Tod Hendricks
Gold $$ Contributor
Sorry in advance for another finding the lands post.
Finding the lands debate has been hashed so many times. So why the hell am I posting this. Well, I think a lot of the debate comes from shooters adapting their lands finding methods for their type of shooting and specific cartridge, it works for them, that’s great. But maybe that is not the best for me and my cartridge, bullet and discipline.
This is what works for ME and my 284-win, 180 hybrid shooting multi day 400+ rounds F-Class matches.
You either touch or don’t touch, you don’t get a little bit pregnant! A throat can grow quite a bit in 400 rounds of a F-Class match, or very little. I usually seat long when I travel, with my finding the lands method I could very easily test and adjust each evening at a match if I wanted to touch (I don't, I push em to the same length each evening). I’ve tested shooting at various lengths of touch, and some have shot very well. The two reasons I don’t touch, #1 even if you use sufficient neck tension you run the risk of the OAL changing when you cam in, #2 I can usually find a jump that works just as good or better and for me is more forgiving.
Before I talk about my lands method, I FL size every time, and not just a little, cases come out of a chamber with different dimensions, I make sure they all get squeezed, this allows me to use the same brass in every barrel, I actually run two different reamers in 284 and my brass goes back and forth between them (don't ask, everyone has to make life a little difficult once in a while!). I make my dies and sand/polish them to size. I bring this up because when I test for touch it’s with a sized case that will fall out of a chamber with ease.
OK, I know I am going to jump, to me that means no touch. I use two methods simultaneous, and you can do this with your first round of loaded ammo out of the press if you want, or use a dummy round for the first couple times.
Remove bolt, use a ¼” wooden dowel longer than the barrel (cleaning rod works but dowel is more forgiving on the crown) inserted in the muzzle, push a long loaded case or dummy round (long enough to touch the lands) into chamber with an ECI from behind (any plastic or wood pusher will work), push against the bullet with the dowel, its very easy to feel it stick, you can jockey it back and forth, using the press and micrometer top on seating die keep pushing the bullet down, eventually you will get to the point where you can jockey the case back and forth and feel no resistance or sticking. At this point I push the case in with the ECI and then tip the barrel up, if the case does not fall out, something is holding it which means its touching. It should only take a couple more thou to get it to free fall.
For me the last part is just a formality, through my testing I’ve found the first 10 thou of jump has a narrower tune window. This is very easy to test.
After I set my desired OAL, I don’t really worry about the touch number (which is almost always between 10 and 30 thou. from free fall on a barrel with 100 to 200 rounds), as the barrel ages I retest around the original OAL and surprisingly the tune number/OAL doesn’t change much, if at all. Setting my desired OAL is another subject.
If you want to test this, take your free fall number, load three 3 shot groups, +.005 .000 and -.005, you can see a difference at 100 yards, but 500 or 600 is better for testing.
Finding the lands debate has been hashed so many times. So why the hell am I posting this. Well, I think a lot of the debate comes from shooters adapting their lands finding methods for their type of shooting and specific cartridge, it works for them, that’s great. But maybe that is not the best for me and my cartridge, bullet and discipline.
This is what works for ME and my 284-win, 180 hybrid shooting multi day 400+ rounds F-Class matches.
You either touch or don’t touch, you don’t get a little bit pregnant! A throat can grow quite a bit in 400 rounds of a F-Class match, or very little. I usually seat long when I travel, with my finding the lands method I could very easily test and adjust each evening at a match if I wanted to touch (I don't, I push em to the same length each evening). I’ve tested shooting at various lengths of touch, and some have shot very well. The two reasons I don’t touch, #1 even if you use sufficient neck tension you run the risk of the OAL changing when you cam in, #2 I can usually find a jump that works just as good or better and for me is more forgiving.
Before I talk about my lands method, I FL size every time, and not just a little, cases come out of a chamber with different dimensions, I make sure they all get squeezed, this allows me to use the same brass in every barrel, I actually run two different reamers in 284 and my brass goes back and forth between them (don't ask, everyone has to make life a little difficult once in a while!). I make my dies and sand/polish them to size. I bring this up because when I test for touch it’s with a sized case that will fall out of a chamber with ease.
OK, I know I am going to jump, to me that means no touch. I use two methods simultaneous, and you can do this with your first round of loaded ammo out of the press if you want, or use a dummy round for the first couple times.
Remove bolt, use a ¼” wooden dowel longer than the barrel (cleaning rod works but dowel is more forgiving on the crown) inserted in the muzzle, push a long loaded case or dummy round (long enough to touch the lands) into chamber with an ECI from behind (any plastic or wood pusher will work), push against the bullet with the dowel, its very easy to feel it stick, you can jockey it back and forth, using the press and micrometer top on seating die keep pushing the bullet down, eventually you will get to the point where you can jockey the case back and forth and feel no resistance or sticking. At this point I push the case in with the ECI and then tip the barrel up, if the case does not fall out, something is holding it which means its touching. It should only take a couple more thou to get it to free fall.
For me the last part is just a formality, through my testing I’ve found the first 10 thou of jump has a narrower tune window. This is very easy to test.
After I set my desired OAL, I don’t really worry about the touch number (which is almost always between 10 and 30 thou. from free fall on a barrel with 100 to 200 rounds), as the barrel ages I retest around the original OAL and surprisingly the tune number/OAL doesn’t change much, if at all. Setting my desired OAL is another subject.
If you want to test this, take your free fall number, load three 3 shot groups, +.005 .000 and -.005, you can see a difference at 100 yards, but 500 or 600 is better for testing.
