[famer Dan]

I am shooting a Tikka T-3 bolt in 223. Using a poor man's gauge from varmital
website, the chamber dimensions of the overall length of the case is 1.800. The reloading manuals Lee & Spear say the max case length is 1.760.(that's a 40 thousandths inch gap that the bullet is not resting on) I have been trimming my Remington cases to 1.755. Is it safe to make them longer and will I get better accuracy because of a smaller gap? So far, with work, I'm getting 9/16 inch and better groups @ 100 yds with a 55 grain v-max bullet.
Nothing to complain about, but can I do better by lengthening the cases and is it safe? Your response would be deeply appreciated. Thanks

[famer Dan]

forgot to add something - would trimming the case to 1.770 be acceptable?
Would this be too long, or not long enough because I know that the case upon firing will stretch at least 2/1000 and I have heard that a 20/1000 gap is sufficient. What are your opinions? Thanks

[Bullet]

You might check this out –

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=RESDTCL&item=G-224&type=store

Give them a call they are experts.

[highlander 5]

I trim to 1.75' for my 2 223 rifles both bolt actions. Maximum length is maximum length DO NOT EXCEED. If the case is to long the neck will not be able to expand causeing a serious preasure spike. If you are worried about overall length seat your bullets out further.you have 2 options in this regard 1 your bullet is .020-.030 off the rifling or 2 that they feed from your magazine without hanging up.

[P0832177]

Respect the established reloading manuals. Unless you have chamber cast of YOUR CHAMBER YOU ARE COURTING PROBLEMS IN THE FAST LANE! Excessive length can crimp the bullet in your chamber and spike the pressure!:banghead:

[Ron Brooks]

A thought, why not trim to loading manual case length, then seat the bullet out a little farther so it is where you want it in realtion to the lands?

Good luck,

Ron

[Matt-man]

Guys, notice he's using a gauge to find the actual length of the chamber in his rifle. If you know your chamber length, then trimming a certain distance short of it doesn't cause an excessive length problem.

Dan, I've also seen .0020" used as a guideline (Glen Zediker's "Handloading for Competition," info apparently from Sinclair). Whether it will make any difference in accuracy, I don't know - the rifles I load for have short enough chambers that the SAAMI specs work well enough.