Adjusting coal in detachable magazine

[JohnyRingo]

How do you handle adjusting the COAL when you are dealing with a detachable box magazine that limits how long you can go? Do you just go with the max length that fits into the box?

I just sold two rifles with hinged floor plates and bought two new rifles with box magazines. Neither one of my new rifles would load my old ammo, so I ended up seating the bullets a little deeper. I don't know that was the best science, but at least I have ammo to shoot.

I am also kicking around trying some Hammer bullets because they claim to handle a larger jump to the lands without sacrificing accuracy.

 

[ShtrRdy]

If your modified ammo doesn't work as well as you like, you'll need to work up a load for these two new rifles.

 

[SidecarFlip]

What Wyatt extended boxes are for.

 

[cohunt]

You can often modify the front of the mag also-- I use "cut out" mags on my 223, 6.8, 308 and a few others with detachable mags. It depends on the magazine style and materials

 

[codyadams]

What type of magazine fit in your bottom metal? What cartridge? Short or long action? What make of rifle? More imformation is needed, all these play a role in giving us vital information to help you. For instance, if your bottom metal is an AICS type, you are using a cartridge with a standard (.308) boltface, in a short action chambered in 6.5 creed, and your using a magpul magazine, there is a simple solution, just buy an ARC magazine and your max OAL length will go from 2.850" or so up to 2.965".

With a little more info, we can help!!

 

[JohnyRingo]

The one old rifle was a 300 H&H in a Remington Model 700 Classic BDL, replaced by a Browning XBolt Stainless Stalker.

The other old rifle was a 22-250 Ruger Model 77 Mark II, replaced by a Browning XBolt Long Range Stalker.

 

[jrock]

deleted

 

[SealT5]

It sounds like your old ammo is jammed into the lands. You need to identify where the lands are and load accordingly. Loading to mag length is generally for custom rifles with a long freebore to take advantage of case capacity. A New rifle means starting from scratch especially with factory rifles. If you can reach the lands in these new rifles without exceeding Mag length your bullet options increase.

 

[crkckr]

It sounds as though you're going to be pretty much stuck with the OAL dictated by the mag, unless you can mod the mag to give a bit more room. Just remember, that you'll be battering any soft point ammo if it's that close of a fit. The only option is to single load the first round but that's a huge problem in a hunting situation, having 2 kinds of ammo. It's better to just go with what you have available & see how it shoots. Even with an internal mag you are limited in the amount of room you have for OAL. I've loaded ammo at max length for my Rem 700 mag fed rifle and have never had any feeding issues. Same with my AR but some of my mags had to be modded slightly to do so. Give the rifles a go at the range and see how they shoot and hopefully things will work out ok. At the same time, don't be too disappointed if you have to start over loading ammo specifically for the new rifles. No two are ever exactly the same.
Cheers,
crkckr

 

[dougduey]

I've gone through this. You can just load to mag length and work up loads for that COAL and be done with it. What I like to do now is see what the length is when I seat the bullet to where the top of the boat tail meets the neck/shoulder junction in the brass case (if it's a flat base bullet, it's the base of the bullet and the neck/shoulder junction). This will give you the most concentric ammo. If that fits in your mag box, you're golden. If you have to seat some of these long VLD style bullets so deep into the case to where it's almost to the ogive, you will probably want to scrap using that bullet.
As far as Hammer bullets go, you are correct in your statement that they are pretty insensitive to seating depth. I load them in all of my rifles. The only bullet of theirs that I had to seat deeper than I wanted in the 177gr Hunter in my 7 STW. I have a Wyatt's box, and it's max COAL is 3.700". Plenty of room for most bullets, but I couldn't seat to my boat tail to neck/shoulder junction. It's a very very long bullet. But it shoots tiny one hole groups with a .200 moa, so I can't complain