Two questions: First, my immediate problem, what is a recommended COAL for 168gr SMKs for M1 Garand loads? I've read a few other posts and it seems people generally use somewhere around 3.23"-3.3" or so. Will anything dangerous happen if I just pick a COAL in that range and go with it?
Second, because I wasn't sure I tried what my Speer reloading manual says to do, which is: seat a bullet - rub dry erase marker on it - chamber it to see if its touching the rifling and keep seating deeper until there is no contact. Has anyone successfully used this method to determine their own COALs for their rifle loads? I wasn't able to get this to work very well for my Garand. Is it just because the rifling is farther up than the max OAL? (I started around the Max COAL of 3.340" so I didn't just jam a loose bullet into my barrel) Or possibly since the SMKs are ogival the tip won't actually contact at that length?
Second, because I wasn't sure I tried what my Speer reloading manual says to do, which is: seat a bullet - rub dry erase marker on it - chamber it to see if its touching the rifling and keep seating deeper until there is no contact. Has anyone successfully used this method to determine their own COALs for their rifle loads? I wasn't able to get this to work very well for my Garand. Is it just because the rifling is farther up than the max OAL? (I started around the Max COAL of 3.340" so I didn't just jam a loose bullet into my barrel) Or possibly since the SMKs are ogival the tip won't actually contact at that length?