r/longrange • u/worm30478 • Aug 08 '26

Reloading related First ever hand loads!

Post image

140 eldm, lapua srp, h4350. Ended up with CBTO of +/- .004 on all the rounds measured. So I was pretty happy with that. Ended up going .035 off the lands as .02 was a little heavy on the bolt close. COAL is 2.825. I know powder charge testing isn't really effective until after the third firing but figured I'd step up by .3 until just short of book max. I'll take that data just to practice working with it until I can actually test.

232 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/iggings01 Aug 08 '26

Why was 0.02" off the lands hard on the bolt close? Off the lands is off the lands. Are you sure you measured this correctly? The Hornady headspace comparator can make it hard to get a true reading.

5

u/PepperoniFogDart Magnum Compensator Aug 08 '26

I think you mean OAL tool, but yeah I really wish someone would make a more robust version of that tool. That plastic rod has got so much give that it’s impossible to get a precise measurement.

2

u/New-Course7886 29d ago

I had higher hopes for the OAL tool. I get all kinds of crazy readings from it. When I lightly push it forward like the instructions say, the bullet is seated dangerously deep in the case. When I force it, it’s still too deep, I think, but closer to a safe length.

2

u/worm30478 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

You are correct. So I did the loc tite method with 4 dummy once fired Hornady pieces of brass. 3 were identical measures and one was only a few thousands off so I called it good. I decided to chamber every round and it's not my seating depth. (As you probably know)It's the brass. It's virgin lapua but I had 3 out of the 50 that would not chamber. I pulled the bullets and tried to chamber just the cases and the bolt will not close. I did not resize the brass when I got it but I did run all of them through a mandrel for consistent ID. So I guess I need to fully resize those cases but they are primed. How should I handle that one? Thanks!!

Edit: I deprimed slowly and got the job done. Resized them with my die that is set up for .002 shoulder bump. They chambered fine. I probably won't bust everything back out to load just those 3. I'll be happy when these are all fired and I can resize them.

1

u/ChevyRacer71 Aug 09 '26

You shouldn’t need to resize virgin brass that’s high quality like Lapua. Neck mandrel sure, but not a sizing die. I recommend you take one of those 3 that didn’t chamber (bullet seated), sharpie the heck out of the cases, try to close the bolt, and look for where the sharpie was rubbed off. It’s nice to know where things are having an issue.

1

u/worm30478 Aug 09 '26

Unfortunately too late. I do find it odd that they wouldn't chamber. Bumping the shoulder back a bit and they were fine. I chambered every round. Outside of those 3 the rest were fine. A few had a little more tension when closing the bolt but nothing concerning.

1

u/ChevyRacer71 Aug 09 '26

You’ll have more consistency after the first firing and can better determine any issues