How critical is OAL to accuracy?

[Jimlakeside]

I got to thinking and realized that I am casting and loading my my own boolits with little concern for OAL. As long as they feed in my 9MM guns, I haven't paid much attention to OAL. Any one have any thoughts about how critical (if any) OAL is to accuracy in pistols? :confused:

Thanks.

[docone31]

For what I load, I set my castings to what works. I take a case, casting, slip em together and see if it works in all my .45s. Same with my 9mm. I have done that for years.
Many times, I have set to OAL and had it jam in the bore.
I like a reasonable tight fit. I do want to use loads in the other, rather than having seperate boxes for each.

[felix]

Auto guns require feeding reliability formost. Accuracy secondary. Therefore, use different boolit designs to alter accuracy, keeping reliability constant. Altering powder and primer is the only choice for single boolit design. ... felix

[mike in co]

I got to thinking and realized that I am casting and loading my my own boolits with little concern for OAL. As long as they feed in my 9MM guns, I haven't paid much attention to OAL. Any one have any thoughts about how critical (if any) OAL is to accuracy in pistols? :confused:

Thanks.
you are talking a given oal, not variation in oal ?

the only way to know is to try different lengths and see what happens, just remember that as you change length, you may need to adjust the powder charge. if i remember correctly, in a 9mm a 10m thou oal change can change pressure 2kpsi.

i've never tried to see just how well my nines shoot...they shoot well enough...touching shots at 15 yds is good to go. since i shoot in competiton its been more about consistancies then min group size.

mike in co

[felix]

Perfectly said, Mike. ... felix

[HATCH]

OAL can affect accuracy.
I read that you want the least amount of gap between the bullet and the start of the grooves.
But with automatics you have the issue of feeding and jamming