Brass weight

Seafury

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I have 50 Winchester 30-06 cases that vary in weight from 178-188 grains. I have never seen a spread like this before. As they are for one of my hunting rifles I would like to load them to their potential but I'm concerned that pressures could vary dramatically. Half are under 184 and half over. Is this normal for Win brass and should I toss them and start with something else? They are not range pick ups I fired them all new although I will admit they are from different lots.

Greg
 
A 10gr variation on a case the size of a 30-06 isn't that odd from my experience. I've tried my hand at weight sorting Win, RP, FC, LC, and IVI brass and a 10gr variation isn't that extreme. The weight between brands can vary as much as 30-40gr in 308 cases, probably a touch more for 30-06.

I wouldn't worry about it for hunting ammo.

10gr of brass is around 0.0757 cm^3 in volume of brass. That's around 0.0046 cu-in. With an average volume of 4.4 cm^3 (from Wikipedia so take with a grain of salt) that's a difference of 1.7% in volume (if all that brass is effecting the volume which it might not be).
If you were shooting long range competition, that might cause issues in your group size. For regular hunting ammo I highly doubt you'll even notice.

I recently setup a batch of 308 ammo for a rifle I use for psudo-benchrest shooting. The Win cases ranged from 151-164gr if memory serves. Most of the cases were 155-160gr and I managed to get a set of 100 cases from within 157-160gr. This was all after trimming, primer pocket uniforming, and neck turning. If I was loading for a normal hunting rifle or for plinking I wouldn't have even bothered with the sorting; I only do it for semi-match ammo to get rid of the extreme outlyers. The best way is to measure actual case capacity with water or alcohol but that's too much bother for my amateur level shooting.
 
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Agreed, as hunting ammo, I wouldn't be too worried. After reading this thread, I just went down and weighed twenty pieces each of my unprimed, once fired .30-06 brass from Hornady, Barnes and Norma. The Hornady spread was 171.8 to 173.8, Barnes from 191.9 to 193.1 and th Norma at 199.5 to 200.6
 
Thanks for the helpful replies. These cases have been primer pocket uniformed, flash hole de-burred and trimmed to length. I have the tools and don't mind the work. The reason it concerned me a bit is I have a few hundred Norma 308 cases (target rifle) and they vary by less than a grain. My Federal brass from my 308 (hunting rifle) does not vary nearly that much but is from the same lot. Same for some federal 300 WM brass I have. All far more consistent. In the past it never concerned me enough to weigh them but I'm trying to take it to another level. I want my hunting ammo to be the best it can be too. I obtained the ammunition and rifle when my step dad passed away. He didn't save his brass but I can't speak to the timeline on it's purchase other than all three boxes were new and Win. Some Super X and some Super Speed although the variation is not reflective of that. They are both all over the place.
 
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