Seatng depth on remington 700P

[Jdscada]

Have a remington 700P that I am fixing to reload for, my hornady/Stoneypoint modified case is coming in tomorrow so I can find the OAL on this gun and I'm wondering if anyone has worked with this particular model and if they tested out different seating depths to get an idea. I have read here and there that depends on bullet, I will be reloading with sierra 168g hpbt mk and probably IMR 4831. I read that sierra's like to be off the lands quite a bit, just trying to get some input from you guys. I realize that every gun is different but just to save some guess work after finding OAL. I also read that some of these have such deep throats that if you find OAL, and try to be too close to lands, that shells might not feed out of rifle's magazine, is this true?

This is in.308

 

[Blue68f100]

You posted this in the Gunsmithing threads and not the reloading.

All guns are different when it comes to OAL that it likes. You will find most all high quality ammo shoots good and it's OAL is shorter than SAMMI Specs. The first thing I do is shoot factory ammo to get a base line for what the gun will do. Then I determine the MAX OAL for the bullet I'm gong to use. From there I start my load development, within spec for OAL. The last tweak is with OAL and that's only after I have found the load sweet spot. In a lot of guns loading close to the lands makes no difference, your gun will tell you what it likes. On my 700BDL Rem 7mm Mag, I'm shooting max SAMMI spec, it will shoot one ragged hole at 100yrds like this with is good enough for a hunting rifle. I never had a place where I could shoot it out to 300 to see what it would actually do. I'm using Sierra 160gr MatchKing bullets.

 

[MtnCreek]

I will be reloading with sierra 168g hpbt mk and probably IMR 4831.

300 win mag?

 

[Jdscada]

308, sorry, thought I mentioned that......my bad

 

[MtnCreek]

You should look for a faster powder. Varget or H4895 would be about right. If you ask a Mod to move this to Reloading you may get a little more help.

 

[rcmodel]

IMR 4831

Won't work in .308.

Way too slow burning as MtnCreek said.

Hodgdon doesn't even list it's use in .308 with 168 grain bullets.


You can find your lands / seating depth with nothing more then a birthday candle or magic marker.

Seat a bullet real long.
Color or smoke the bullet.
Try to chamber it.

If the rifling rubs the soot or marker off it is hitting the lands.

Keep seating shorter and repete until it doesn't.

It is just as accurate a method, maybe moreso, as a Stony Point, and way cheaper!

Or, you can seat to a standard length of 2.800" and call it good enough for factory match ammo. And that is pretty hard to beat with handloads.

rc