesswork for my rifle??
     

    Broom_jm

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    Dec 10, 2009
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    Reducing a rifle load .050" is not nearly as big a deal as reducing something like a 9mm pistol load the same amount. Consider the overall volume of space in the cartridge in both instances: When you seat the rifle bullet deeper, you're only decreasing that volume of space by a small percentage, whereas in the pistol cartridge, you're decreasing the volume appreciably.

    Seat the bullet where it needs to go, drop back to a MIN charge weight and work up again, watching for signs of pressure and accuracy nodes. More than likely, you'll find very good accuracy a grain or two below MAX, which means your pressures will still very likely be in a safe range, despite the shorter cartridge OAL. No, this does not invalidate all loading data, so long as you work your way up like you should with any load combination.
     
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    shawnba67

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    So i backed them off from 3.240 to 3.190 in increments of .015 and lost 10fps per time. The loss of velocity seems to say Ive reduced pressure by loading this load shorter so all is well in the world for now. Accuracy remained the same as did POI so thats great as well
     

    Broom_jm

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    So i backed them off from 3.240 to 3.190 in increments of .015 and lost 10fps per time. The loss of velocity seems to say Ive reduced pressure by loading this load shorter so all is well in the world for now. Accuracy remained the same as did POI so thats great as well

    So, there are off-settings forces at work, here: When your bullets are "jammed", (loaded into the lands) pressures can be higher than when you seat the bullet deeper. When you seat the bullet deep enough into the case, you reduce capacity enough to cause pressure spikes. It sounds like you're in the valley between these two pressure curves...a very safe place to be.
     
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