Restriction on seating depths due to magazine length

[Kramed]

Hi all, forgive my ignorance but I'm brand spanking new to reloading. Everything I have learnt so far is from watching hrs of you tube and reading countless web pages. Two days ago I took the plunge and loaded some test rounds. Results were pretty good apart from my most accurate load was only 2600 fps and I could only seat the bullet minimum 30 thou off the lands before I ran out of magazine. This I feel restricts any fine tuning and also further load developments seating closer to the lands unless I want to single shoot. Any ideas on how I may be able to overcome this at a minimal cost.
I'm shooting a left hand t3 hunter 7mm-08. My headspace clearance was 2thou CCI primer 40gr AR2208 and a nosler 140gr bst projectile. Target ranged at 100m and 4 shot group

 

[CaptainMal]

Welcome to you and your first post!

Assume that is a hole from bullets. Kind of hard for me to understand what I see. Reads like you have a handle on the issues of reloading when dealing with factory, magazine rifles.

The words "minimal cost"are relative. Some will believe that spending a couple thousand dollars to get another rifle with long box magazine to handle longer seating is "minimal". If you are not one of them, just chalk you experience up to education. Reads like your rifle shoots great if that's a one-hole group at 100M. I would kiss that rifle and hug it at night.

 

[Laurie]

Just shoot tangent ogive bullets (ie avoid VLDs and similar). Most such designs are very jump tolerant, so whether you end up jumping 20 or 50 thou' is neither here nor there in group size results.

 

[KMart]

You may be able to change to a different powder that is suitable to your caliber. Not all powders fill the case the same. That will require another load work up.

 

[Kramed]

Welcome to you and your first post!

Assume that is a hole from bullets. Kind of hard for me to understand what I see. Reads like you have a handle on the issues of reloading when dealing with factory, magazine rifles.

The words "minimal cost"are relative. Some will believe that spending a couple thousand dollars to get another rifle with long box magazine to handle longer seating is "minimal". If you are not one of them, just chalk you experience up to education. Reads like your rifle shoots great if that's a one-hole group at 100M. I would kiss that rifle and hug it at night.

Yes you're correct, that is a close up of the four bullet holes in the target. I have read that you can change your bolt stop out on the Tikkas and longer one in and swap the mag for the likes of a 270 magazine. Which is the kind of less expensive option I was looking for. Cheers for your input

You may be able to change to a different powder that is suitable to your caliber. Not all powders fill the case the same. That will require another load work up.

 

[Kramed]

Hi thanks for the response. Yes I am looking into some other powders. I'm thinking I may try the alliant RL 15 and see where that goes.

 

[Sniper338]

Look at different bullet designs, likw what was already said, could just be the bullet limiting you.

Its all addicting chasing perfection... read, research every topic, learn, ask questions!

 

[Kramed]

Just shoot tangent ogive bullets (ie avoid VLDs and similar). Most such designs are very jump tolerant, so whether you end up jumping 20 or 50 thou' is neither here nor there in group size results.

Cheers, I guess it's still early days yet and the research is half the fun. I know it's very Rifle dependant but are there any certain brands you would recommend.

 

[T-shooter]

What distance is this shot from? 100 yards?

 

[Kramed]

What distance is this shot from? 100 yards?

109 yards

 

[T-shooter]

109 yards

4 into almost the same hole is excellent. There isn't too much more to be had if you can repeat that at any time. For experimentation, you can load them one at a time directly into the chamber. As far as the velocity, the fastest rounds aren't always the most accurate. My .308 is happy at 2,575 with 168 grain bullets and likes them .025" off the lands. But every rifle is different.

 

[.22gongzilla]

Long bullets are aggravating but at least you can push one in the chamber manually for that all-important first shot, if you're hunting. Magazines not so important for range IMO

 

[expiper]

Hi thanks for the response. Yes I am looking into some other powders. I'm thinking I may try the alliant RL 15 and see where that goes.

good choice,,,I have seen excellent results with max loads of Rx-15 in this cal,,,and several others where appropriate,,,,Roger

 

[DaveTooley]

I would seat the bullets you're using out to touch the lands, single feed, and see if there's an improvement before wrenching on the rifle. Also as has been advised, find a bullet with a shorter ogive length.

 

[86alaskan]

since it's a tikka, the answer for longer length is very simple.... get a LA mag for the '06 class rounds. get the LA bolt stop or cut a notch from your SA bolt stop. that's it, now you can feed SA 7mm08 from a LA mag and seat the bullet out to your heart's content. I'm sure with that fix you could very easily jam the bullet and still have lots of mag room left. gunpartscorp.com may have just what you need if you want to pursue it.

 

[ebb]

You may be able to do a little grinding to the front center of the magazine and get enough clearance to touch the lands.

 

[BoydAllen]

There is an assumption here that may not be correct. In the past, I would have been right in there with you. If you look at articles on the Berger web site, you will eventually find one about finding seating depth for VLD bullets. I know that you are probably not shooting VLDs but no matter, I called Berger and asked if the method works with other types and the technician said that it does. The workup method is different than anything that I have ever read or heard of before. That is why I am bringing it up. Go read it....twice at least.

Next let me give you an example of an unexpected outcome that that should give all you short magazine hunters hope.

A friend built a custom varmint rifle for a specific bullet and use, blueprinted action, top barrel the works. He builds a lot of rifles. Anyway, after he had is load, a very accurate one with good velocity, he decided that because of what he was shooting it from that he wanted a muzzle brake on it. He makes very nice brakes from scratch, so that was not a problem. After the brake was installed, the rifle was completely out of tune. He liked the case fill, and the velocity, so he decided to see if he could get it back in tune using seating depth. Starting at touch, he shot two shot test groups,each on a separate small target, increasing jump by .010 for each successive test. When he got to a jump of .080 one bullet hole cut the other with impressive overlap. The rifle was a .222, the bullet was a 35 grain Nosler no lead Ballistic Tip. The powder was Xterminator, and the velocity was well over 3,600 fps. Later I loaned him some LT30 to try and that has turned out to be even better, adding significant velocity. HE retuned for that powder and I believe that it worked best with a .050 jump.

 

[Kramed]

I would seat the bullets you're using out to touch the lands, single feed, and see if there's an improvement before wrenching on the rifle. Also as has been advised, find a bullet with a shorter ogive length.

That's a good idea and at least I'll know if it is really going to make that much difference.

 

[Kramed]

There is an assumption here that may not be correct. In the past, I would have been right in there with you. If you look at articles on the Berger web site, you will eventually find one about finding seating depth for VLD bullets. I know that you are probably not shooting VLDs but no matter, I called Berger and asked if the method works with other types and the technician said that it does. The workup method is different than anything that I have ever read or heard of before. That is why I am bringing it up. Go read it....twice at least.

Next let me give you an example of an unexpected outcome that that should give all you short magazine hunters hope.

A friend built a custom varmint rifle for a specific bullet and use, blueprinted action, top barrel the works. He builds a lot of rifles. Anyway, after he had is load, a very accurate one with good velocity, he decided that because of what he was shooting it from that he wanted a muzzle brake on it. He makes very nice brakes from scratch, so that was not a problem. After the brake was installed, the rifle was completely out of tune. He liked the case fill, and the velocity, so he decided to see if he could get it back in tune using seating depth. Starting at touch, he shot two shot test groups,each on a separate small target, increasing jump by .010 for each successive test. When he got to a jump of .080 one bullet hole cut the other with impressive overlap. The rifle was a .222, the bullet was a 35 grain Nosler no lead Ballistic Tip. The powder was Xterminator, and the velocity was well over 3,600 fps. Later I loaned him some LT30 to try and that has turned out to be even better, adding significant velocity. HE retuned for that powder and I believe that it worked best with a .050 jump.

Thanks for your reply I'll have a browse through the Berger website now.

 

[Kramed]

since it's a tikka, the answer for longer length is very simple.... get a LA mag for the '06 class rounds. get the LA bolt stop or cut a notch from your SA bolt stop. that's it, now you can feed SA 7mm08 from a LA mag and seat the bullet out to your heart's content. I'm sure with that fix you could very easily jam the bullet and still have lots of mag room left. gunpartscorp.com may have just what you need if you want to pursue it.

Yes I've read about this option. Hopefully it is easy enough to get a left hand LA stop for my rifle if I do end up going down this road.