Overall Length Guage

[Old Dog Man]

All you reloaders out there that want an overall length guage that works give me a hand in testing one that my brother-in law and I designed. Now don't get all bent out of shape over getting a free one (can't afford to give all of you one) just some one that does a lot of reloading and like myself, not satisfied with the one's on the market. We have several people in our area that have been using them and are very satisfied with them, so we think it's time to spread out to other's and see what you think. We have been reloading ourselves for years and haven't found a guage that will get repeat readings so we designed our own. Give me some feed back (Good or bad) maybe we have the right tool. Al

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I'd be interested in it. I have the hornady now.

 

[cfullgraf]

A picture or pictures would help.

I am not sure what your gauge could do that a pair of calipers won't do. And calipers are adjustable for multiple cartridges.

 

[PCCUSNRET]

Al,

I'd be interested in having one for the Swiss 7.5 X 55. I have ones for most of the calibers I load for already, but have yet to find one for the Swiss.

Chuck

 

[Centurian22]

I'm going to be getting into reloading .308, .32 S&W Long, and 9mm soon. Would be interested to see the design and test it out (I have brass for all already). Willing to pay if it appears to be something that would fit my needs.

 

[Rmeju]

I'm using a Hornady now. I'd definitely be interested in trying one out in 308/30-06.

I'm pretty good about giving detailed, honest feedback. I'd love to know how you've solved the repeatability problem. On some rifles, it's a little annoying because the variance is small. On others, it drives me crazy!

 

[blarby]

.308 here. Always up for tryin stuff that works.

 

[IMtheNRA]

I'll be glad to help if you still need someone. I load lots of 223, 357, and 9mm.

 

[ranger335v]

An OAL gage measures from the case head to the bullet meplat. Nothing does that better than a precision caliper. Harbor Freight sells perfectly good ones for about $10 when on sale, digital and dial, and that's quite often. ??

 

[Old Dog Man]

I have allready posted pictures of it back a couple of months ago and can't downloade them again. I guess I could take another shot of it and post them. A dial caliper will not work the same as our guage, because we take the reading on the ogive of the bullet ( where bullet touches rifling ) not the tip. We are not making any for pistol rounds yet, just rifles. I will try and post some pics soon. Thanks for the interest. Al

 

[Old Dog Man]

Remju, sounds like the kind of information I'm looking for. I don't want to give one to someone that uses it and don't give me feedback ( happened before) that will give us an idea if we are doing what it takes. Everyone down here that is using them (including us) are very satisfied. We would need a sized case for your rifle (full or neck sized to use for the guage) e-mail me ( [email protected] ) Well talk. Al

 

[918v]

Progressive reloaders have alot of time to run their ammo through OAL and chamber check gauges.

 

[ranger335v]

"A dial caliper will not work the same as our guage, because we take the reading on the ogive of the bullet ( where bullet touches rifling ) not the tip."

Then you aren't measuring OAL.

Most reloaders see the need for a caliper, dial or digital. Hornady and Sinclair sell a set of caliper jaw attachments that allow measuring to the ogive contact point and/or to the datum line of cases; their price is right too. (I made my own set just for fun but if I wanted another set I'd just buy it!)

 

[HKGuns]

So what am I doing wrong by using a digital caliper?

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

i use the hornady OAL gauge in conjunction with the hornady bullet comparator.

post pics

 

[918v]

So what am I doing wrong by using a digital caliper?

Nothing. Quality bullets are close enough to one another to allow you to tune your load by measuring OAL at the bullet tip. Measuring at the ogjive is more accurate, but factory rifles are not good enough to notice.

 

[fguffey]

Old dog man, I am in Texas, you are in Texas, what is the chance we are neighbors?

Anyhow, I am surrounded with a very talented group of builders, collectors and recourse types, average age 70+, rather than respond with ‘everything they know about a subject’ they ask ‘HOW’?

I was looking for a bargain, a owner of an exotic rifle with a chamber needing the length of the chamber checked was turned down, the smith informed the owner he did not have a head space gage for that chamber, I did not get involved. After the customer left I informed my friend I can check head space (chamber length) on any chamber without a head space gage, and he asked “HOW"?” Then I said at least two different ways. I explained starting with the premise he could not check the length of the chamber because we both know the head space gage would allow the bolt to close and the no go-gage would not indicate the length of the chamber in thousandths. The chances of someone walking in with a chamber he does not have a gage for is rare, the chance of needing that gage again would be more rare, so with additional time chamber length can be checked, dies? Between the four of us there is not much chance we can be missed.

F. Guffey

 

[Old Dog Man]

I'm located in Texas City south of Houston, I just retired from gunsmithing July 1st and started working on the bullet seating depth guages with my B_I_L to have something to do to keepp from getting bored. Al

 

[Old Dog Man]

Bullet Seating Depth Tool

OK took somemore pics and will give it another try to download them. It worked,( i'm no computer whiz). In the first pic is the case guage that seats a bullet to rifling, an allen wrench tool and the bullet seating guage. Pic #2 is showing case guage with bullet in bullet seating guage ready for checking length. Pic #3 shows a loaded round ready to check the bullet seating depth. Pic #4 shows how all the measurements are taken. The top plate is calibre specific, the bottom plate will work on all calibres with the same rim dia. the case guage has a tube that runs up through the case to prevent the bullet from falling inside the case. The rod inside that tube pushes the bullet against the rifling, and is locked in place so measurement is not lost if bullet sticks in rifling. With a little practice you get a feel for it and don't push too hard and stick the bullet. Hope the pics help, it's pretty straight forward and we've worked very hard to make an accurate and repeatable guage. It's called Accu-Set Tool, thanks for the responce and we are getting some out in other areas to be tested. Al

 

[Old Dog Man]

Bullet Seating Depth Tool

Also forgot to mention all top plates will interchange with any bottom plate so you can get a top plate seperate and load for different bullet dia.'s with same rim dia.. Getting them to interchange, and work properly is a feature we wanted to offer. Thank you all for your patience on the pics. Al

 

[fguffey]

Old dog man,

“so we think it's time to spread out to other's and see what you think”

Again, I am the fan of transfers, standards and I verify, as to “----- what you think” ? My opinion, when the bolt closes the chamber gets dark for most, in an attempt to shed light on something they can not see they pile up the tools. I drill the flash hole/primer pocket to a diameter grater than a cleaning rod, size the case, seat ‘the 'bullet’ chamber then push the bullet out of the case with the cleaning rod until it stops against the rifling, in the process I do not shred the neck of the case, I want all the bullet hold I can get.

After removing the case from the chamber I use it as a transfer, I transfer the chamber dimensions to the seating die by adjusting the seating die to the transfer.

I started making tools back in the mid 70s, there was a problem with machine shop practices, I gave a tool to a machine shop owner/machinist, thinking he could sell thousands of him he demonstrated the use to other machine shop operators, the conclusion, it took too much time to complete the job correctly, seems all could find time to do it over but not enough time to do it correctly the first time.

The same tool could replace the tools used by reloaders today, I have used the tool when purchasing cases from a firing range. My favorite cases are cases fired in trashy old chambers, moving the shoulder back??? is a mindless operation, moving ??? the shoulder forward ??? requires firing by reloaders.

If I can help let me know.

I would suggest eMail.

F. Guffey

 

[Old Dog Man]

Parker we can make what you need, contact me at ([email protected]) and we can go from there. Al

 

[Old Dog Man]

fguffy- we are doing something similar to what you do except we use a case that the neck has been opened up where the bullet will just move forward when pushed by a small rod inside the tube soldered into the case. There is a set screw in the tube to lock it in place so you don't lose your measurement. I know what your talking about making it right the first time, I have been a machinist and have made all the parts to a close tolarance so the can be swaped out if something get's damaged and the original readings will not be effected. Such as your throat errosion depth, it takes a steady hand and lots of experiance along with trial and error process to produce these guage so they give repeatable readings within limits. Somethings can't be overcome no matter how good the guage is because of outside factors, such as throat errosion, bad headspacing, a persons inability to understand what to do. Most reloaders can get a grasp of what the guage will do without any problems, it's pretty straight forward and easy to use. Al

 

[fguffey]

“fguffy- we are doing something similar to what you do except we use a case that the neck has been opened up where the bullet will just move forward when pushed by a small rod inside the tube soldered into the case. There is a set screw in the tube to lock it in place so you don't lose your measurement. I know what your talking about making it right the first time, I have been a machinist and have made all the parts to a close tolerance so the can be swapped out if something get's damaged and the original readings will not be effected. Such as your throat erosion etc..”

Plans for tools designed to measure the length of the chamber from the bolt face??? to the riflings have been posted to the Internet for years, the plans I have seen that were part of the ‘lost archives’ used a flexible cable with a speedometer cable and wing nut. The effort was made to get around the modified case used by Sinclair/Hornady @ $5.00 each.

Then there are other ways to accomplish the results.

Anyhow, good luck.

F. Guffey

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

so it's a homemade copy of widely available tools

cool