Model 12 F/TR .223 OAL

I just started reloading.

When I seat a bullet to specs in the Lyman Reloading manual at 2.260" OAL and ogive of 1.9500", I jam pretty far up the lands. In slowly bringing it back to not touch the lands, I am at 2.2430" and 1.8750" respectively. Bullet is Sierra Match King 77gr

Is this normal for the chamber in this rifle?
Am I going to do any damage to the rifle or myself if I fire a round?
Will there be excessive deterioration to the casing if I fire "undersized" rounds?
Any other issues of which I may not be aware?

Any help will be appreciated.

That seems awfully short throated for a long distance precision rifle. Might want to call Savage Technical desk and see what they say.


Edited to change "chambered" to "throated".

Don't know if this info will help... My handloaded 77gr tipped matchkings for my 12 F/TR measure 1.843" base to ogive just touching lands.. and that gives me an oal to tip of 2.270".
FGMM averaged oal to tip at 2.248".

It sounds like they set it up to work with factory loaded rounds. I believe Black Hills Ammunition loads theirs at 2.240".

Savage was no help.

Black Hills, depending on what you are shooting go down to 1.735 for the case after firing.

I am working through it.

I'll offer this just as a point of comparison; I am shooting a model 12 BVSS in 223 (it has a 9 twist barrel) and am loading to an ogive measurement of 1.965. In MY barrel this is about .020 short of the lands however, MY barrel does have some erosion in the throat, the result of approx 3500 rounds fired. Also, MY brass is trimmed to 1.742. I toss anything under 1.740 or use a a fouler load until it grows up.

Interestingly, two "off the shelf" factory loads that shoot very well out of MY gun are Hornaday 75gr BTHP MATCH, and (believe it or not) American Eagle tipped varmint 50g that zips along at 3350 fps. Both of these shoot sub, sub MOA in MY gun.

If you're interested in trying a 53 grain load in YOUR gun, I would recommend 53 gr, Sierra FBHP (p/n 1400), IMR8208XBR and BR-4 primer, and also the 75gr Hornaday BTHP, IMR4320 and BR-4 or CCI-400 primer. I use Federal Brass which I have found to be both cheap and very consistent, neck sized only, washed and tumbled. The 75 grain was developed for magazine feed OAL's so it might work well in YOUR gun.

As YOUR gun is made to shoot the expensive stuff, think of these as break-in loads to develop your reloading skill before moving on to the quality brands.

Additionally, I find that performing the sizing operations just before completing the cartridge makes the seating process more consistent and yields smaller groups. This bullet/powder/primer combination in MY gun yields a very respectable 1/4 to 1/3 MOA with the occasional group in the zeros. I just shot 40 yesterday, half with BR-4 and half with CCI-400 primers with the BR-4 giving a slight edge in consistency.

Just read an article on the aging process of brass and it seems that a sized or work hardened brass left for some weeks, tends to age (harden) more. Although I have only just incorporated this into my process, initial results are promising.

I am going slowly and carefully and examining each casing right after firing it. I just got a shipment which includes 75gr Hornady A-Max and a few hundred of Hornady 55gr V-Max. I am embarrassed to disclose how many seated bullets (without primer) that I have pulled in the whole process.

Thank you all for the information.