Mosin 9130 Overall Length

[AZDesertRat]

I have a NOOB question that I am hoping you can answer for me. I just received the .303 185 gr. mold from Lee Precision, and I don't know how far to set the bullet into the case. My reloading manual says that OAL should be 3.037 but that would mean the bullet is only seated about 1/8 of an inch into the neck. Any help for a beginner would be greatly appreciated.

[Echo]

I believe the 3.037 OAL is a maximum measure. Seat a boolit in an un-sized case and chamber it to see where the barrel pushes the boolit back to. Seat a boolit in a sized case somewhat shorter (1/16", maybe) and see if the rifling engraves the boolit. If not, cool, try accuracy at that AOL. If it does engrave, seat a little deeper and try again. The rifle will tell you how deep to seat the boolits...

[AZDesertRat]

Thanks for the hint. I hadn't thought of using the rifle itself to help determine the length.:-D

[Nora]

My own personal preference is to not have less that the boolit diameter seated in the neck. With the exception of cases like the 300 Savage which aren't even as long as they are wide. Also, in your case, loading for an MN, if the round is to long to fit in the mag well, can easily be single shot. The extractor will have no problem closing over a round already in the chamber. Unlike those with a Mauser style claw extractor.

[jonk]

You might want to slug your bore too. That Lee mold works great in some of my Mosins that mic out at .310 or .311 but I've got a few that run up to .315... lead mess waiting to happen.

[swheeler]

AZDR; this works fairly well. Clean the rifle good, scrub throat area with brush and solvent and push a couple dry patches through to the muzzle. Put the bolt in the rifle and drop your cleaning rod in from the muzzle- no jag just the flat w/the female threads. With the rifle standing straight up between your knees put a small piece of masking tape around the rod flush with the muzzle. Remove the rod, remove the bolt, drop one of your sized/lubed bullets into the chamber, take the cleaning rod and gently seat the bare bullet into the throat, it'll stick there. Set the rifle muzzle up again and slowly lower the cleaning rod into the barrel, it will center/set on the tip of the bullet, put a small piece of masking tape around the cleaning rod/ flush with muzzle again, now use the rod to tap the bullet out. Take your calipers and measure from bottom to bottom of the masking tape, this is your COAL. Load a round to this lenghth, blacken the ogive with a magic marker, chamber the round and carefully withdraw, you will be able to see where rifling origin contacts ogive, alter as you see fit. Your coal will be between 2.8 and 2.9 with that bullet depending on your rifles throat and your mold-ymmv

Lee molds can be all over the place, I have 2 of the 185 gr you have, one cast a .297/8 nose, I lapped it to .301 for std 30 cals- sure wish I hadn't though, would have been about right for my K31. The other has been lapped too, to get a .305 nose for mn91/30 and a couple Argies. Best accuracy for me has been from briders with .303-.305 nose for the MN. .02

[StarMetal]

Make sure to check that completed round with the magazine to insure it will fit and feed from it.

Joe

[AZDesertRat]

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful information. I hope to use all of your advice tomorrow night and load a few rounds. AZrat