Matt- there are a few ways you can measure COL. If you are using the “loose fitting bullet chambered in empty brass” method to determine your optimal COL for the rifle in question, you can repeatedly perform that measurement, and then use the same bullet for dialing in COL with a loaded cartridge. In that case, you can measure the actual overall COL.
The gage/comparator is nice because the actual bullet being used is not critical and it results in more accurate critical measurements (ogive to lands, etc).
Gavin- That definitely clears up my question. I have some nosler “custom competition”(30 CAL. HPBT) bullets and the HP isn’t even close to uniform. I’m getting vast differences in the overall bullet length, well over .010. I’ll need to get a comparator and measure off the ogive if I wan’t any form of consistency.
Gavin-Is there a more expedient way to measure OACL from the ogive without a comparator?
Matt- there are a few ways you can measure COL. If you are using the “loose fitting bullet chambered in empty brass” method to determine your optimal COL for the rifle in question, you can repeatedly perform that measurement, and then use the same bullet for dialing in COL with a loaded cartridge. In that case, you can measure the actual overall COL.
The gage/comparator is nice because the actual bullet being used is not critical and it results in more accurate critical measurements (ogive to lands, etc).
Hope this helps.
Gavin- That definitely clears up my question. I have some nosler “custom competition”(30 CAL. HPBT) bullets and the HP isn’t even close to uniform. I’m getting vast differences in the overall bullet length, well over .010. I’ll need to get a comparator and measure off the ogive if I wan’t any form of consistency.
Thanks for the insight.