OzFclass

hi all,
usually I can find the lands, and seat the bullets near them, and work from there, but I'm playing with a stock standard Remington 700police, in 308.
I've done the usual 'find the lands' trick with seating bullets at various depths, and am not getting to the lands at all with my 155gr HBC's or 155gr nosler cc's.
I'm at the point where the projectiles are only in the case mouth by 0.5mm, yet they're not kissing the lands yet.
if I load my bullets, chasing the lands, so the projectile is only in the case neck by about 20thou, am I better off going the other way & seating the projectiles deeper into the neck, in the chance that it will keep the projectiles better aligned with the bore?
I neck size only my cases, not f-length size.
this is the first rifle I've had this problem with, all others I've been able to find the lands etc etc.

Hi mate , for some reason Remington seem to have a lot of free bore in there factory rifles . Mine was a 20" tactical and mag depth from memory with lap scenners had over 140 thou to the lands . It didn't seem to make too much difference in accuracy though. Another solution is get it re chambered with a Palma .308 win style reamer and then re head spaced by a good gunsmith!

The Remington barrel that I had was very accurate and it didn't walk when it heated up but 20" was too short and 2695 Fps for a 155 was too slow to keep up with wind reading against 3000 Fps competitors. With 155 laps ( which are illegal in standard ,) did find the lands .

But 20 thou in the neck does sound like stretching the friendship.

I think a re chamber or if u can afford it a re barrel in a Maddco or any off the other quality barrel makers around would be a great investment!
Regards Graham Sells.

thanks plumbs.
would that also explain my slightly lower velocity than I hoped for? (from a 26" barrel)
my pet load, although mild is 45gr of 2208, with 155hbc's, travelling @ 2730.
my other load is 46gr with nosler 155 cc's, doing approx. 2780.
I have got many a good group with it, I'm just trying to help eliminate the odd strange flyer.
edit; I did just find the lands, with my sierra 168smk.
its ridiculously long, with a 168smk in the case by about 1mm (35 to 40 thou).
this means i'll never get the 155's to seat in the shell at all plus kiss the lands.
oh well, you might be right, either re-chamber, better still, re-barrel.

I always load to the lands as well but have a SAKO 75 which is the same deal as your Remy. Projectiles only just seated in the cases. Trouble is you only have to drop one of them and the rule of thumb is the projectile end hits the ground first and you end up with a badly misaligned projectile. Try loading to mag length - yeh I know massive jump, but you may be pleasantly surprised. Better than rushing straight in to rebarreling or taking up.

That does seem slow ! Out of a 26" Lilya barrel I was getting 2935 with Hbc's .46.0 gr 2208.

I think it's pretty normal for factory rifles to have long free bore and fast twists so they can accommodate all factory ammo including heavier longer projectiles. My first maddco was exactly as you describe and I was unable to touch with any of the 155s. It was a little strange as it was a 1:14 so anything hevier than a 155 would probably been unstable. Maybe it was a short range bench rest barrel. I was very satasfied with how it shot with a large jump. For what's it's worth I would recommend seating it deeper (say around the 0.1" or deeper) and looking for a good load there. If you are neck sizing only then your run out should be low but it's good to check a few fired and sized cases to make sure. Let us know how you go.

shooter mcreid wrote: Let us know how you go.

will do.
i does shoot 'ok', but i was just looking for an improvement.
it's getting a 6.5x47 barrel soon so i'm not loosing any sleep over it.

I would suggest a stoney point OAL gauge then you can measure it properly

Most factory/production type guns use what is called a production chamber. This chamber is usually looser/bigger than even a what we call a SAAMI min. spec. chamber. You buy a factory gun you get what you get.

The barrel being fast or slow. That could just be the individuality of the barrel.

Best suggestion if you want to keep shooting the factory barrel is to have it set back and rechambered is about all you can do.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels