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Old March 28, 2014, 10:11 AM   #1
Pond, James Pond
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Cannelures and Rifle rounds. OAL an issue?

When loading pistol rounds I use the cannelure as my point of reference when seating the bullet for crimping.

For my .308 I don't crimp. So is seating to the cannelure still necessary?

I am planning to load my OCW cartridge ladder and it seems, according to a member's PM a while back that the OAL for the Hornady 3037 FMJBT 150gr bullet is 2.780". For now that is fine, but once I have my ideal charge weight I will be wanting to play with OAL for accuracy, especially as I now have the Hornady OAL gauge kit.

However, these bullets have a cannelure: none of my previous bullet choices have had them, though.

Restricted to 2.780, or can I play around...?
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Old March 28, 2014, 10:16 AM   #2
Sport45
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I ignore the cannelure when I'm not crimping.
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Old March 28, 2014, 12:19 PM   #3
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I too, ignore the cannalure for rifle rounds and seat bullets to the manual's suggested OAL for that particular bullet. Sometimes the cannalure lines up with the case mouth, sometimes it don't...
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Old March 28, 2014, 02:26 PM   #4
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Yep, ignore it.
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Old March 28, 2014, 02:33 PM   #5
green_MTman
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i had a .308 that load that i gave its oal as 2.859 which was 35/1000 of an inch off the rifling of that gun.would not feed through the magazine but was very accurate.
always be carefull working up a load that is seated that close to the rifling though.
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Old March 28, 2014, 05:41 PM   #6
pathdoc
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I have ignored the cannelure with Hornady .303 FMJBT bullets, with no ill effects. That's when loading with press, dies etc. When using the Lee Loader, I use it as my seating depth indicator so I can get away with not being able to check OAL with a caliper. But I still don't crimp.
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Old March 28, 2014, 07:10 PM   #7
steve4102
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You can even ignore the OAL listed in the manuals as it has little or nothing to do with your rifle and your loads.
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Old March 28, 2014, 08:25 PM   #8
Nevmavrick
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The only reason I can see for a cannelure on a rifle bullet is to form a ring on the inside to help restrict mushrooming in game, like, for instance the Inner-belted Remington bullet.
So, why does the FMJ have a cannelure? Got me!!! Then I don't load for a machine gun...I guess they crimp.
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Old March 29, 2014, 02:09 AM   #9
Pond, James Pond
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Thanks folks.

I will load to the recommended COAL for now and see how they fare.

Even if i want to get closer to the lands, there is mag size to consider and the fact that these are significantly shorter bullets to the Amax and Scenars I have too, despite their mere 5gr higher weight.

If I seat to similar COALs as those two, my FMJBT will barely have half of its body in the neck!
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Old March 29, 2014, 11:47 AM   #10
mikld
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Quote:
You can even ignore the OAL listed in the manuals as it has little or nothing to do with your rifle and your loads.
If the meaning of this post is the max. cartridge dimensions listed in the front of each cartridge section, I agree. But, the OAL listed for specific bullets is a good dimension; suggested by the bullet manufacturer. I always (or as often as possible) use the book/manufacturer's recommendations to start...
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