Frankford Arsenal COAL Gauge

I just got one of these. Not at all satisfied FYI.

Trying for find length for a 150 grain SBT. Book says COAL should be 3.625. I have loaded to this and never hit the lands.

Tried to get exact length to lands with this Frankford tool. Says my COAL is only 3.618.


Gonna use the Hornady gauge tomorrow and see what it says. Don't think this Frankford deal is worth it.

I got one of those some how and it is a poorly made. The best advice I can give is keep the bag it came in and throw the contents away, use the bag for something else.

Those gauges are not helpful.

The only thing needed is either a Sharpie marker or an old fashioned kitchen match or a candle.

Seat the bullet of choice a bit long. Color it with the Sharpie marker all the way around, and then gently slide it into the chamber and close the bolt.

Extract the round, and the lands should have made marks all the in 3 - 6 places around the bullet depending on the number of rifling lands.

The same can be done holding a dummy round over a kitchen match or candle and covering the ogive in soot.

Keep adjusting the seater down 0.010" at a time until the lands no longer make a mark.

I load the bullet long, chamber check the round, extract the live round, and see if it's hitting the lands by leaving rifling marks on the bullet. I do this in small increments and adjust my bullet seating (in or out) depending on if I'm seeing rifling marks on the ogive of the bullet. It takes me about 3-5 rounds to find the exact seating depth of the where the lands are. I never use the tools as they take too long to use, are caliber specific, and often induce error into the measurements.

^^This

And I cut the neck of a piece of brass, and it is kept forever as a tool to find lands in the next rifle in that chambering.

I basically do the same that Jeff, Chad and Jason are talking about. For a repeater though I start at magazine length as I want a repeater to be a repeater not have to load single shot. Do as Jeff describes and chamber the round. If it does not touch the lands I will just start with that length, if I am into the lands, I start seating deeper to ind the contact point and load up from there and lock the die in my final load position Lock rings and seating stem.

If it is a rifle I load different bullets for then I make a dummy for depth seating and when changing back to that bullet screw the seating stem down to contact the bullet and lock it in place to load those bullets again

That is how I have done mine for years. I do not know how I ended up with the Frankfort Arsenal deal, but it is poor.

I have a Hornady OAL gage and use it quite a bit, I have had to make all my dummy cases for my Ackley Improved calibers. I bought the 5/16-28 tap from Amazon and after fire forming, drill out the primer pocket with a letter "g" drill bit and tap the case. I still use jeffbird's method as well.

I have found the Hornady to be quite accurate but I use the curved one no matter what type action and I use a stainless rod to gently push the bullet loose from the lands. I checked a new bullet in my 22 Creedmoor last week and got the exact same reading 3 consecutive times.
I used the same technique Chad described for years but this Hornady gauge and method takes maybe two minutes max and gets me spot on numbers quick.

Maybe dumb questions but I still sometimes have trouble exactly finding markings.
1. I have a Hornady tool. Where the tool meet the bullet is where i should see the markings from the rifling, is that correct?
2. potentially really dumb question, does marking bullets with a Sharpie (whether for finding the rifle lands marking the bullet or for painting the holes on paper targets) do anything negative to your barrel?

I do the same.

This is what I use. It doesn't seem to ever lie to me. I also measure COAL to the ogive and not the bullet tip as the tips can vary.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2012/07/tool-tip-make-your-own-length-to-lands-gauge/

KR,

ink will not hurt your barrel.

The problem with the Hornady tool is repeatability, it took me while to get the hang of it and gravity is you friend with that tool. Which ever way you decide to measure be sure to do it on a clean chamber and bore, do not let fouling or carbon build up give you false readings(do not ask me how I know this )

Like Mr. Jeff said, ink will not harm the barrel.

fwiw Hornady will make you custom modified cases. just send them a few sized cases