Hornady OAL Guage ?

[statjunk]

I also do the same thing.

Tom

 

[woods]

Woods, any chance you could provide a picture of the top of the comparator where it attaches to the caliper, to show the offset?

I would really appreciate it as this has been burning my biscuits for quite some time.


Tom

There is an offset

Thick side

thin side

screw down

screw up

screw down (in line)

screw up (out of line)

 

[statjunk]

Woods,

Thanks very much for that info. I've been looking into that for a very long while. I will be ordering one of those today.

Thanks

Tom

 

[Moman]

Statjunk, sorry but during that post I wasn't quite getting the whole story. I thought you had the comparator set and was having some issues getting it figured out. Looks like you're well on your way now though. Good luck.

Woods, great job on the photos. You should just keep those handy, this topic seems to come up every now and then.

 

[statjunk]

I'm very appreciative of everyone's help.

I've been after this for some time. I even once spoke to a guy at Sinclair and this tool was never mentioned. Figured it was just a normal comparator. My feeling is the two tools should only be sold together. I don't see the point to one without the other.

I ordered it a couple of hours ago.

Thanks again to all.

Tom

 

[stevenorlando]

Ok will try and put all this info down so its understandable.
Rifle-Remington Sendero 300 Ultra Mag
OAL-3.600
Bullets being used-Berger 185gr
Published OAL of Berger bullet-1.378
The lenght of bullet from my caliper-1.360
With Hornady OAL Gauge-3.824
With comparator on the OAL guage-3.140
With my caliper I have found that my magazine will only allow for a OAL of 3.610, after that it becomes a single shot rifle.
So with all these numbers can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong here???
I also know that with the RCBS dies and Lee dies the tips of my bullets were bottoming out in the seater therefore damaging the tips of the bullets. I have only found two dies companies that make a seater for VLD bullets and that is Redding and Forster.
Thank you in advance for any insight anyone can give me as to what I am doing wrong, I have followed the instructions to the best of my ability, I am just an old dumb scooby mule deer hunter.

When I load 6ppc, I'm getting a difference of about 0.5" when I measure the OAL of the entire cartridge vs. measuring the casebase to ogive with a comparator. What do I use for my seating depth? The comparator length is too short!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[stevenorlando]

When I load 6ppc, I'm getting a difference of about 0.5" when I measure the OAL of the entire cartridge vs. measuring the casebase to ogive with a comparator. What do I use for my seating depth? The comparator length is too short!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think at this point, I'm going to use the OAL gauge with the special case and measure the OAL and subtract about 0.02 from there. I don't know what to do with the comparator measurement.

Steve

 

[boomtube]

"each time I re-measure the Hornady case and bullet I get a different result. Within .01 but still not close enough..."

If you can't get better repeatability than 10 thou it's not because of the tools.

 

[woods]

I think at this point, I'm going to use the OAL gauge with the special case and measure the OAL and subtract about 0.02 from there. I don't know what to do with the comparator measurement.

Steve

Simple answer is to use WHICHEVER measurement you choose to SET THE SEATING DEPTH.

IOW if you decide to use the case-head-to-tip measuerment, check your seating depth after seating a bullet with that measurement to the tip of the bullet. If you decide to use the case-head-to-ogive measurement you get with the comparator, check your seating depth after seating a bullet with the comparator.

 

[noexperience]

I belong to 4 different shooting/hunting forums and see this problem all the time. I have the same types of issues with the hornady tool in that I get different readings every time I use it. therefore, I submit my cure. I have reverted back to the old nosler method of putting a bullet into the throat and touching it from the muzzle with a cleaning rod , then mark the location at the end of the barrel....then take the bullet out and insert the bolt and mark a spot on the cleaning rod again, this time touching the face of the bolt. I use that OAL as a starting point, measure the distance between the two points on the rod, then use a black marker or lit match to smoke the bullet and run it into the bore and look for rifling marks. I continue to run it into the sizer die, adjusted 1/4 turn down until I find no rifling marks. this gives me OAL either just barely touching or just off the lands and I go from there and experiement. sometimes, depending on rifle, this takes a while, but once you have it, you save that non primed round and can adjust every time you want to use that same bullet in the same rifle.