I'm helping my buddy reload for his new Ruger M77 MKII in 280 Rem. He settled on 140 gr. Accubonds and we've found a couple of promising loads which are printing 1''-1.25'' groups @ 100 yds...not bad but I think we can do better.
Anyway...I have a Hornady COAL gauge and found out this rifle has a fairly long throat (I don't remember the exact measurement - it's in his book). The first batch of reloads were all loaded to max SAAMI spec (3.330''), and like I said, found 1 or 2 loads that showed some promise.
In an effort to stay within SAAMI spec, to fine tune the load, I seated the rounds a little deeper and we're finding that's not going to work. The groups are really opening up the deeper we seat 'em.
My question is...is it ok seat longer than SAAMI spec? Before we give up on these bullets, I would like to try and push these bullets a little closer to the lands in hopes of shrinking the groups down a tad. Obviously I'll back down on the powder charge and work back up.
Anyway...I have a Hornady COAL gauge and found out this rifle has a fairly long throat (I don't remember the exact measurement - it's in his book). The first batch of reloads were all loaded to max SAAMI spec (3.330''), and like I said, found 1 or 2 loads that showed some promise.
In an effort to stay within SAAMI spec, to fine tune the load, I seated the rounds a little deeper and we're finding that's not going to work. The groups are really opening up the deeper we seat 'em.
My question is...is it ok seat longer than SAAMI spec? Before we give up on these bullets, I would like to try and push these bullets a little closer to the lands in hopes of shrinking the groups down a tad. Obviously I'll back down on the powder charge and work back up.