Virginia John said:
OAL should be determined by your barrel rather than the load data. If it passes the drop test, it will work.
No.
Working OAL/COL should be determined by the magazine and function test as it may be different from the
Max OAL/COL which is determined by the barrel.
Reloaders should use the
Working OAL/COL and not the
Max OAL/COL. Also, the determination of the
Working OAL/COL needs to be done
BEFORE conducting the powder work up.
Barrel drop test or "plunk test" will determine the
Max OAL/COL for the barrel which may exceed SAAMI and magazine max lengths. Once you determine the
Max OAL/COL, next you need to function test to determine the
Working OAL/COL by feeding the dummy round (no powder/no primer) from the magazine and release the slide without riding it -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8864541#post8864541
Sometimes,
Max OAL/COL will work as the
Working OAL/COL but often the length of the cartridge will need to be shortened to reliably feed and chamber from the magazine. If you load for multiple pistols/barrels, you need to use the shortest
Working OAL/COL to ensure your rounds will work in all the pistols. So even if longer than SAAMI max length will pass the barrel drop test, if you want your 9mm 115 RN loads to work in many pistols, you may be loading around 1.125" - 1.135" instead of longer than 1.169".
Once you determine the
Working OAL/COL, then you can conduct the powder work up from published start charge. If the
Working OAL/COL is longer than the currently published OAL/COL, you will be fine. If the
Working OAL/COL is slightly shorter than the published OAL/COL (say by less than .005"), then the published start charge should be OK to use. For me, if I am using OAL/COL much shorter than published (more than .005"), I will consider dropping my max charge by .2-.3 gr or more, especially if
Working OAL/COL is shorter by .010"+ as the bullet base will be seated deeper in the case neck and increase the chamber pressure.