by Hoot » Thu Aug 25, 2022 10:40 pm
I have to wade in on this one. While I am in agreement with RBDMTJager on the technical merits of using an ogive comparator for measuring COAL in the 10 or so bottleneck calibers that I reload for, in the case of the 450b, practice can diverge from theory (see sig). Over the past 12 years, I've loaded just about every conceivable brand and model of bullet for the 450b, over (2k reloads and counting) many of which were Factory Seconds and Blems and I have yet to encounter a single bullet where the ballistic tip or spire point was so different from the rest of the ones in the box that it would have put the loaded round in jeopardy of running into the lands before the bolt was in battery or that the bullet's base to tip OAL was so long that in seating it to a given cartridge OAL ran the danger of seating the bullet so far into the case that is threatened to cause excessive pressure.
In fact, the only bullet that ever raised an eyebrow was the Hornady 300gr XTP Mag and that was because it kissed my rifle's lands at 2.22 COL due to it being a hollow point. Having an AR based 450b, I loaded many but not all bullets to a COL of 2.26, especially the heavier ones due to their length. A few shorter bullets did require a COL of as low as 2.05 in order to get a minimum shank seating depth of 1/2 caliber or to have the taper crimp drive down into a cannelure. If like me, you have a set of Hornady bullet ogive comparator inserts, by all means use them but I don't know if there is one in the set for the .452 bullet. It is a good practice to buy the Hornady Case Length Gauge and a Case Gauge case for each caliber you reload for to measure each of your rifle's distance to lands for the bullets you intend to load for it. That's how I discovered the issue with the Hornady 300gr XTP Mag. I keep a spiral bound logbook for every caliber that reload for and on the last page, I keep a record of the DTL for the various bullets that I use in that caliber/rifle.
Hoot
In Theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In Practice, there is.