coal method question

[Brody760]

hey guys having problems with accurate shooters site so im going to post it here



to start of i have never loaded any supersonic loads only subsonic

im curious about coal can i start from the book and tune my load by slowly making the round longer in say .003 increments longer or will that not have much of a effect on the groups

ive heard to load to max coal that will fit in your mag maybe more info on this since i dont have a coal gauge by hornady if it helps ill be shooting a savage 110 high country and using the 165gr hornady sst so i dont know how long it is safe to load the sst. i just don’t really know that this option will work for me

as i am new to supersonics i would like to stay with the book as much as possible so if loading to the books coal then tuning works please let me know!

Thanks in advance and multiple replies are wanted to get as much info as i can.

[Brody760]

hey guys having problems with accurate shooters site so im going to post it here

to start of i have never loaded any supersonic loads only subsonic and i will be working with my savage .308

im curious about coal can i start from the book and tune my load by slowly making the round longer in say .003 increments longer or will that not have much of a effect on the groups

ive heard to load to max coal that will fit in your mag maybe more info on this since i dont have a coal gauge by hornady if it helps ill be shooting a savage 110 high country and using the 165gr hornady sst so i dont know how long it is safe to load the sst. i just don’t really know that this option will work for me

i have heard of loading to saami then tuning from there i am familiar with saami but since im locked out of accurate shooter i dont know if people are talking about saami max coal and if thats a safe practice to follow again i would like to stick to the book if possible.


as i am new to supersonics i would like to stay with the book as much as possible so if loading to the books coal then tuning works please let me know!

Thanks in advance and multiple replies are wanted to get as much info as i can.

[bangbangping]

ive heard to load to max coal that will fit in your mag

That is NOT a good idea. Especially with a 300 BLK where bullets may not be designed for the cartridge. Plenty of .308 bullets will jam at less than mag length.

You have three options:
1. Buy a gauge so you know what length is correct for YOUR rifle. (best)
2. Split or slightly expand a case neck and play around with a dummy load to determine the jam length. Meh. It can work, but I find it fiddly, especially with an AR.
3. Work from published data, and do not exceed listed COAL. You can always incrementally shorten rounds to find a node. People will say adjust from .001" to .010" or more. For the sake of components and time I generally use .005", or .010" when bullet supplies are tight. Keep in mind that with the small 300 BLK case, pressure can increase quickly as you seat bullets deeper. (Don't start with a near-max load at max length and load up a dozen shorter increments with the same charge.)

[Brody760]

great info thanks i accidentally posted a reply with more info instead of editing my op but all info im asking about is 308 related (sorry for the confusion

anyhow so your advice is to use the published coal and with a mild charge shorten the coal to find a good node?(i will be using hornadys data)