Okay so here is a question to Bryan...I recently built a 284 winchester on a Stiller long action, my COAL is over SAAMI specs but I don't think I have reached full potential yet because I still have lots of room in the standard mag box, and the boat tail starts well below the neck/shoulder junction of the case. With this current combination however I am right at the maximum COAL based on my chamber and reamer. I have however purchased a 7mm uni throater to push the throat out further, but I have not muscled up the courage yet to do anything with it.
I think-please correct me if I am wrong-that I want the boat tail to start right at the neck/shoulder junction to get the best combination of useable powder capacity and accuracy. I am currently shooting 180 Lapua Scenars (however a fantastic fellow in your booth at SHOT gave me a healthy sample of your 180 Hybrids to try) and my accuracy is averaging 0.5-0.6 MOA with my best groups hovering in the low 0.3s, velocity however is a paltry 2705fps. Now to clarify, I am an accuracy junky and not really a speed freak, however if I can have both with no additional pressures I think that is the way to go.
Based on this information, do you think it is worth it to push out the throat and get more powder capacity in this case, or should I leave well enough alone?
Other information of loads/components...
Lapua 6.5X284 brass necked up
CCI BR2 primers
H4831SC powder
180 Lapua Scenar L bullet
28" Broughton 9 twist barrel
I know there are powders available that might bump velocity, specifically Reloader 17, but supply of that powder is dismal at best here in Canada, plus I have 10 pounds of H4831SC on hand. And with our temps ranging from -17F yesterday morning to +90F in the summer plus humidity, I would rather stay with the slightly more temperature stable Hodgdon powders.
Excellent article by the way, I copy and paste it into a word document and printed it out and it went directly into my reloading log!