C.O.L. for 7-30 Waters

[Souris]

I am ready to start working up loads for my 7-30 Waters Contender.
The Speer Book 13th Ed. states the C.O.L. should be 2.550.
What do you guys use for C.O.L?

I think that I should be able to use a longer length.
Using Hornady 120 grn .284 HPs I set the length to 2.55" and it looked odd. like the bullet was seated to low.
I took a piece of brass, placed a bullet in it as far out as it would go, and then placed the assembled piece into the chamber of my Contender and closed the action. When I measured the resulting cartridge length it was over 2.800

Any suggestions or tried and true facts?

Thanks,
Ya'll

 

[Souris]

Can anybody suggest a reloading forum that might be able to comment on this?

 

[Hobie]

It seems to me that most on-line users of the 7-30 are shooting Contenders. Go to the Specialty Pistols forum. You can also look at leverguns.com, Paco Kelly has written a great article on the 7-30 Waters.

Fact is if you can chamber the round and are using a Contender the COL is of secondary concern to performance of the ammunition. I have a Contender carbine and just load the various bullets to crimp in the cannelure (I like to do this, not necessarily the best for everyone) or to put the base of the bullet even with the bottom of the neck so that there is maximum case tension on the bullet. I haven't found a really inaccurate load but have come to prefer the Speer 130 gr. FP for ballistic reasons.