lonnngggg jump

[cracker]

has anyone had great results with a long jump to the lands. I reloaded some 35 grain bergers with a col of 2.224 and have shot the best group ever out of my cz 527 varminter. would there be a reason to not have such a big jump to the rifling if it produces the best groups. I was thinking maybe it would wear the throat out faster. this load was with 27 grains of h4895 hornady brass and cci 450 primers. brass trimmed to 1.84. would love your opions on this.
Sportingly
Cracker

[skipper]

I tried an experiment back when I first got my XR-100. I loaded varying lengths in .005" increments all the way out to touching the lands. I thought the closer I got to the lands the better the groups would be. Boy was I wrong. I found that an OAL (base to tip) of 2.255 with very little neck tension produced the tightest groups in that rifle. I can't explain why, it just did. I won't argue with the results, though.

On the other hand, I now have my custom built Panda action, Lilja barreled rifle and it likes the bullets jammed into the lands .015" with a lot of neck tension. A rifle likes what it likes. In a factory rifle, the .204 Ruger seems to tolerate a good running start at the lands. It's a good thing since there isn't much chance in loading to the lands with any bullet left in the case.

When your barrel shoots out, I would highly suggest you rebarrel with a match quality barrel chambered so you can load into the lands. For now, do the same experiment I did and settle on where the rifle likes the bullets seated. If your experiment goes like mine, you will probably have plenty of bullet left in the case. Good Luck.

[Silverfox]

I never attempted to seat bullets so they touched the lands in my Savage 12VLP, not because I didn't think about it, but because when I used my Stoney Point tool for measuring OAL and/or comparator length, the throat was waaaay too long for me to seat bullets touching the lands. There wouldn't have been enough bullet in the neck of the casing to keep the bullet in the casing, especially with bullets that have a boattail. I found out, the same as skipper, that the accuracy didn't suffer by having the bullets seated so there was a loooong jump to the lands.

If I remember right, when I first used my Sinclair chamber measuring gage, I got a reading of 1.877" so I have a lot of freebore. I do seat my bullets so the OAL is as long as possible, but yet the loaded rounds fit in the magazine with a tiny bit of room to spare. I like to have approximately 2/3 of a caliber of the shank of the bullet in contact with the inside of the casing neck. My 39 gr. Sierra OAL is 2.389" to 2.392". The .003" difference is due to the varying lengths of the bullets from base to tip. My 40 gr. Nosler BT OAL measurement is 2.390" to 2.393".

When I was shooting a lot of 32 gr. V-Max handloads I had the OAL right around 2.345". I was getting pretty fair accuracy, but my load was HOT!!!! I was getting right around 4,300 fps the last time I ran that load over the chronograph. That's way too hot, so I dropped my charge back to 28.5 gr. of H4895 and settled on a new OAL of 2.3850". The muzzle velocity of that load was right around 4,170 fps. However, I don't shoot the 32 gr. bullets any longer. I am using the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKings and the 40 gr. Nosler BTs. I found that the actual in-the-field wind deflection was way too much with the lighter weight 32 grainers. The 39 gr. and 40 gr. bullets seem to fight the wind much better than the 32 gr. bullets. JMHO

When I rebarrel, I will try to find a reamer with little or no freebore and a much tighter neck than the factory chamber. I don't want to have to turn necks on my casings, but might wind up doing some touchup turning. If I'm neck turning that means I'm not out in the field hunting!!!