old fart
Well-Known Member
Is it really helpful to weigh hunting bullets and seperate them , I weigh my cases after prep- do group sizes tighten alot- thanks
reloading
- Thread starter old fart
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
- Joined
- May 2, 2001
- Messages
- 7,485
Today's experts (not me) feel it is more beneficial to sort by length of bearing surface rather than be weight. IMHO, this type of sorting is worth about 1/8 moa improvement in group size with a match-grade bullet. maybe even more improvement with other bullets that might not be built with such fine tolerances.
I'd love to hear quantified answers from other proponents.
I'd love to hear quantified answers from other proponents.
old fart
Well-Known Member
To give a little more info - My case prep is to uniform primer pockets , debur flash holes , trim to length , after I measure chamber, and weigh to .5 and sort to batches. this I have done on all my rifles and Contenders for years but I don't turn the necks and haven't weighed my bullets - I don't think I do any more or less than most shooters and hunters .I'm not a benchrest type guy but I do like to know that I've done my best to promote a safe and clean harvest of game . need your options on this , I would include this to my reloading practices if it really helps - thanks
Old Fart
with what you are doing, weighing bullets would be a waste of time for hunting out to 500 yards.
Sorting to .5 gr for hunting and even BR rigs is normally very acceptable tolerances.
It is only at the longer ranges that the weight difference and more importantly the variations in ogive and metplats comes into play in trying to eliminate the vertical from an extremely accurate 1k BR or LR hunting rig.
Load em and shoot em.
BH
with what you are doing, weighing bullets would be a waste of time for hunting out to 500 yards.
Sorting to .5 gr for hunting and even BR rigs is normally very acceptable tolerances.
It is only at the longer ranges that the weight difference and more importantly the variations in ogive and metplats comes into play in trying to eliminate the vertical from an extremely accurate 1k BR or LR hunting rig.
Load em and shoot em.
BH
old fart
Well-Known Member
BH - Thanks , I just ordered siclair rig for turning necks and I'll mess with this for a 6.5/284 rifle thats about done . Should be fun . Thanks again
Hey Old Fart,
I just recently starting turning necks for my varmint rifes (not tight-necked BR chambers). I found a few things out:
1. It is a royal pain to try to set the turner up to turn necks to a specific thickness.
2. It is very easy to set the turner up to just clean the necks up to where they will all show less than .001" variance.
3. Cleaning up the necks shows a definite improvement in seated-bullet run-outs. The reduction in loaded-round run-out is proportional to the improvement in neck uniformity.
The way I set up the turner for cleaning-up necks is this: I take a piece of brass from the lot to be turned that shows some of the worst uniformity of the bunch. I find and mark the thinnest spot on that neck, and then adjust the cutter to just touch the neck about 30 degrees to one side or the other of that spot. This usually results in cleaning-up about 75-80% of the neck on the worst ones and very little on the best, and gets uniformity down to under .001". If the necks still show more than .001" variance, I will take that same piece of "bad" brass a adjust the cutter to touch a little closer to the low spot. I repeat this until all brass cleans-up to under .001".
If anyone else has what they think is a better method, I would be interested in hearing it. I am just getting started in this neck-turning thing.
Rick
I just recently starting turning necks for my varmint rifes (not tight-necked BR chambers). I found a few things out:
1. It is a royal pain to try to set the turner up to turn necks to a specific thickness.
2. It is very easy to set the turner up to just clean the necks up to where they will all show less than .001" variance.
3. Cleaning up the necks shows a definite improvement in seated-bullet run-outs. The reduction in loaded-round run-out is proportional to the improvement in neck uniformity.
The way I set up the turner for cleaning-up necks is this: I take a piece of brass from the lot to be turned that shows some of the worst uniformity of the bunch. I find and mark the thinnest spot on that neck, and then adjust the cutter to just touch the neck about 30 degrees to one side or the other of that spot. This usually results in cleaning-up about 75-80% of the neck on the worst ones and very little on the best, and gets uniformity down to under .001". If the necks still show more than .001" variance, I will take that same piece of "bad" brass a adjust the cutter to touch a little closer to the low spot. I repeat this until all brass cleans-up to under .001".
If anyone else has what they think is a better method, I would be interested in hearing it. I am just getting started in this neck-turning thing.
Rick
old fart
Well-Known Member
Thanks - for the info - am going threw my junk box of brass and using these to learn from - not to bad for now , actually ,pretty easy -later
Ian M
Well-Known Member
Old fart,
I used to weigh and segregate bullets out of need - not uncommon to find a bullet or two per box that was up to 3 or more grains above or below the average weight. Not anymore, the manufacturers have weight continuity very good, now we are looking at tenths and maybe a total of one grain vaiation between high and low in a whole box.
The bearing surface thing is also something we should not have to be concerned about, but it is there. Bullet making presses have something like 17 punches or dies, that many bullets per stroke. They are not exactly the same, different wear etc. Interesting that virtually every manufacturer makes bullets with the same basic machine, all gov't surplus stuff that has been re-built and modernized.
Segregating by weight, meplat tuning - whatever, it is all part of the fun - unless we get so tied up in it that it is not fun anymore...
Hope your new rifle is a dandy.
I used to weigh and segregate bullets out of need - not uncommon to find a bullet or two per box that was up to 3 or more grains above or below the average weight. Not anymore, the manufacturers have weight continuity very good, now we are looking at tenths and maybe a total of one grain vaiation between high and low in a whole box.
The bearing surface thing is also something we should not have to be concerned about, but it is there. Bullet making presses have something like 17 punches or dies, that many bullets per stroke. They are not exactly the same, different wear etc. Interesting that virtually every manufacturer makes bullets with the same basic machine, all gov't surplus stuff that has been re-built and modernized.
Segregating by weight, meplat tuning - whatever, it is all part of the fun - unless we get so tied up in it that it is not fun anymore...
Hope your new rifle is a dandy.
I am a m-14 and m-1 shooter and therfore use military brass so I weight segregate it but not the bullets. I normally use barnes x bullets and they have proven to be about as uniform as it gets. For the brass I debur the flash hole, swage the primer pocket, trim, debur and segregate into half grain increments. The m-14 is a tack driver doing this and I regularly shoot it to 1000 yards in the field. I've not had a dreason to change anything I do for it since it is totaly reliable and can accurately hit prairie dogs to 700 yards at least. Well that's the farthest I have seen any. I got a jack rabbit a couple weekends ago at 1000 on the second shot. I messed up on calling the windage the first shot, but only by a couple inches. I know bolt guns can appreciate more work done sometimes as far as uniformity of the components but this works for me.
