Quote:
Originally Posted by Groundhogger
I'm not an expert in reloading (or anything else, if you ask my wife) but my answer to that question would be "maybe". Unless you know exactly what powder was used in the factory ammo, what bullet, etc...there will be some guessing. You can narrow that down by Google research of course, but when I've tried to do the same, I measure the O/A length of the finished factory ammo (check a full box, determine average), pull the bullet and weigh it...inspect (=try to determine) the powder and weigh the charge.
If possible, I then try to determine best O/A finished length of the ammo I want to make, keeping the bullet about .010" off the lands. Check the load data and see how the factory charge compares...then tweak +/- if there is room.
I think the biggest eye-opener in really looking closely at factory ammo (and it's Hornady I'm normally looking at) is how much it actually varies in length from round-to-round. I can measure 20 in a box and get at least 6-8 different lengths. Not huge variations mind you, but way MORE variation than the ones I hand load. If I get variations greater than .002"-.005" I stop everything and try to figure out why. I mostly can, but not every time.
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Are you measuring COAL from the tip or from the ogive where the seating die pushes on the bullet? Don't chase the tips, they are variable in any bullets I've used. The box of Hornady ELD-X I'm loading right now has a 7 thou variance in bullet lengths giving a 7 thou variance in COALs without changing seating die settings.