Measurements for Rifle Handloading

Handy Techniques for Accurate Ammunition

- John Barsness

The basic tools for measuring rifling twist are a cleaning rod of the correct diameter with a ball-bearing handle and a tape measure.

Some handloaders use their bench time as a mini-vacation from what many humans call “real life,” which becomes apparent when they choose to use relatively slow-loading techniques. If you are among them, you may not be interested in the following suggestions, which often save quite a bit of time, and sometimes even money.

An old carpentry axiom states “measure twice, cut once,” because the first measurement may be incorrect. The two possible incorrect results are a piece of lumber that turns out to be too long, or too short. The first only wastes the time involved to recut it correctly, but the second often turns lumber into firewood. Handloading can work similarly, except we not only do some cutting but other tasks where measuring beforehand not only saves time but, quite often, expensive and sometimes scarce components.

The Hornady Lock-N-Load 0.A.L. Gauge can “find" the lands precisely, using an accurate caliper - but can also determine the distance from the lands to a certain point on the bullet's ogive, which tends to be more precise than overall cartridge length.

One measurement I find myself performing often is of rifling twist, partly because many rifle shooters have gone “semi-loony” over ballistic coefficients. This means increasingly long bullets, and not just jacketed but cast bullets, though the purpose of both is higher retained velocity and less wind drift when shooting at longer distances.

Determine seating depth with the Hornady tool with a threaded-base case (here a .308 Winchester) and a selection of ogive bushings. Neither are very expensive and can often be found at gun stores.