Pondering the OAL of my K98

[c141b]

I started out with a cast bullet sized to .324 with the LEE c324-175-1r. Using a cleaning rod to check boolit to lands ck,then a ck to the bolt. Checking many boolit I would get all kinds of reading,then I went to LOWS and bought a steel rod, still had multiple reading then I put a unfired .22 shell case on the tip (after I cleaned out the primer) and finely started to get readings that were consistent, then I would do a boolit push back (boolit in case, chamber the round then check boolit push back from lands). Then I got an idea, I did a rod ck then with the same boolit, a push back, I did it with 4 boolits and each boolit had a different reading, it appears that each boolit drops from the same mole slightly different.

In conclusion 1. The steel rod with the .22 shell case gave me better consitent reading.
2. The boolit push back gave me tighter reading.
3. The rod ck readings were allways larger than the push back readings.
4. I now need to recheck my other boolit calibers with more than 1 boolit reading.

Now for the questions about my K98 boolit? Lyman cast bullet handbook has a OAL with the LEE c324-175-1r at 2.830. My average for touching the Lands using the rod ck is 2.904 and for the push back is 2.895 this would give me a .065 jump gap for my boolit using my push back average, does Lyman use a large saftey margin of error? I know that each rifle is different.What is a good safety of margin for a boolit jump gap?

[Dusty Bannister]

Looks to me like you still have lube stuck on the bullet and the bullet is not straight in the case, or that is camera distortion. Are you getting various readings because the nose is contacting the lands or because the first band is contacting the lands?

[c141b]

the picture of the rod and the round were there to show what i meant when i wrote ( rod ck and push back) the round was set with a Lee die to the specifications of the Lyman cast bullet handbook of 2.830 which is .065 below the lands of the rifle. One of my questions was, is Lyman OAL specifications way on the safe side, and what would be a good gap for a cast bullet.

[c141b]

I just thought of my cheap china bore scope that I had, so I stuck it down the barrel and watch on video as I pushed a boolit up to the lands and it seated perfectly, so I took it out and put it in a case and did a push back on it and it went in and seated. Then I closed the bolt (#1) it read 2.907 You can see the boolit touching the lands. Took it out and used my Lee die to seat it to 2.865 (#2). and you can see the boolit just off the lands. The video has given me more confidence in the push back method.