Just wanted to thank you again, I am 61 and just started reloading and your videos have helped me immensely. Just doing pistol calibers now, hope to do rifle soon. All done on a low cost Lee breech lock press. Hope Benny is well.

Lyman says soot a dummy round with a lighter or match and chamber the round. Keep adjusting until you see rifling marks, then back off. You can wipe the soot off between chamberings with a rag.

Sir…I’ve gotten into shooting/hunting later than most,so I’ve set myself a steep learning curve.I would like to thank you for your clear,concise and incredibly information filled presentations.You’ve helped me immensely and I look forward to your videos.Please keep up the good work.Thank You Brian..British Columbia Canada

This simple yet extremely accurate method is like finding a rare gold coin on your property. Thanks for teaching this. I've seen other reloaders showcase hundreds of dollars in measuring and calibration tools that the majority of us will never afford, (and they still don't build anything other than mediocre rounds). Just plain excellent information.

You have simplified what was a constant concern of mine. Everyone of your video’s expands my understanding that much better…..from one old cop to another, thanks.

I have been reloading for over 50 years and that is the best way to get to your overall link OUTSTANDING

The series has been so valuable to me. I just started reloading this winter. Even though you're aimed at super accuracy, there is so much valuable information applicable to the beginning reloader as well.

Thanks for explaining those concepts in such a simple and easy to follow way.

Большое спасибо Вам , за такие подробные видео и комментарии !!! Дай Бог Вам здоровья и долгих , созидательных лет !!

Couldn’t wait for this release. I find your manner of instruction very comforting and I always walk away with a greater appreciation of the sport that we love. Folks this is the best content for reloading on KZfaq…it never costs you more than necessary and it is always so practical. God bless👍

Thank you! Your commentary on the excess gadgets and gizmos was just what I need to see.

Sometimes changing the seating depth can improve accuracy. I use a method to find the depth that my rifle prefers that is similar to finding my most accurate powder charge. But seating depth is usually my last process.

Hands down the best informative hand loading instructions I've seen in a while... Thank you very much for helping me get me feet wet into the reloading/ hand loading process.I can't wait to start getting my note book filled up with load data for my 30-06 MAUSER.

Referring to the bench rest segment where it is mentioned that shooters jam bullets into lands for more accuracy, another thing that has to be considered that those shooters work up to their loads very carefully due to pressures encountered using that method.

OK…thanks for shaming me by buying the gadgets! This was a simple no-nonsense way to do the task! Thanks for another great video in this series…! Hopefully it will save others from the needless expense! Can’t wait until your weather gets better for some shooting!!!

This handloading series is so full of valuable information. It is obvious GunBlue490 has the experience to backup what he teaches. Invaluable knowledge like this is rarely found in the clickbait, entertainment based, firearm videos found elsewhere on other channels. Nothing necessarily wrong with those other channels, but there's nothing IN those other channels either. A gem of a genuine, experienced, Godly man here. I kinda secretly wish I had a grandpa like him. I feel like I'm a kid listening to grandpa's stories, and gaining knowledge from his life of learning.

I used to do my OAL the same way you did. I got lazy and bought one of the Hornady OAL case length tools. Best $20 I ever spent!!! I even got on for auto loaders! Just fantastic!

Truly appreciate the wealth of knowledge that you share here on this channel! I will be using this method to establish a base line COAL for my first .308 load, of course seeing that the nose of bullets can vary in length even on those by the same manufacturer, I would imagine that using the base to ogive measurement of a round that was loaded using your method of measuring would be a sure bet for a good standard to test a few thousands in either direction with after backing off the initial 20 thou. Love your videos and thank you for your service to our Nation!

Thank You so much for how to seat the dies. Thanks again.

Excellent video. I found that the COAL of my 6.5 Creedmoor changed since I started reloading last Spring (600+ rounds ago). Due to erosion, the jam dimension has moved 0.013" down the barrel. (from 2.847" to 2.860") In my early reloading days, the tightest 5-shot groups were at a COAL of 2.824" shooting Hornady 140 grain ELD-Match bullets. Today the best 5-shot groups are with a COAL of 2.840" on that same precision rifle. Most of my trips to the range involve shooting groups of various seating depths. I start with 0.020" and then increase the seating depth in 0.003" increments. I usually shoot 5-shot groups of multiple COALs. Last week was 2.840", 2.837", 2.834", 2.831", 2.828" and 2.825". The first and last groups of the day were 2.840" and both were tighter than the other COALs. (thought the group at 2.831" was pretty good as well)

You know, handcrafting consistent and optimized hand loads using your principles and techniques have become just as fun for my daughters and I as actually shooting them. We didn't know much when we first started almost two years ago and now I feel we have the most solid foundation from watching this instructional content. Our gear is almost entirely Lee. And I hear the guys at the range talk about the "elite" gear that is needed for their level of accuracy. How I used to look up to them and when I look at a few of their groups. Some aren't any better at all. And I could buy an entire Lee reloading kit, soup to nuts, for what their annealing machine costs! I know I've thanked you before for saving me money but I'm grateful enough to say thank you again. Be well and God bless!

Enjoying the series; Lee standard dies are famously 7/8" x 14 TPI. Thank you.

Thank you for all this information. I am new to handloading. I will watch this whole series.

Thanks Neighbor! I too am just starting to reload, I'm 72! Been watching your videos and have probably only reloaded forty cartridges to date on my 1987 RCBS Rock Chucker. I've got a electronic RCBS Scale and an RCBS Model 5-10 Scale to double check myself. I bought this equipment used ten years ago and kept it packed away until watching your videos. I'm have a great time so far. None of the ammo I've reloaded comes close to how factory ammo prints at 100 yards, but I'm still doing incremental loads. Keeping good records as well. I'll bet you're a pretty fair fly fisherman too. Done some "Flea Flickin'" myself. Take care my Friend. Hey, love the way you setup that powder throw, I'm left eye dominant, so I do a lot of stuff left handed even though I'm right handed. Works PERFECT, for me.

You sir are a natural born teacher! Thank you so much for putting together this very informative and easy to understand series - it has really helped me to create very accurate ammo for my rifles. I also hope Benny is doing well. God bless!

Your teaching us the proper way to reload has been a blessing. I can think of so much more I wish you could go over. But with all your superior knowledge it way be tuff for you to come up with a knew category. One that would be helpful is bullet seating an proper tension thank you.

I watch your videos each day, taking notes and trying to put it to memory. Joined patreon to help support your exemplary videos. Thanks again and God bless.

Great method for directly measuring Cartridge Overall Length! I adapted your method slightly by using drill bit stops.

Just finished the series. Well done sir!!!! Well done. Thank you!

Thank you for another great video to watch on a snowy day in Vt. Hope the weather warms up soon so that both of us can get out shooting.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helpful tips for reloading!

I just completed your eight part series and I must say I have received quite an education! I only wish I had seen this series BEFORE purchasing an OAL gauge as well as Bullet Comparator, however I am now anxious to compare the two methods. And I never knew about cleaning out the flash holes, so I will be off to Amazon for that tool. With all of your videos I still have much to learn and look forward to, especially on the days when our weather mimics that of Mount Washington! Absolutely superb stuff in every way! Oh, and hopefully I will run across being able to see Benny in one of your videos. He sure seems to know when 3 pm rolls around and is time for a cigar! 🙂

BRILLIANTLY SIMPLE !! Thank you for sharing.

Great video! I learned quite a bit. Keep this reloading series going.

Thank you for this, this was another incredible video.

This all varies on each barrel. I shot thousand yard BR for years and had several guns going at one time. My main caliber was 6.5 x 284 and Sierra 142 gr bullets. I had five barrels. All Kreiger's 28 inch, all chambered with my own reamer. Every barrel was chambered by a superb gunsmith and all five barrels the maximum OAL varied by less than .001. Each barrel wanted it's own seating depth for best accuracy. Most were .005 from touching the lands. One was .010 off the lands and one was .015 crushed into the lands. All barrels were the same . All had a 2.5 degree lead into the rifling and yet each barrel wanted it's own seating depth for maximum accuracy. Some times it's just off the lands, sometimes it's touching the lands, sometimes it's crushed into the lands. NOTE these were ALL fired single shot one at a time, hand fed. Not from a magazine. Both of my actions were Batt dual port. Feed in the left, eject out the right.

Thank you for all of your videos, I have learned so much, but especially for this series on making super accurate ammo. I have followed your instructions from powder selection all the way through in load development for my new Tikka T3X in 6.5x55 SE. Factory loads give me 1 to 1-1/2 MOA with this rifle. I have a lot of PPU brass that I fired through a Swedish Mauser, and decided to reload for my new rifle. After full-length resizing and your other instructions, I have developed 2 load-and-bullet combinations that gave me same-hole, three-shot groups at 100 yards. One group is 0.166 inch and the other is 0.206 inch in size (on a windier day) . Next, a bullet shoot-off to see if one is truly better, shot on the same day (hopefully without wind). Thanks again so very much for your efforts. FYI, I tried touching the rifling with longer rounds, but they did not group as well as 0.020" back, which gave me these amazing results.

Thanks GunBlue490 for an excellent series very straight forward and as usual very clear and precise. Very much appreciated. From Enufzed "Downunder" OZ.

Great series!

Spot on I've shot competition for many years and your method is right on as I used this method for year's I'm 69 years young and have a lot more rounds to shot!!👍

I enjoy your lessons very much, thank you.

Thank you SIR, you are a very interesting and informative Man. I always enjoy your videos and explanations. 👍

This is a fantastic technique measuring the OAL of the cartridge and so simple. I have the tools and comparators to do this from the back of a rifle using a modified case similar to the Hornady verstin with thumb screw- I'll add that I made them myself on a lathe with scrap and paid nothing for them- but I wouldn't have bothered if I'd learned this sooner. I was never able to measure the chamber on my .358 Winchester Browning BLR pre 81 using my tools because I can't get them into the breach with the modified case. For the first time I was able obtain a measurement using this cleaning rod and tape technique by just dropping the bullet in with an open lever and using a bent rod to hold it in place- take that for what it's worth!

That is a nice tip for getting overall length,Thank’s Gunblue !

I have been and do the exact same process on a shiny cleaning rod. except i mark the cleaning rod with a permanent marker and use a close fitting washer to make a mark on the rod with a needle. I also use the cleaning rod to move the projectile up and down the bore with a pencil at the bolt end to feel where the lands are. Great explanation by the way

followed many of your early videos, nice to see you going strong

Thank you for the reloading lessons

God bless ya Sir! You have explained this so well!

Good information and technique. Thank you.

Sir, you've saved me a lot of money and time. Thank you.

Excellent video . I have used this method . One thing to consider as your throat wears over time especially with high intensity calibers you will have to readjust seating depth accordingly.

Thank you Sir. I am very grateful for your videos.

Outstanding!! Thank you Sir 😃

I wish your videos were for sale as an encyclopedia , on DVD , through Midway USA .

The Degizmo approach, bit of Math, and you are set to go, well done.

Good thing I have taken my time in buying my equipment, so I have not bought too many extras, but I wish I saw your COAL method before I bought my Hornady COAL gauge. Keep up the vids, I enjoy the common sense approach based on experience!!

Thank you!

Very informative video, thank you

Waiting on that notification so we can see how they fly. God Bless G Blue

Excellent

Amazing series and channel, I learn so much. Where did you get the .20 from that you subtracted? Thanks and keep up the amazing videos.

I found changing the seater when using target bullets helps prevent deformation with a ring resulting. Also seating bullets with a load that compresses

My ears always perk up when someone tells me I don't need to buy anything. This series is a treasure. Do you have any reservations about me downloading your series for posterity reasons. I'd like to make sure it's available for my offspring, as well as theirs.

Always the best content on the interwebs! Great series, I started hand loading using your previous videos and they have kept me safe and on track. I have a quick question regarding twist rate and bullet weight. Is there a general rule or guideline to follow regarding the these two figures? Thanks as always for the simple straight talk.

.020 You’re the man!

Very good explanation. Woodworking tools such as routers use the same thread adjustment system for adjusting cutting depth, say 1 turn of the adjustment screw equal ¹⁄₁₆", depending on your tool. I hope you will cover crimping in a future video. I noticed you said you weren't crimping because you weren't using an auto or lever action, so I take that to mean we should crimp for those guns. I think I remember my reloading manual saying excessive crimping will cause premature cracking on the neck, which makes sense because expanding and contracting a piece of metal causes fatigue.

Thanks you so much of how to find the OAL, I was always try to find a easy way to make my own OAL then what the Manual says . Because not all guns are the same .

Great video. I do like the extra measuring tools though. Your method definitely works if setting up your die is with the exact bullet you used measuring. However, if you were to use a different bullet even out of the same lot it may not be correct because of the variance of bullet lengths. The ogive is still the most reliable measuring point. It does help to have tools that measure at a relative location on the bullet that is the most consistent measurement. I measure a lot of my bullets and the bullet lengths are the most inconsistent place to measure. Where ogive measurements almost always measure correctly in length when using tools to measure at that point. I can see though that some of the other tools used to set up are actually inferior to the way you did it. I think it would be a great idea to just make a dummy round out of the one bullet and use the ogive measuring tools to check all the bullets afterwards. I really do enjoy your videos and can see you know your stuff. I have bought a lot of gadgets I have not needed but many of them are helpful to make things work better quicker like competition seating dies, automated powder despencer and a press with individual toolheads set up for specific calibers. Thumbs up on the bullet seating depth.

it is also possible to calculate the circumference of the top of the die and get how many inches one revolution is, multiply that number by the number that represents the excess of the full number of revolutions (in this case 2.5 revolutions, the excess is 0.5). The resulting number is inches that we transfer to adhesive tape and mark it. We stick the tape next to the mark on our die and get the exact place where the 0.125 inch we need is located

This method works great if you can easily access the crown of the barrel. What do you do if the barrel has a flash suppressor such as most AR-15 rifles? Most have a large diameter making it difficult to make sure you are parallel with the bore. It just adds a margin of error.

Thanks, now planning to load up a "dummy" no primer/no powder round using a couple of different bullets to get some ground truth on COAL on MY rifle.

Some loading manuals list powders and charges that fill the neck. Can’t always depend on every load. Heavier bullets seat deeper and can begin crushing cases if you’re not careful

On my .222 Remington I could fit 57.5mm ammo in the chamber, wich would be 20 thou of the rifling, but it can only fit 56mm ammo in the mag. It still shoots 0.5 MOA at 200m

After you seat the projectile....shouldnt you use a Hornady concentricity gauge and tool to ensure the bullet is concentric to the brass and the bore

Do you have to trim all cases to exact same length to achieve the same c.o.l ?

Why not snag a Hornady OAL case gauge?

How do you account for the deformation of the bullet tips from being in the bullet box? Doesn’t that affect the measurement?😊

I have a 300 weatherby and using 200-208 gr eldx by the time I’m in the lands the bullet is barely in the case. This is the same with both barrels I have

In my experience, get close enough then try some loads at +/- a couple thousandths to find the sweet spot. The lands will wear and you will be chasing a new number in no time. Don't change it again until it shows on paper, a person can waste their lives chasing the lands. Excellent info though. Just don't want anyone to get trapped down the rabbit hole.

Are you going to make vdo on shooting these reloads

Gun Blue, My question isnt on subject with this video but is heavier always more accurate with rifle barrels? I'm trying to choose barrel profile: SPR MID WEIGHT HEAVY / VARMINT Is weights primary function cooling or does that extra weight always translate to rigidity? Thanks

I know what I am doing the next few nights. Honey where is the scotch tape?

This guy i great. No substiture for experience. I would add that i take an ogive measurement with the same bullet and case i got the col with. I noticed bullet lengths vary with plastic tips and soft points. Ths sir

Just remember when using soft point bullets they will mostly measure differently.

So. Excellent video, your explanation/demonstration on finding chamber length was great. Two questions- after applying tape to your cleaning rod, why not just insert it, put the exacto or razor blade against the crown and gently cut off the excess tape and repeat for second marking. The space created is easier to measure but I admit, you might score the rod. Second question- if you’re shooting single shot, not crimping a neck makes sense, however if you’re running from the magazine you can get set back of the bullet from recoil. Ask me how I know😅. (30-06 & .375 H&H)

This why I go here to get the best schooling there is 👍

Should I FL size or neck size for 7mm Rem Mag with brass I’ve shot

What COAL would you start at if your chamber is longer than the magazine? Most of my factory rifles have this dilemma. I almost never can get to .020 off the lands.

🙏

Hi Does the firing pin protrusion make any difference?

Size brass, seat a bullet short, pull it, seat it way long, jam it shut with bolt, subtract .020, find your node in 3 thousand increments. EZ

Bam!

If you decide to go by what the book says for c.o.a.l, and have 2 different books and they have conflicting c.o.a.l, how do you know which book to use? Looked at Sierra for Sierra bullet, it said coal was 3.30 Lyman said 3.25.

That's how I started finding my seating depths, but I would use an actual case and close the bolt on it, then measure it.

You are right, but I sure like my Forster vernier seating die! 2 to 3 thousandth run out to boot!

Hello. New reloaded here. Say I follow this procedure to load all bullets .020 off the lands. What if my brass is all slightly different lengths? Wouldn’t this lead to differences in the depth bullets are seated into the case neck? If so, would this variation in case length (and thus seating depth) affect accuracy and potentially negate any benefit of loading bullets a consistent distance from the lands? Thanks.

Why not measure OAL at the ogive? I’ve noticed slight differences in the length of the tips on certain types of bullets but am not sure if I should be concerned with it.

I posed the questions below to both Lee and Hodgdon tech staff. They indicated either small or large rifle primer could be used in load data that specified large rifle. I am sure that you would defer to published data in answering this question, but I wanted to know if you would trust the answers given by the tech staff of these companies since it is not in the published data? I have no reason not to, other then your numerous warnings to adhere to published load data. One of the tech also said that large rifle is more reliable in cold weather. "I have a question regarding load data that is available for 6.8 SPC. Most of the load data for this cartridge specifies large rifle primer (i.e. Lee Manual), but all of the spent cases I have are small rifle primer. I have been unable to find load data that lists small rifle primer as an acceptable primer (such as with Accurate 5744 powder and Speer 90 grain bullets). Do you know of load manuals that list small rifle primers (for 6.8 SPC), hopefully using the powder and bullets listed above? I understand that small and large rifle are not interchangeable in load data or are they? Can small rifle primer be substituted for large rifle primer where it is listed as the indicated primer in load data manuals (as with 6.8 SPC)?" I am new to reloading and I so appreciate the level of detail and reasoning you give in explaining the mechanics and physics of reloading. Thank you most of all for your witness for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. KC Spokane P.S. Sorry for the long comment.

I thimk a collar with a thumb screw would be easier then tape and an exacto knife and a tad more accurate. Just my thoughts.

Funny I use almost the exact process you do just usin what common sense a ky hillbilly has…lee 4 hole and all my dies have sharpie marks for different bullets..anything over 2.24” in .223/5.56 won’t feed from a mag..and single feedin lettin extractor jump over rim is not good…thanks so much…Matt