Question on Shilen Barrel

I installed my Shilen 260 Rem #7 26" barrel the other day and yesterday loaded rounds to break in ect. I am using Hornady 123g Amax and necked down Win 7mm/08 brass. The unloaded sized brass chambers and extracts fine and is not an issue. I used my Hornady LOL guage tool to measure to the lands so that I could figure out how long to load these to jump 10 thou. I realized it seems the "freebore" area is very short. My OAL is 2.750; that is only jumping 5 thou and thus really reducing the case capacity. I wonder if the throat maybe has a burr on it? It would just seem to me that a round should chamber at an OAL of 2.800....but, am I wrong? Or maybe it has to do with the shape of the 123g Amax....thoughts from you guys that have done Sheilen barrels. Mike

Amaxes are shaped to chamber longer than most bullets from what I've seen. My 168gr amaxes can be seated out .040" farther than my 168gr SMKs. Can you see anything in the throat? My 308 Shilen barrel has a slightly longer lead than the factory barrel.

You call up Wade at Shilen and have a reamer print sent to know exact what you have. If there is a mistake, my experience is the folks at Shilen will been over backwards to help you out. Luck, Tim

Just for comparison's sake, I load the 123 A-Max in my Criterion .260 barrel to 2.85" OAL and that seems to be about a .010 jump.

Ok, so mine is really short. I loaded a charge of 43.5g of 4831sc just to break in the barrel and fire form the cases. I will measure again after forming these cases.

I just had a great phone conversation with the folks at Shilen and learned that the design on the reamer used is for heavy bullets like the 142g SMK and got some great advice on loading for the 260. They answered my questions and are great people to talk to on the phone. Mike