Case OAL question

[JoshuaYork]

I have a Remington 700 ADL chambered in a 7mm Rem Mag cartridge. I purchased it from a good friend (original owner) about 8 months ago. He put roughly 300 rounds through it and I have put about 80. Everything on the rifle is OEM. I am getting into precision loads rather than just run-of-the-mill loads and have a question about the maximum case length and what I should trim my brass to. Here's the situation:
The book advertised case OAL is 2.500" When I trim my brass back and use a Sinclair chamber length gage insert, my rifle's chamber OAL is 2.548" (measured 6 times to make sure)
My once fired brass (before full length resizing) is measuring out to about 2.497" case OAL. This is the average of 14 pieces that I have in front of me. The minimum length is 2.4945" and max is 2.4995".
Is the 2.548" chamber measurement something I should be concerned with and if so, what do I do to fix the problem?

If you need more info, please let me know...this is my first post and I am kind of new at this. Thanks!

 

[lachoneus]

Re: Case OAL question

My focus in trimming cases has always been safety-related. If you trim your cases to 2.500, they will fit within the chamber measurement you have given, and thus avoid pressure problems that can result if a case is too long and the neck gets pinched in the chamber. Your question, however, seems to be s whether further experimentation with case length will improve the accuracy of your hand-loads. I don't think so, but I will leave it to the many precision hand-loaders on this site to give a more definitive answer on that point.

 

[JoshuaYork]

Re: Case OAL question

You are correct that I am focusing on accuracy, but moreso, is it safe to have that much space between the end of the case and the end of the chamber?

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: Case OAL question

"is it safe to have that much space between the end of the case and the end of the chamber?"

Yes.

 

[JoshuaYork]

Re: Case OAL question

Considering the above measurements, can you recommend what my trim-to-length should be in this situation?

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: Case OAL question

"Considering the above measurements, can you recommend what my trim-to-length should be in this situation?"

Well, with the measurements you list I'd trim to 2.5". But if that bothers you cut to the normally suggested 10 thou less than book max. You will NOT go KABOOM due to case lengths unless you load in a case that's longer than your 2.548" chamber but 2.5" gives you a safety fudge factor of 48 thou.