Understanding what acronyms mean is important – especially in what we do. There appears to be a shifting meaning associated with COAL, either cartridge overall length or comparator overall length. Most all the time, the abbreviation COAL, means the length of a cartridge, given in inches, from the cartridge base to tip of bullet. Since we normally shoot bullets with a lot of real estate between the bearing surface and the tip, to factor out this variable, the distance from cartridge base to ogive is sometimes discussed as COAL. Not sure if COL (for comparator overall length) is a generally understood and valid acronym for base to ogive distance or not but COAL is almost universally understood as base to tip of bullet distance. Maybe OAL (for overall length) and COL are enough apart that a clear understanding of what is being discussed is possible without the next post inevitably being the question – is this measurement from base to tip or base to ogive? – whenever weird numbers for length are the subject. Just my 2¢ worth.
Ken
Ken
