I purchased some hornady .308 FMJBT bullets. In the load data book it has them listed @ 3.185 COL......now my question is. I built a poormans OAL length guage. Loos fitting bullet in a sized case and installed it in the chamber, slowly applied the bolt until it locked. Removed the cartridge.
OAL lenth was 3.335. I did not see and noticable land/groove marks on the bullet.....

Is the over all length to fit the chamber a concern for garand reloading. How much jump is there to the garand rifleing even when you load to the max COL.

For now I have loaded my test loads as per hornady reload data for the garand

HXP 1969 case
hornady 150g FMJBT
Powder Varget loaded to the minimum of 42.2
CCI 34 primer
very lightly crimped.

With the cases trimmed to the 2.484 trim length the crimp ring on the bullet rest about 1/2 way
on the crimp ring.
with the home made AOL guage and then set back as manual says for auto loaders. the crimp ring sits high above the case mouth......
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