I know what OAL stands for but is it a minimum, maximum or exact measurement?
I know what OAL stands for but is it a minimum, maximum or exact measurement?
Over-All is what ever the over all lenght it is. ??
If you mean, is the listed book OAL fixed in stone, no. All they give us is the length they used to develop the listed data. When I stated reloading few manuals gave any OAL at all and quite a few authoritative sources still don't.
It’s the maximum length of the case and/or total round.
I have included a link where this is explained.
http://www.larrywillis.com/OAL.html
Personally I check my gun chambers as a reference per gun, and let the books/manuals guide me (not the other way around). But when you have gun that has a magazine than the magazine is your reference (as explained in the mentioned internet page).
Peter (Stampede)
Over 27 years experience reloading ammo, specialy with VithaVuori powders and black powder ammo.
I frequently reload: .45ACP / .44MAG / .357MAG / .357 Maximum / .38 Special / .45-70 / .45-120 / .50-70 / .50-110 / 12,7x44R (and similar European obsolete BP ammo)/ .30-30Win / .223Rem / .38-40 / .44-40 / .300 Win Mag / 7x64 Brenneke (and similar European Rifles/ 9mm / My personal favorites: Freedom Arms revolvers, Winchester, Sharps and Remington rifles (produced before 1900).
If you intend to feed from the magazine or en bloc clip you will need to use the standard overall length.
If you plan on single loading or have a custom rifle with a long magazine you may want to increase your OAL to help decrease the freebore your bullet must travel to engage the lands.
If you intend to do this you will need the proper gauge set, one is available from Hornady, but there are others.
As I remember, back in the Jurassic Era (around the '70s), reloading manuals very, very seldom even referenced COL. Also, as far as I know, the industry has always referred to it as COL and back in the day, it was entirely up to the handloader to establish the COL for his rounds in his gun(s).
Now, it seems that new reloaders want everything specified, to the point they don't even want to work up a load any more. They expect to be handed a load that will do exactly what they want without effort.
The criticality of case expansion and COL for producing rounds that will perform best in your gun(s) seems to be "lost knowledge."
Why handload if you don't want to do the work to get the result you want?
From the questions on the forums, many people seem to skip the chapters on case expansion, taper crimp, and COL and just rush to the loading data. They don't even see the need for the seating stem to be compatible with the ogive or meplat of the bullet (if they even know what those terms mean).
Sorry, feeling crotchety today.
if you see load data listed with an OAL, you should consider that to be the minimum length at which that load should be used. The deeper you seat a bullet, the higher the pressure goes.
Seating a bullet considerably deeper than the OAL the load was listed for could result in dangerous pressures.
Reloading Data Project - (in retirement)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/reloadersrfrnce/
Hello Metweezer,
I went to the shooting range today and did some testing with the OAL for you.
Hereby two pictures, no: 1 is a picture with my .300WM rounds. The round on the left as the bullet seated at OAL mentioned by the SAAMI (and reloading manuals). The round at the right is the bullet seated what my rifle actually needs. Note the extreme seating differences, the “official” left one is much lower.
To be more graphic see the second picture. These shots were all fired on a 300meter range, the card on the left has the best results as you can see. This group was shot with the “higher” seated bullets. The one on the right are the rounds conform the SAAMI. Please note, the loads (all 40 rounds) were 100% identical except for the seating depth (OAL). These shots were fired with the same rifle at the same day and by the same person (me).
So to answer: is this an exact (the official) measurement…. No, at least not what my experiences are.
Thanks all so to: Ammosmith.com / http://www.ammosmith.com/rifle-reloa...ngth-gauge.php
Peter (Stampede)
Last edited by Stampede; 08-08-2011 at 01:31 PM.
Over 27 years experience reloading ammo, specialy with VithaVuori powders and black powder ammo.
I frequently reload: .45ACP / .44MAG / .357MAG / .357 Maximum / .38 Special / .45-70 / .45-120 / .50-70 / .50-110 / 12,7x44R (and similar European obsolete BP ammo)/ .30-30Win / .223Rem / .38-40 / .44-40 / .300 Win Mag / 7x64 Brenneke (and similar European Rifles/ 9mm / My personal favorites: Freedom Arms revolvers, Winchester, Sharps and Remington rifles (produced before 1900).
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |