checking the weight of hunting bullets,to see how uniform they are

[northernhunter]

well guys i was bored the other day so decided to weigh some of my hunting bullets also a couple target ones,to see how uniform they are.I used full boxes of 50 bullets.
6.5 nosler long range 129 gr.
128.8 to 129.2 gr. 65% at 129 gr. spread was .4 of a gr. second best
barnes 6.5- 127 gr LRX.
126.7 to 127.4 spread = .7 gr. 60% at 127 gr,
6.5 hornady 129 gr.sst
128.7 to 129.3 gr spread is .6 gr. 64% at 129 gr.
lapua 139 gr. senar target.
138.6 to 139.1= spread of .5 gr. 78% at 139 gr.
6.5 nosler partition 125 gr.
124.6 to 125.2 = .6 gr spread, 65% at 125 gr.
6.5 cal sierra match king 142 gr.
141.8 to 142.2 = .4 gr. spread. tied second best
Not that great for a super match bullet.
But shot great in my 6.5 x 55 and my 6.5 x 284.

now 25 cal.
berger 25 cal vld hunting 115 gr.
114.9 to 115.2 gr.= .3 spread, 85% at 115 gr. BEST so far.
nosler 25 cal 110 gr. accubonds
109.8 to 110.2 = .4 gr. spread 75% at 110 gr. tied second best
25 cal barnes 100 gr ttsx.
99.7 to 100.2 =.5 gr spread 74 % at 100 gr.

Hornady 7mm. 139 gr. interbond
138.8 to 139.6 =. .8 gr spread.. worst so far.
60% at 139 gr.

So really all this tells me is that no Bullet company can keep there bullets the same weight all the time.
But they are pretty close.
Berger was the best with .3 gr. spread. Yet they didnt group to well in both my 25 cal rifles.
Barnes 100 gr. 25 cal grouped the best in 2 rifles.. 2506 AI and a 257 Roberts

Nosler 129 gr. long range grouped the best in my 6.5 x 55.

So really i dont know if weight sorting would help my reloads for hunting.
Just some info for you to think about.
Im still going to shoot the best ones for each caliber and for the game they are suited for.
Happy Shooting
SHOOT ONCE AND MAKE IT COUNT

 

[BigUglyMan]

If guys like maynard and Jerry don't feel they need to weigh their competition bullets, I sure as hell don't have to weigh my hunting bullets. I'll spend that tiem doing obsessive case prep on things like my 470. Because everything needs deburred and uniformed flash holes!

 

[Ganderite]

If guys like maynard and Jerry don't feel they need to weigh their competition bullets, I sure as hell don't have to weigh my hunting bullets. I'll spend that tiem doing obsessive case prep on things like my 470. Because everything needs deburred and uniformed flash holes!

I hope you are not making the flash hole larger. That will degrade ignition. But, de-burring the inside of the flash hole was the single best SD improver I found using 20 round samples in a lab range.

As for weight variations - some bullets are made on a single machine. Some are made on several machines and the output is mixed.

If you know the bullets come from different machines (I know only because I talk to the people who make them and they can look at the lot number and tell me how that batch was made) it would not hurt to sort the bullets by weight because there is a good chance of getting closer to single machine results.

Brass, for example, might be made on a single machine, but the brass slugs they start with come from a machine that punches two slugs at a time. Sometimes there is a difference in weight of the brass cases that can be attributed to the two different slugs. Sorting the cases by weight helps.