Speer Quality Control or am I to fussy?

A

ackertjosh

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Bruce County Ontario
After Extensive Research for a Premium Hunting bullet I settles on the Speer Grand Slam Reading some excellent review in comparison to the the FAMOUS Nosler Partition and at 1/4 the cost.. So I had a friend of min pick up a pack of 165gr Grand Slams while he was at Cabelas..

So today as im down pressing together some test loads i notice that What i thought at 1st glance was a COAL difference but ended up being the Crimp Ring/Canular are in different spots.. So i decided to separate all 50 bullets and see how may of them are different.. Ended up with 3 groups with the majority of them being the same but 2 other groups of 4 or 5 @ different lengths... So I thought.. How much are these in different in weight... Weight a handfull i came up with weights all over the place.. some being 165.. some as low as 163 and high of 167.. I took some pics to show more clearly...

So the Question is.. AM I TO FUSSY??? i realize these are just hunting bullets and will be going into my 30-06 for moose hunting so accuracy isnt the biggest concern but MOA would be nice.
AD719765-8A13-4FFA-AC86-91E7E7046E54_zpsaty2dtvt.jpg
D60576AB-98F0-431C-A3EB-42756B0519E7_zpsiowivope.jpg
C4CE7F8B-62CC-4CF4-9CBB-607EC1EBFCAF_zps67uzrtyk.jpg
292AE108-7E48-4993-8473-339296CDE1C2_zps1sw7p4vp.jpg
 
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I would contact Speer and get them to make it right. Bullets should be within a 1/10th of a grain in my opinion and experience. Adding or subtracting weight to a bullet could put you above or below acceptable pressure limits and change your POI at extended ranges. I wouldn't want to lose a moose opportunity due to bullet inconsistencies like this.
 
Thanks. i have contacted Speer on there Web Page with what i found and the Lot Number. Hopefully they get back to me wiht some promising results.. life time supply of bullets.. hehe.. yeah im dreaming.

Thanks again
Josh
 
I will keep the post updated as to what happens. I currently have received an e mail from someone at Speer wanting some pics and a different number off the box(apparently i didnt have the lot number).
Bearhunter.. well they were not 1/4 the price but they are cheaper.. i paid $34 for 50. so less then 1 per shot like the noslers
 
I use Speer bullets often and I have never seen this before. I use 165 and 180 gr SPBT and they weigh well within 0.5 gr. And that's the rejection limit for me. Yours must be a bad batch.
 
ackertjosh said:
After Extensive Research for a Premium Hunting bullet I settles on the Speer Grand Slam Reading some excellent review in comparison to the the FAMOUS Nosler Partition and at 1/4 the cost.. So I had a friend of min pick up a pack of 165gr Grand Slams while he was at Cabelas..

So today as im down pressing together some test loads i notice that What i thought at 1st glance was a COAL difference but ended up being the Crimp Ring/Canular are in different spots.. So i decided to separate all 50 bullets and see how may of them are different.. Ended up with 3 groups with the majority of them being the same but 2 other groups of 4 or 5 @ different lengths... So I thought.. How much are these in different in weight... Weight a handfull i came up with weights all over the place.. some being 165.. some as low as 163 and high of 167.. I took some pics to show more clearly...

So the Question is.. AM I TO FUSSY??? i realize these are just hunting bullets and will be going into my 30-06 for moose hunting so accuracy isnt the biggest concern but MOA would be nice.
AD719765-8A13-4FFA-AC86-91E7E7046E54_zpsaty2dtvt.jpg
D60576AB-98F0-431C-A3EB-42756B0519E7_zpsiowivope.jpg
C4CE7F8B-62CC-4CF4-9CBB-607EC1EBFCAF_zps67uzrtyk.jpg
292AE108-7E48-4993-8473-339296CDE1C2_zps1sw7p4vp.jpg
Click to expand...

Had a similiar problem with the 168 SMK's, found 2 jackets that were deformed..... They sent me a hat and a thankyou..... They cant export replacement bullets to individuals in canada due to ITAR.. Well lets say atleast I got a hat.......
 
I had some sierra prohunter bullets that were like that. The moose did not seem to mind. But then again most of our shots end up at less than 100 yards. They should be more consistent than that no question, but the reality is moose have big vitals and anyone of those bullets will do the job.
 
Looks like you got some strays in there.
Hornady has this going on with old stock, new stock.
Meaning I have old stock out there and compared to the newer
versions, the cannelure is in a different area.
Same number on the box, but different cannelure placings.
 
The three bullets in the last pic look like they came off three different machine setup lines....
This would be worth being a squeaky wheel.....
 
I had some spare time today (home from work fighting a cold, so off to the reloading room...) and found myself comparing base-ogive length variations for different brands/lines of bullets. (It was either that or tidy/clean up the place... total no-brainer call there!)

Anyway, one of the batches was bag of Speer 62 grain .223 that I'd had gathering dust for quite a while, and they proved to be pretty random - up to 0.025" difference, which could explain why I'd been having difficulty getting anything like consistent base-ogive length readings when seating bullets.

One of my cheaper batches of bullets was actually pretty amazingly consistent - a total spread of less than 0.003" over 10 measured projectiles. It wasn't from one of the big names, and I'm going to keep quiet until I can score a good supply of them to put away... :p Will do some weight comparisons on them next - I'm not expecting to find much variation there either, given the dimensional consistency encountered today.
 
I suppose it happens with every bullet company from time to time, but that is a fair spread, but still not enough for me to care :p. Like you have already done, I would fire off an email. That being said, they may still shoot very well. The Grand Slams are good bullets.

Add: On a side note, I measured a recent batch of their varmint bullets and they are always within 0.1 ish grains of weight and within two thou from base to tip (not ogive). Maybe they keep tighter tolerances on the bullets that need the accuracy? Maybe I got lucky, I dunno. They shoot like a hot damn anyways.
 
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I would say a spread in bullet weight from 166 to 163.6 is too much.A half grain one way or the other would be what I would expect in way of a difference in bullet weight.
 
Thanks all for the replies. Im still waiting on the second e mail to what they find and come up with for an answer. Im not overly concerned as the Moose wont care anyways.. I have never run into this before.. I always have used Sierra and Honady and Nosler where I have never run into a spread this big.. Sierra are always in my experience been right on the weight.. maybe .1 or .2 but never more and that goes with Hornady and Nosler aswell. I did get a box of Swift Sciroccos for my 7mm-08 in 150 gr and there weigh was PERFACT! and shoot AMAZING.

Its just nice to hear what everyone else has to say from more experienced Loaders as i have only been doing this 3 years making on average 500 rounds per year.

Thanks again all and ill post the results once the Tech at Speer gets back to me.
Thanks again
Josh
 
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