Bullet seating depth and OAL issue

[3DGearGuy]

Please be patient with me, first batch of reloads and I'm sure I've made mistakes! I loaded a few round yesterday and I have a bit of an issue I'm having trouble understanding.

Loading 7.62x54R, manual says max OAL should be 3.037. Loading .310, 174gr Hornady bullets but to get the cannelure deep enough, my OAL goes to 2.823 (or something right around there).

Either way, what's the right course of action here? down to the cannelure and a slight crimp seems like that's what the bullet was designed for, but the OAL issue has me a bit uncomfortable. Any suggestions?

[XDRoX]

As long as you're not compressing the powder you're fine.

[joelogic]

Your first reloads are x54? 0.2" is a lot but I dont know much about x54. Best to have someone with quickload check the pressure.

As a note, you dont need to seat to the cannalure. A lot of people will even tell you not to crimp.

[BLR81]

Please be patient with me, first batch of reloads and I'm sure I've made mistakes! I loaded a few round yesterday and I have a bit of an issue I'm having trouble understanding.

Loading 7.62x54R, manual says max OAL should be 3.037. Loading .310, 174gr Hornady bullets but to get the cannelure deep enough, my OAL goes to 2.823 (or something right around there).

Either way, what's the right course of action here? down to the cannelure and a slight crimp seems like that's what the bullet was designed for, but the OAL issue has me a bit uncomfortable. Any suggestions?

What rifle? Mosin bolt action probably doesn't need a crimp. SKS probably does. Either way the recommended OAL is just that recommended because that's what they used when they determined the safe max pressure. If you're going to seat it any deeper, you better not be anywhere near max load. Or it's the SAMMI recommended OAL which is a general length that should fit most rifles chambered in that caliber.

Seating to the cannelure may create excessive pressure, and is probably going to create to large of a jump for best accuracy. Either ignore the cannelure and seat as recommended or buy new bullets without a cannelure then you won't have a question.

[3DGearGuy]

Love that last response! LOL

I wasn't planning on crimping and didn't crimp with other bullets I used BUT I made an amateur-ish mistake. I used a .311 expander for the brass and the .310 bullets literally felt loose (could pull them out with just my fingers). I only made up 20 of those rounds and I'm at minimum load, so I THINK I should be ok, no?

By the way, I called LEE and asked them about .310 bullets and what the proper expander would be and I was told that the case should spring back enough to hold .310 just fine. I tried a few more cases with the .308 pin today and the .310 bullets and I think that actually worked out quite well, but we'll see what time at the range says.

I definitely don't like Hornady's placement of the cannelure and I'm definitely buying bullets without it in the future.

Of course, I'll be looking for signs of overpressure and case deformation while shooting these, but thanks for the advice!

[3DGearGuy]

Oh, and yes, it's a Mosin 91/30....I think these rifles are so simple that they'd shoot damn near anything you put in them.

[popeye4]

OAL length limits are often established as maximum dimensions to fit a magazine. Unless you are on the ragged edge of sanity with your loads, or pushing bullets excessively into the case, seating to the cannelure shouldn't increase pressures excessively. Increased bullet jump may or may not adversely affect accuracy (you just have to try different seating depths to see). Which manual are you using? You might try looking up the Hornady recommended loads with that particular bullet. BTW, a quick search produced this: http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/de...Powder&Source=