What Precision for Bullets?

[TooTaxed]

A question for you precision shooters:

What variation in weight can you expect from bullets from the same box? Say, .308 Sierra 165-gr FMJBT or HPBT, or any other commercial bullets? What ARE commercial standards? What degree of variation makes it worthwhile to sort rifle bullets by weight?

Actually, I'm about to load a batch of .223 Win using 55-gr bullets, and would like the same data for those, also.

I''m asking the question because I have bulk batches of .30 and .224 bullets on hand. I've weighed samples of the bulk bullets to determine variation, but have no commercial bullets to weigh. I'm using a Lyman electronic scale, so readings are instantaneous. (Surprising what we retired guys will do when they have time on their hands!)

 

[The Bushmaster]

Most of the bullets that I weigh (when I weigh them which is seldom) are +/- .5 grains. I have found that the cheapest bullets (Remington) seem to be a lot closer in tolerence then the expensive ones...I really don't believe that, unless, you are doing long range precision shooting you really need to weigh them. I weighted out and loaded 20 bullets to +/- 0 of 165 grain BTHP (Sierra) and loaded 20 more at random and saw no difference at 200 yards from a Browning A Bolt .30-06...

 

[30Cal]

A box of match bullets I would expect to be +/- 0.1grs (at least that's what you see when you weigh Sierra or Nosler 168 HPBTM). You'll generally see a lot more variation with FMJ bullets.

Ty

 

[Jake in TX]

In my experience, with Sierra 6.5 mm 140 grain Match King bullets, less than 0.1 grain.

Jake in TX

 

[Jim Watson]

Ten each random draw from the same box:
90 gr Sierra .224" MK = 90.0 - 90.1 gr
50 gr Hornady .224" SX = 49.8 - 50.1 gr
130 gr Speer .308" JHP = 129.7 - 130.2 gr

 

[~z]

I weighed 4 boxes of 30 cal 190gners Sierra HPBT Match. The vast majority were +/- .1 gn however, out of the 400, I got 20 at 190.2 another 20 at 189.8 and 3 that were true outliers being > .5 gn from 190.
I figure that is acceptable, expecially concidering the price.
~z

 

[bogie]

Bart's Bullets, available from Sinclair's, are better than my scales.

 

[TooTaxed]

Wound up with time on my hands while watching TV...so weighed out a box of bulk 249 Igman .224 55-gr FMJBT from Midway ($7.99 plus shipping). Median was 55.0 gr (39 ea). 52% (130) were within the range of 54.8 -55.2 gr. 84% (210) were within the range of 54.5 - 55.5 gr, and 98% (245) were within 54 -56 gr. There was one 53.8, two 53.9, and one 56.1 gr.

Amazing what we retired guys with time on our hands will do!

Wonder how that compares to military standards?

 

[Dave P]

If you are worried about accuracy, consider measuring each round from ogive to base. That may be more important to accuracy than weight deltas.

Dave