published COL

[prs]

I was working with Lyman 452460 in Starline and WW brass. Data from Lyman CAST BULLET HANDBOOK 4th Edition. This source states the OAL as 1.161". I balked at that. 1.172" was as short as I would go since I did not want the shoulder of this SWC to be recessed below the case mouth. The 1.172" OAL just barely has some of the boolit's shoulder exposed above the taper crimped case mouth. Function over form and deciding that going a bit long should be safe pressure wise as contrasted to seating deeper and further getting good "plunk" test in my barrels and Wilson guage; I ran 200 rounds with WW primers, 5g Red Dot, and NRA 50:50. Shot these at large CAS type steel targets using Ruger SR1911 Commander with Ruger, MetGar, and Wilson Combat 7 rnd magazines. Nice comfy loading, apparently very accurate, no leading, pretty smokey, fairly dirty at clean-up time.

But, still curious about Lyman's seeming too short of an OAL.

prs

[RobS]

What is your brass length? Trim length is .898 IIRC.

[MtGun44]

Molds vary, brass varies, chambers vary. The only value at all for book OAL is to give you
a reference for combustion chamber size. If you are going to put the base of YOUR boolit
much lower into the case than the load book, you should reduce the charge a bit. If you
are going to put the base of your boolit significantly higher in the case than the load book,
then you may get away with a bit more powder.

Feeding and such are controlled by your mags, mold and barrel throat - OAL must be adjusted
to keep these things satisfied. Don't get too wrapped around the axle about load book OAL
values, a brief look to make sure you are not raising pressures and then set to match your
chamber.

Bill

[44man]

Fit to your gun and load work. Forget those book figures.
The very least thing to look at is OAL.

[prs]

Thanks guys, and I got a nice informative PM on this too. I am away from loading area now, will check brass length again later. I did check that early on and recall my brass to be less than the max dimension given by Lyman. My Starline and Winchester cases are very well used, but I had some brand spanky new Remmingon cases that are EXACTLY the same length as these old warriors.

I did pretty much as 44man and others stated, I loaded to show just a tiny margin of lead above the crimped case mouth and verified its fit. I could even go a bit longer and keep the fit in my two barrels and the magizines have plenty of room for length given this boolit.

I understand the important variable is internal "combustion chamber" room and this is a load I worked up to before running off a whole batch. No signs of excess pressure. I am going no higher as the recoil is just right for me and impact is right on with aim and I am not going after elephants ;-)

prs

[RobS]

Yep.........sounds good. I use boolits that are not in reloading books so I load to a COAL that works for my firearm and then work up loads while looking for accuracy.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I don't measure COL when loading 452460s or HG #68 clones. I set the shoulder to be about 1/32 of an inch (alternate measurements: 0.5 mm, the thickness of my thumbnail) forward of the case mouth. That seems to work just fine for any brass I buy or find with no need to trim.

You already know that with the 452460, being a stubby SWC, there's plenty of room in the magazine for any COL that you'll use.

Another exercise that might be helpful to you is this: make dummy rounds using one case with max length and one with min length. Set up your seater to seat the boolit flush with the case mouth in the max length case. Seat a boolit in the min length case with the seater die set up that way. Verify chambering via the plunk test.

I have shot a lot of these boolits with anywhere from 4.0 to 5.0 Bullseye and the boolit lubed with Carnauba Red. I could go up to about 600 rounds before my Series 80 gummed up enough to impair cycling. I also shoot that boolit over American Select.