Newbie Question: Is there a bullet "sample pack"?

[phlip99999]

I've been starting the reading/researching process in preparation for getting started reloading. One thing that has me curious is the experimentation process to find a good match of bullet and powder to a particular firearm.

As you begin to work up loads for a particular rifle or pistol, is there an easy and less-expensive way to try a variety of bullets without having to buy 100 count boxes each time? Do manufacturers put out a "variety pack" of their bullets for a particular caliber, say 10 of each model with 5 models per box, just to allow experimentation?

I guess this would apply to powder as well. Is there something less than a 1 lb. can, as sort of a sample size?

If not, how do you go about trying a variety of bullets and powders to figure out what works best for your particular firearm?

I have this vision of many little boxes and 1 lb cans of bullets and powder on the shelf, with the missus looking on disapprovingly...

(I'm sure I'm not the first person to ask this, so my apologies for asking it yet again. I did a search on the forum, but struck out.)

 

[janobles14]

when i started i borrowed from my buddies who reloaded.

for the bullet sample pack: find a real life ammo dealer and see if he has any leftovers from things he has reloaded. for the promise of new business he will probably let you buy a few at a time.

insofar as powders go i cant see anything that would let you get smaller amounts other than the aforementioned borrowing.

 

[Mt Shooter]

I shot a match that a bullet manufacture (Montana gold) had small bags of various bullets. 9mm, 38, 223 etc. I think there was 10 bullets per pack. You could take what you want to try them. That was the only time I have ever seen samples. As janobles says perhaps you could have some reloading Buddy's give you a few to try out.

If you know what direction it is you want in a reload, buy a box of fifty or a hundred that really isn't that many. You can shoot those up in no time at the range.

 

[Jim Watson]

I don't know of a major bullet maker doing sample packs.

Several years ago there was an outfit that repackaged bullets into trial lots. The price was higher per bullet, but once you had shot up your dozen (two foulers and two five shot groups or one ten) you had no leftovers of a bullet you did not like.

Saw it attempted for powder, too. An entrepreneur put up powder in one ounce bottle for pistol, two ounce for rifle; furnished a selection and a display like a spice rack to dealers. That didn't catch on at all. Hodgdon briefly offered powder samplers, four 4 oz jars of powders in the same range boxed together.

A lot of people DO end up with a row of partial cans and boxes because they were not satisified.
As one writer said, shoot them up. So what if they group 2 inches off a bench? You probably need offhand practice anyhow.

 

[Grumulkin]

You are never going to really know how well a bullet can shoot with a sample pack of 10 or 20 bullets. In working up a load, I'll easily test 20 bullets just with one powder.

For a rifle, start with a bullet you know will shoot well if your rifle and powder combo is capable of it. For me it's Sierra Matchkings. Once I have an accurate load with Sierra, Nosler, Hornady or Berger match bullets for a benchmark, I'll try other bullets of the same weight.

For handguns, my benchmark bullets are generally Sierra or Hornady.

Choosing a powder with good potential for accuracy is also important. In the Hornady manual, with many cartridges, it will say what powder gave the best accuracy. The Barnes manual gives 2 or 3 recommended powders for each of their bullets. The Nosler manual is especially helpful in listing powders that gave the best accuracy for a particular load.

I usually use Federal match primers for loading rifle cartridges. The primer used can sometimes make a big difference in how accurate a load can be.

 

[dagger dog]

Midway USA offered a sample pack in .224 cal. they were Sie. Horn.
Speer Nosler. 5 of each. I haven't seen them in quite a while
though. You may try their contact on the web site.

 

[45ACPUSER]

Hodgdon was offering powder samplers...but I think it went over like a fart in church.

 

[NCsmitty]

Here's a link.

http://www.bulletsamples.com/

NCsmitty

 

[Jim Watson]

That's the place, NCsmitty, I did not know anybody was still doing it.

We had a guy here who would buy a rifle and ask around for bullets. He would scrounge six bullets from someone with the caliber, load and shoot them. That might be all he ever fired out of that gun. Rifle, dies, and brass ended up on the shelf or traded for the next new and wonderful.

 

[phlip99999]

Thanks for the replies, all.

NCsmitty: That's exactly what I was looking for. The web site says hits it right on:

Are you tired of buying a box of 100 bullets only to find out that they do not shoot well in your rifle? This usually means that most of that ammunition sits on your shelf unused and you go buy another box from a different maker and try those.

Grumulkin: You said to start with a bullet you know is accurate in a particular rifle to get your benchmark. I guess that's what I'm asking. How do you know, without buying a lot of weights and styles, what bullet is going to be the best performer? You really don't know until you try, but then it seems you have to overbuy to try. Is there a shortcut that I'm just too noob to know to ask about?

 

[jhansman]

Oregon Trail will send you several of a particular caliber lead bullet if you call them. I got about 10 each of 3 weights of .30 cal bullets from them at no cost, and was able to then order what I wanted. Not cheap, but well made.

http://www.laser-cast.com/

 

[Grumulkin]

Grumulkin: You said to start with a bullet you know is accurate in a particular rifle to get your benchmark. I guess that's what I'm asking. How do you know, without buying a lot of weights and styles, what bullet is going to be the best performer? You really don't know until you try, but then it seems you have to overbuy to try. Is there a shortcut that I'm just too noob to know to ask about?

One way to know, is to inquire on forums like this. Another way is experience. There are a number of bullet manufacturers that make excellent bullets. Choosing a good bullet is maybe one half of the equation. The other big part is the powder and significantly lesser parts are the brass and primer. I can give you a few rules of thumb:

1. For a rifle, if it won't shoot Sierra Match Kings, then it's not the bullets. It's the rifle/powder/primer. For rifles, I typically work up loads with Sierra, Hornady, Berger or Nosler match bullets. Hornady and Nosler match bullets are fairly equivalent to the Sierras. Berger's VLDs are a little different; they're excellent but probably not as uniformly accurate in all rifles as the others. Once I get a load that shoots well with a match bullet, if I choose to, I make up loads with another bullet of the same weight and load and test it to see if accuracy is satisfactory.

For instance, I found a Varget load for a 30/06 that gave excellent accuracy with 168 gr. match bullets. The same load also gives excellent accuracy with Barnes TSX and Banded Solids; I saved a lot of money by working up a load with the cheaper match bullets.

2. As for powders to try; as noted above, I consult several reloading manuals for likely prospects. I find the Barnes, Hornady and Nosler manuals especially helpful in this regard.

3. In choosing a bullet weight, I usually choose a midrange to heavy bullet for whatever cartridge I'm loading for. This gives me optimum ballistic coefficient, momentum and down range performance. The older Barnes manual was especially helpful in this regard. It gave muzzle and downrange energies as well as bullet drops in graphical form.

For handguns, everything is the same except choosing the bullet. I haven't yet found a bullet that seems to always give good accuracy in every handgun of that caliber.

Any way you do it, you will need to do some shooting to see if a load is good and in most cases it will take a lot more than 20 bullets to do it. My easiest were a handgun in 223 Remington AI; I had a well under 1 MOA 100 yard load in under 20 bullets. Another easy one was a 204 Ruger using Hornady 45 gr. Spire Points. A couple of really hard ones were a 460 S&W Magnum and a 458 Lott; I'm sure I put at least 200 rounds through each before I found a load I was happy with.

 

[gwalchmai]

IIRC, Masterblasters used to do sample packs. When I started reloading I emailed all the bullet makers I could find addresses for and asked them for samples. I got a lot of samples. Some sent packs of 25, some up to 100. It was great! I bought a lot of bullets, too.