Glensman Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 Can anyone recommend how much gap to leave from the o-give to the lands in a Howa 1500 in .223? I'm looking for someone speaking from experience of the cailbre, not necessarily the rifle... Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbivvy Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 If there is any black magic in reloading this is it. only your rifle can tell you what is best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyb Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 These rifles are famous for the amount of freebore they have. Best checked with an OAL gauge of your choice, as like Mark says they are not always the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glensman Posted July 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 These rifles are famous for the amount of freebore they have. Best checked with an OAL gauge of your choice, as like Mark says they are not always the same. Yeah I read that about the Weatherby, which is basically the same gun. So in your opinion, what is the most likely to be successful- very little gap, or big gap?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyb Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 As a rule, new-ish factory rifles in my experience seem to like it as close to the lands as possible.. Owing to the freebore issue You might not even get near the lands with the Howa! Why not load to SAAMI spec length and go from there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glensman Posted July 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 As a rule, new-ish factory rifles in my experience seem to like it as close to the lands as possible.. Owing to the freebore issue You might not even get near the lands with the Howa! Why not load to SAAMI spec length and go from there? Thanks for the advice. I'll see how I get on tonight and hopefully Ollie will test them over the weekend (it's his gun). Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayfly36 Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 Thanks for the advice. I'll see how I get on tonight and hopefully Ollie will test them over the weekend (it's his gun). Cheers! .20 TO .40 BACK FROM THE LANDS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glensman Posted July 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 .20 TO .40 BACK FROM THE LANDS. I've set it about .25mm off the lands. Do you think I should go more? Everything I hear says Howas need to be fairly tight... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 ******** to universal shellholders. The .223 Lyman shellholder wouldn't fit in the RCBS handpriming tool. Ah well there is always next week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayfly36 Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 (edited) I've set it about .25mm off the lands. Do you think I should go more? Everything I hear says Howas need to be fairly tight... that is fairly tight .25, have a look at this...his lands is set to .40 Edited July 27, 2011 by mayfly36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browning Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 I've set it about .25mm off the lands. Do you think I should go more? Everything I hear says Howas need to be fairly tight... .25mm (.01") off the lands is absolutely fine to start with, you can always fine tune the length as you get into your load develpoment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 seconded or thirded odds are it will shoot better close to the lands, personally I'd stick to a set charge to start with and load some with differing lengths. so .01 .015 .02 .025 etc and check which groups best. With my rifle once I found what suited it which is minus .015 pretty much everything has been set to that length and everything shoots well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glensman Posted July 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 .25mm (.01") off the lands is absolutely fine to start with, you can always fine tune the length as you get into your load develpoment. seconded or thirded odds are it will shoot better close to the lands, personally I'd stick to a set charge to start with and load some with differing lengths. so .01 .015 .02 .025 etc and check which groups best. With my rifle once I found what suited it which is minus .015 pretty much everything has been set to that length and everything shoots well. Sounds good. I'll start off fairly tight! As Ollie says we found out last night that you can't use a Lyman shell-holder in an RCBS hand primer- we were very disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyb Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Both of mine run best at -5 and -10 thou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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