sorting and determining .308 ammo by bullet grains

[TexasPatriot.308]

This may sound a little crazy, but as you can tell by my callsign Texas Patriot.308, I own several rifles in .308 including bolt actions, AR10s and a couple Springfield Armory M1As. my problem is I have come across magazines loaded with a variety of ammo in everything from 150 grain to 180 grain. I don't want to shoot anything larger than 167 grain ammo thru my M1As and I know different grain bullets will perform differently especially when using my bolt actions for hunting. I like to use my M77s and my Remington 788 for deer and hogs. My question is, other than the obvious judging by eyesight, is there some sort of scale or something to determine the bullet size by grain of factory loaded ammo or reloads for that matter. Just drives me crazy to see all the various .308 ammo I have come across in my safes lately.

 

[db_tanker]

well, short of making sure you don't leave ammo loaded in mags all the time...what I do is just use different numbers of dots on the base after they are loaded on my bench.
as for factory ammo...since I don't use it that much I can generally tell from the bullet construction. fancy stuff goes in my bolt rifles...FMJ goes in the FAL.

I suppose if you have a good beam scale that ranges around 1000g or a good triple beam scale that can be dialed down to tenths then I'd get some of your ammo out of the boxes and get a good average of what they run, then use that as a base line to go measure what you have loaded in those mags.

as an aside you could use different colored dots of nail polish or some such on the base of each mag...keep one dot loaded with x brand ammo and two dots loaded with y brand etc.

hope this helps!
D

 

[Sunray]

"...larger than 167 grain ammo thru my M1As..." A 168 or larger won't bother an M1A. However, a loaded cartridge with a 180 stuck in it will weigh more than one loaded with a 150. Mind you, the easiest, least time consuming, method is using different bullet styles. Different colour boxes works too.

 

[Cannibul]

No way to really do it since you don't have a baseline.

.308 brass is all over the place regarding weight. I would not be surprised to see at least a 10 grain variance there alone. Then you get into different powder charges. There's another 5-10 grains.

 

[lysanderxiii]

If it's reloaded . . . mark the box. If it's factory leave it in it factory box.

Seems pretty simple to me.

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

it's not simple cause I have no idea where this ammo came from, they are marked by brand, no boxes only full magazines of assorted size ammo.....just wondering how to find the grain size of the bullet...that's all. these are all factory ammo....no references other that visual size by sight.

 

[MutinousDoug]

Pull one of each and weigh it. Then, if you're satisfied that the headstamps tell you all you need to know. You're done. That wouldn't satisfy me though.

 

[jmr40]

There is no practical way to do what you want to do with any accuracy. You could weigh the loaded ammo on a scale used for reloading but you not only have different bullet weights, but different powder charges and different brands of brass will have different weights.

I'd reserve unknown ammo for plinking through the bolt actions.

 

[db_tanker]

jmr40 hit it on the head...if you can't verify...then bolt gun only.

 

[Slamfire]

As an example of how 308 cases vary by weight, by manufactuer:


308 Win Cases

LC88 trimmed once fired, first resizing


Average wt grains 177.0
std deviation 0.7
minimum case wt grs 175.2
maximum case wt grs 178.5
extreme spread grains 3.3
median 177.1
mode 177.4
cartridges weighed 75

R-P Nickle Unprimed, unsized

Average wt grains 167.8
std deviation 0.8
minimum case wt grs 166.3
maximum case wt grs 169.3
extreme spread grains 3.0
median 167.7
mode 167.7
cartridges weighed 47

As JMR40 said, use the un verifiable stuff in a bolt rifle.

 

[Grunt]

Well, not going to help you out this time but in the future, you might want to try my trick of marking tips with a sharpie. For example, both my M1A DMR clone and AR-10 SASS use reloads based on USGI LC brass, CCI benchrest primers and Sierra 168 grain BTHP match bullets. The difference is the powder they use. While safe, performance is going to be lacking if fired through the wrong rifle. So now I have 2 pieces of ammo that are visually identical. I simply use a black sharpie marker on the tips of the ammo that goes through my M1A and a green sharpie tip on the AR-10 ammo. I still have red and blue I can use in the future as well as using a sharpie band around the tip rather than a full colored tip for my bolt action rifles. Makes for easy identification at a glance and once fired, leaves behind no confusing identification marks for the next time they are reloaded.

 

[Ironicaintit]

You could weigh them with a digital scale and sort them into weight categories.
Once sorted, pull the projectiles from a couple samples to see what they weigh.

I don't recall who gave me this tip;
Use various colored ink pads to mark the heads. I also made a "key card" that I keep in a few different spots, denoting what color is what.

I just went through a similar mess while sorting through 30-06 I'd run across.

 

[Coal Dragger]

it's not simple cause I have no idea where this ammo came from, they are marked by brand, no boxes only full magazines of assorted size ammo.....just wondering how to find the grain size of the bullet...that's all. these are all factory ammo....no references other that visual size by sight.

If you have no idea where the ammo came from you're better off tossing it all in the trash. Could be gunshow reloads for all you know.

 

[Varminterror]

Yup - unknown source ammo is an unknown danger. There's no way to know whether it is actually factory ammo or not.

Pull the bullets, scrap the powder, then reload the brass and bullets - or sell/give them to someone who does reload.

How many rounds are we talking here?

Am I right in understanding you purchased these rounds already loaded in the magazines?

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

all of the ammo is either Remington Corelokts or Hornady factory loads...no other brands, just mixed up.

 

[bfoosh006]

You might try posting photos here... we might be able to narrow down the choices.

And btw.... Nosler has their 168gr .308 BSB ammo on sale for $18.50 a box...

http://www.shootersproshop.com/nosl...nded-solid-base-ammunition-over-run-20ct.html

 

[Reloadron]

This may sound a little crazy, but as you can tell by my callsign Texas Patriot.308, I own several rifles in .308 including bolt actions, AR10s and a couple Springfield Armory M1As. my problem is I have come across magazines loaded with a variety of ammo in everything from 150 grain to 180 grain. I don't want to shoot anything larger than 167 grain ammo thru my M1As and I know different grain bullets will perform differently especially when using my bolt actions for hunting. I like to use my M77s and my Remington 788 for deer and hogs. My question is, other than the obvious judging by eyesight, is there some sort of scale or something to determine the bullet size by grain of factory loaded ammo or reloads for that matter. Just drives me crazy to see all the various .308 ammo I have come across in my safes lately.

Sounds like an organizational problem? The way any loaded magazines got in your safe would likely have been you put them there. I am not rattling your cage as I have also been guilty of picking up a plastic case of ammunition or even a loaded magazine and wondering what I put in it. I got in the habit of making sure I list everything. Any ammunition not in a plastic case which is labeled is in the original manufacturers box and clearly labeled. Like you I shoot quite a bit of .308 Winchester and like to keep my M1A and AR10 loads apart from my bolt gun loads. I just made my own labels and included a "notes" line so if a load is for example my M1A I add that info accordingly.

You can obviously pull a few "unknown" bullets and weigh them but good luck on the powder charges as to knowing what powder you actually have. Guessing powder becomes a crap shoot, about all you can do is weigh it.

I have no reservations with using 168 grain and 175 grain match bullets when loading .308 Winchester. My greater concern is the powder I use. I am more concerned with port pressure as a result of powder burn than port pressure as a result of bullet weight, but I won't exceed 180 grain bullets in my gas guns.

Anyway, you can go back and try to resolve what you have but you can make a future note to label everything and the rifle or rifles it was intended for.

Ron

 

[Varminterror]

If you know which bullets they could be, then you should be able to visually sort, then weight sort. If you can't tell the difference between which is which when you get them sorted, pull a couple bullets and weigh them, you'll have your answer.

How did they come to be loaded in magazines? Did you load the magazines yourself? If you knew you didn't want heavier than 168's in your mags, why would you have loaded them into the mags in the first place?

About how many rounds are we talking? Big difference between having a hundred rounds vs. a thousand...