Posts: 120
Threads: 20
Joined: Mar 2017
Have recently sold a ruger ranch and have a bunch of ammo left
They are handloads at 2.265 with property full length sized brass
Being an Experienced handloader almost 20 years
I know thats every chamber is different
But to my Surprise these rounds wont fit in my new howa (had a felling that most Grendel chambers would be Relatively similar (how worng was i eh lol)
They had quite alot of jump in the ruger and were well under mag lenth in that gun
They are a very mild load so I have no problem seating them deaper
And shooting them
Interested to know what people have for oal with the 120gd in the howa mini i will work out my own based on my rifle but interested to know how much they vary rifle to rifle
Posts: 1,238
Threads: 51
Joined: Dec 2017
With my Howa 20 HB and 120 Gold Dots to jam.
2.404 COL
1.838 BTO
90 TNT
2.328 COL
123 ELD-M
2.385 COL
Posts: 4,287
Threads: 156
Joined: Jan 2017
You know, that thing "won't fit"... sometimes it is the shoulder, from one chamber to the next the actual shoulder length can differ. I had that issue in going from one rifle brand to another, bolt would not close on the round. solved it by re-sizing the brass down a couple more thou's.
Course you'd have to break down those loads all the way but you might check that.
"Down the floor, out the door, Go Brandon Go!!!!!"
Posts: 137
Threads: 22
Joined: Apr 2022
You could use a Body Die on the loaded rounds rather than taking the loads apart. I rebarreled a 223, and the new barrel had a tighter chamber. I had hundreds of rounds for Barrel 1 and didnt want to disassemble them. A Body Die let me bump the shoulder back just enough.
Posts: 120
Threads: 20
Joined: Mar 2017
grayfox Wrote:You know, that thing "won't fit"... sometimes it is the shoulder, from one chamber to the next the actual shoulder length can differ. I had that issue in going from one rifle brand to another, bolt would not close on the round. solved it by re-sizing the brass down a couple more thou's.
Course you'd have to break down those loads all the way but you might check that.
Yes fully aware of that gf
Its brand new brass that will fit unloaded
So definitely the oal or cbto just slightly too long as I can camber them if I really push them home
Ill probably just set them back.020 and they will be fine
Posts: 4,287
Threads: 156
Joined: Jan 2017
Hope that was a typo... it might only take 2 thou (.002), do you have a case length gauge... measure a successfully fired case for shoulder datum then down 2-4 thou is your typical resizing setting. I do 4-5 b/c I have more than one and wanted 1 setting for all. I had one with a really long chamber but got rid of it, too much case stretch for my taste.
"Down the floor, out the door, Go Brandon Go!!!!!"
Posts: 120
Threads: 20
Joined: Mar 2017
grayfox Wrote:Hope that was a typo... it might only take 2 thou (.002), do you have a case length gauge... measure a successfully fired case for shoulder datum then down 2-4 thou is your typical resizing setting. I do 4-5 b/c I have more than one and wanted 1 setting for all. I had one with a really long chamber but got rid of it, too much case stretch for my taste.
There is no issue with the case shoulder
The cases fit fine
Definitely the overall length as its the projectile jaming in the lans I can get them to chamber if I force them a little
So bumping the projectiles .020 deeper will sort them out would end up with something like 10-15 thou jump which is perfectly Acceptable
Was only asking what peoples oal is out of interest its always interesting to know others numbers just as a Comparison
My rifle is still a few weeks away from being shootable
I have a stock on the way from boyeds
But due to new laws in both Countries they have to go though an importer now and current wait is 10-12 weeks
I ordered it about 3 weeks ago so still atlest another 2 months away
So ive just got a barreled action in the safe with no stock at the moment
Posts: 4,287
Threads: 156
Joined: Jan 2017
Ok, that makes sense...
I looked up my howa data, I didn't shoot a lot of the gold dots (BC 0.457) but do have 1 line item in my data for them, I used 2.280" for an OAL.
I haven't loaded them since then (~ 2yrs ago) b/c they are OOS and I don't have a lot of them on hand.
"Down the floor, out the door, Go Brandon Go!!!!!"
Posts: 206
Threads: 3
Joined: Nov 2015
I dont have my load books handy.
But with the howa I had and my 3 cz grendels. The 120 gold dot nearly falls out the modified case before it hits the lands.
If your throat and mag allows the 120 gold dot to run a length of 2.330 ish max. Varget is the money maker powder. I'm talking ridiculously low sd/es numbers and speeds faster then cfe223 and leverevolution can make.
