COAL and Bullet Ogive

[TomZ]

I see that there are a large number of articles and even measuring tools/gauges designed to identify the particular COAL based on a particular bullet. It would seem to me that a better and more universal measurement would be the distance from the breach face to the lands. Then bullet seating would be based on the distance from the bullet ogive to the lands. I suspect that I am missing something and if so would appreciate the correction in my point-of-view.

thanks

tz

 

[ztargetshooter]

Your idea can't be universal because the distance from breech face to lands changes from rifle to rifle. It's common for people trying to load accurate ammunition to load a bullet that touches the lands but that round will likely be longer than SAAMI spec and will not feed in all rifles of that caliber. A .223 round built to touch the lands is going to be too long to fit in an ar15 magazine. Also, that round won't necessarily touch the lands in your next rifle (or it could be jammed in to far).

 

[TomZ]

I should have been more specific. Universal in relation to a single (bolt action) rifle as the measurement applies to all bullet lengths.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I measure the breechface-to-lands distance for every bullet I load for every rifle.

http://www.massreloading.com/rifleCOAL.html

 

[dhuze]

I use this.

http://www.hornady.com/store/Lock-N-Load-Comparator-Set-Body-and-14-Bullet-Inserts-1-Each/