Friday, January 22, 2010

Over All Length

Over-all Length (OAL) is important when we're reloading for more than one gun, especially if one of those is a repeater. If you get the cartridge too long for the gun, it won't cycle.



For example. This .357 cartridge, at 1.570 inches, works just fine in my Marlin 1894C.



On the other hand, this nearly identical cartridge at 1.616 won't go through the 1894. It's too long. One cartridge is 0.046 inches longer than the other and that makes all the difference.

You've been warned.

2 comments:

El Capitan said...

I haven't had to worry too much about case trimming yet, since there's plenty of room in the cylinder of the Redhawk and Vaquero for the .45 LC cases. I've had my eye on a Winchester Trapper, though, and I'm betting it's going to be a bit more particular about what I feed it.

ASM826 said...

You can find out just how important a .001 of an inch is when you start reloading.