I'm breaking in a new barrel that I've had installed on a Remington 700 action. When I ordered the barrel from Kreiger, I specifically asked them to ream the chamber so that 168gr SMK HPBT bullets could be seated 0.020" to 0.040" off the lands and STILL fit in AI magazines for an AICS stock. Last weekend I measured the "optimum" OAL for the SMK 168gr bullet using a Stoney Point (now Hornady) OAL gauge. It turns out that if I seat the bullet 0.020" off the lands, the OAL is 2.865" (I actually use a bullet comparator gauge which measures from the ogive but that measurement would be meaningless here). Lyman lists the OAL of the 169gr HPBT at 2.775" so I'm seating the bullet 0.090" further out. I don't have a chronograph so how will this affect pressure and velocity? I'm using IMR4895 and the maximum load in the Lyman manual is 45.4gr (if I remember correctly) so I made up some loads with 42.5gr, 43.0gr, 43.5gr, 44.0gr, 44.5gr and 45.0gr of powder. I ran out of time and only shot three of the 42.5gr loads since I'm cleaning after every shot (barrel break-in) but they felt very anemic. Could this be due to the increased OAL? Is 0.090" significant here? Is it likely that the bullet seating depth will shift the entire load range up by + 1gr, + 2gr, + 3gr etc?
Thanks.
Thanks.