Help with OAL/seating depth for 308 load using pulled bullets?

[AR15barrels]

Thanks. Im not concerned about feeding issues for the shorter COL/deeper seated bullets. Im concerned about being over pressure. But sounds like that might not be an issue?

I have sorted the bullets by weight, cannelure height, length and shape as much as possible. Looks like most of them have cannelures that match typical M80. But theres a couple hundred with higher cannelure. I want to use those up first.

At 42gr, you are below some starting loads with those bullets.
Seating those couple hundred down to around 2.7" will get you better velocity/pressure and you will still be quite low in pressure compared to real M80.
Until you were up around 45gr or more, you will not have an issue seating them deeper and lightly crimping into the cannelure.

Hodgdon publishes a Ramshot TAC load with 150fmjbt bullet seated at 2.735" OAL with charges from 42.4gr min to 47.1gr max.

 

[Tere_Hanges]

At 42gr, you are below some starting loads with those bullets.
Seating those couple hundred down to around 2.7" will get you better velocity/pressure and you will still be quite low in pressure compared to real M80.
Until you were up around 45gr or more, you will not have an issue seating them deeper and lightly crimping into the cannelure.

Hodgdon publishes a Ramshot TAC load with 150fmjbt bullet seated at 2.735" OAL with charges from 42.4gr min to 47.1gr max.

Shot my reloads today and Im satisfied. No issues at all. Ran great in both my M1A and Aero M5. Accuracy was comparable to military M80. The pic is at 100yds out of an Aero M5 18" stainless from a bipod. First 3 rounds out of the gun.

Just to recap, this load is 42.2 grains of Ramshot TAC, CCI 200 LRP, random 147gr pulled projectile, once fired Lake City brass, COL 2.78".

 

[M1A Rifleman]

I think I'm going to just load to 2.8" COL since that is COL for 7.62 NATO M80. These are just plinking rounds so all I care about is safety, not accuracy. I don't think I'll bother crimping them.

I have found the magazine to govern what your cartridge overall length is to be with an M1A.

However, you should confirm by measuring your chamber. Do this with a cleaning rod inserted in the bore with bolt closed, then again with a projectile seated and being held in place against the lands with an object. The difference in length measures would be the max cartridge length for that projectile.

Subtract 20 thousands off this difference would yield a safe overall length for reloading. But again, my experience is loading to this length prevents the cartridge fitting in the mag.

 

[hambam105]

Crimping .308 Winchester, aka 7.62X51mm.

A lot of you Reloaders, and you know who you are, tend to use range pick brass. OMG!

Well that's all fine. But....the brass thickness varies with range pickup brass. Therefor, a slight crimp on X case equates to a heavy crimp on Y case due to the difference in brass thickness between lots.

Remember, you are not the first guys using range pickups over the past 50 years. Crimping vs non crimping, yada yada, yada. Stay within the reloading data. Live and learn.

 

[skb720]

Dave Emary wrote a very good article on Guns & Ammo magazine last year discussing different case capacity of 308 brass by various manufacturers. Worth a read. Hornady reloading manual has separate load data sections for 308 Winchester, 308 Winchester Service Rifle (aka 7.62x51) and case capacity matters. One time I bought some off the shelf Made in Turkey 7.62x51 primed brass and the case capacity was very low and my usual load data wouldn't work, especially extruded powders such as IMR 4064.