I have a question for you guys:
I'm new to rifle reloading, only done .223, .308, .270 Win and now .270 WSM. While loading up my first batch of .270 WSM, I found a load on Hodgdon's website listing H4831 and Sierra Gamekings in 140gr which were the components I wanted to use. That load listed COAL as 2.800" so that's what I went with, firgured it would be fine since it was 0.060" less than the Max COAL listed in my manual. I loaded up a few rounds and then found that the bullets were touching the lands. Every other rifle I've loaded for, to get close to the lands, I had to exceed the Max COAL and the rounds wouldn't function through the magazine so it was a single load proposition, but not this rifle (Winchester Mod. 70). I went ahead and fired them, since they were a published load, working up from minimum to maximum charge weights and, as expected, found the best accuracy about 5% below max. Got about a 1/3" group, all holes touching! So, after this, I decided to play with the COAL because I don't like my bullets touching the lands for a number of reasons. I found the lands to be at 2.790" COAL so I loaded up a few more rounds with 2.775", 2.750" and 2.725" COAL and the most accurate powder charge to find the best accuracy, but haven't fired them yet, just loaded yesterday. I'm starting to second guess myself though, have you guys ever had rounds that got into the lands well below max length and well below magazine length, or am I doing something wrong? I use the "smoke/sharpie method" to find the lands. (Seat a bullet long, color bullet, chamber, extract and look for marks in the color, seat 0.001 deeper and repeat until no marks noted in the color.) It just seems weird to me, but it may be right, this rifle is incredibly accurate for a factory rifle with no custom work at all. Maybe I just have an exceptionally good rifle with a very tight chamber on my hands? Thanks in advance guys.
I'm new to rifle reloading, only done .223, .308, .270 Win and now .270 WSM. While loading up my first batch of .270 WSM, I found a load on Hodgdon's website listing H4831 and Sierra Gamekings in 140gr which were the components I wanted to use. That load listed COAL as 2.800" so that's what I went with, firgured it would be fine since it was 0.060" less than the Max COAL listed in my manual. I loaded up a few rounds and then found that the bullets were touching the lands. Every other rifle I've loaded for, to get close to the lands, I had to exceed the Max COAL and the rounds wouldn't function through the magazine so it was a single load proposition, but not this rifle (Winchester Mod. 70). I went ahead and fired them, since they were a published load, working up from minimum to maximum charge weights and, as expected, found the best accuracy about 5% below max. Got about a 1/3" group, all holes touching! So, after this, I decided to play with the COAL because I don't like my bullets touching the lands for a number of reasons. I found the lands to be at 2.790" COAL so I loaded up a few more rounds with 2.775", 2.750" and 2.725" COAL and the most accurate powder charge to find the best accuracy, but haven't fired them yet, just loaded yesterday. I'm starting to second guess myself though, have you guys ever had rounds that got into the lands well below max length and well below magazine length, or am I doing something wrong? I use the "smoke/sharpie method" to find the lands. (Seat a bullet long, color bullet, chamber, extract and look for marks in the color, seat 0.001 deeper and repeat until no marks noted in the color.) It just seems weird to me, but it may be right, this rifle is incredibly accurate for a factory rifle with no custom work at all. Maybe I just have an exceptionally good rifle with a very tight chamber on my hands? Thanks in advance guys.
