I am using case overall from the bolt face to the tip of a seated bullet with a Sinclair gauge (tool ).
I then a dummie case and checked the bolt to see if it will close. I use the dummie to ser my seating die.
I normally seat 20 thos. of of the rifling , instead iI had to go 50 to close the bolt.
I back a total of 70 thousand to be safe, Fireman I didn't mean to be confusing .
This is the first Eldx I have loaded, I just want to have a safe load.
Chad I see shape difference . How wold a comparator work,to set oal?
Thanks
Something isn't right, or making sense to me. If you are seating a bullet off the lands, then the bullet will not be making contact with the rifling to cause the bolt not to close. Something else will cause it not to close. The BT bullet will have a much shorter tip to ogive than the ELD-X will. The ELD-X is a longer bullet with a longer ogive to tip length. So, you need to account for this. You can not figure where the ogive of the bullet hits on the ELD-X, come up with a set COAL, then use the same COAL for the ballistic tip (BT) bullet. The BT bullet's ogive will be much further forward than the ELD-X and will (possibly) make contact with the rifling.
Take a look at this Berger PDF about their bullets. I use it all the time. This chart tells you the lengths of the various bullets, and specifically the "Nose to Tip" length, which is the ogive to tip length.
http://www.bergerbullets.com/pdf/Quick-Reference-Sheets.pdfI use this
Hex Nut to measure Ogive length for almost ALL my ammo. The ogive it the most critical part of the ammo, even more than the COAL. Hornady also has their comparator tool, and it works fine. But the Hex nut is much faster to use and more versatile.
Once you establish an ogive location for YOUR rifle, you can seat the bullet to the same ogive depth for all bullets. Just make sure the COLA doesn't go too long where it will not fit or feed out of your magazine.
https://www.hornady.com/reloading/precis...llet-comparator