Do you weigh your bullets?

[SeaBass]

I load 130gr Hornady SST for my .270 Win.  I weighed them and they varied from 130.4gr to 131.2gr.  I loaded a dozen with what ever bullet I picked up and a dozen that weighed 130.9gr.  I fired them in alternating groups of three giving the varied weights the benefit of the only truly cold barrel group.

The luck of the draw groups averaged 2" at 200yds.

The 130.9 groups averaged 1.5" at 200yds.

Is this typical or did I just try harder with the "good" loads?

Are Noslers bullets any closer in weight tollerance?

Thanks

[warf73]

Never really got that serious about bullet weights (other than my cast bullets) I throw a few on the scale ya but never got nuts about it.

Your variance seems large but maybe that’s factory specks?

I really notice a big difference from bullet make/manufacture when I measure OAL via by the Ogive.

For grins I measure just the bullets and got this:(ogive to base)
Rem-Corlock +/-.0025" from bullet to bullet
Honrady V-max +/- .001" from bullet to bullet.

Just something I noticed messing around.

Warf

[R.W.Dale]

I have found the Hornady bullets to be the worst bullets for conctinsy, even their match bullets varied by almost 3 grns. I buy sierras almost exclusively now with no such problems.

[ricciardelli]

Weigh bullets?  Like I already don't have enough to do?

[skb2706]

Other than just a random check once in a while. Seems the smaller bullets tend to be much closer tolerance than the larger bore diameters. Sierra are always closest......

[ajj]

.8 gr variance for 130 grain hunting bullets is quite acceptable and almost certainly had nothing to do with the (small) difference in your group sizes which, by the way, were based on a pretty small sample both in number of groups and shots per group. I think the only people who routinely weigh bullets these days are cast bullet target shooters looking for voids and long range rifle shooters looking for the weird bullet which is 5% or more out of the range. There really isn't any point in separating medium weight rifle bullets into groups .2 or .3 gr apart even for competition shooting. JMHO.

[beemanbeme]

If I were a bench shooter trying to get my groups from .1273 down to .1270, I might but I'm not so I don't.  If you're talking about killing stuff, like deer, elk, pairie dogs, ground hogs and such, its a waste of time.  To me that is.  You have a better idea of what your time is worth.

[huntswithdogs]

I know guys that weigh not only their bulets but also their cases. Some even go as far as to sort them  as to how much water each holds. Something to do case thickness?

Mine shoots just fine as long as I weigh the powder. The rest is for those who have to much time or money.


HWD

[Questor]

I've found voids in hand cast bullets, but the locally cast bullets I get never have that defect. I quit weighing bullets because I don't believe there's a need to unless I cast them myself.

[Redhawk1]

I don't bother with it. But at one time I did it just out of curiosity.  

[Horsefeathers]

Years ago when I started loading 45/70's ,I got a spread of about  5 in. with mixed brass, unweighed cast bullets and  and powder from a measure not checked for uniformity. I weighed and sorted the bullets and the group shrank to 2in. all touching but strung out. I then sorted the cases by brand and weight. Also the bullets and made each powder charge the same. the results were all touching forming one hole about 5/8ths in. Same gun at 50 yards. Im convinced it pays.  ...Horsefeathers.

[Chuck White]

I used to do the "random weigh" thing once in a while!

Now, the only time I weigh is when I find a few bullets laying around on the bench or if someone gives me some!  If I get some from someone, I weigh a few, even though they are in a marked box!

[vincewarde]

If I want really accurate ammo, I weigh brass, bullet and powder.  Setting aside brass, velocity is a function of how much powder and how much bullet.    Take, for example, a .223 load I'm working on.
 
The powder charge is 25gr.  Most of us probably weigh our powder to -+.1gr - in this case a .8% tolerance.  The bullet weight is 55gr (actual average is 55.5gr).  I'm using bulk pack remington bullets, which have a extreme variance of up to 3gr in either direction (a 5.5% variance).  About 75% fall within .3gr of the average 55.5gr (about a 1.1% variance) - these are the ones I use for super accurate loads.  I use the leftovers for "practice grade" ammo.  It just doesn't make sense to hold the powder to about 1% and not do the same with the bullets.
 
Just a guess at what might happen if I didn't weigh my bullets:  Most rounds would group tight - but an occasional round with a heavy or light bullet would result in a "flyer" outside the group.  I would probably blame myself and not even think it was the ammo.
 
Just my $ .02 worth....

[Kragman71]

I weigh all my rifle bullet,except for Sierra bullets.I find that they don't vary in weight as much as the other brands.My own cast bullets are probably as bad as any .
Years ago,I tested,and determined that same weight bullets do hold tighter groups then random weight bullets.
Frank

[vernonp]

There are other things that are far more important than bullet weight.     It certainly can not hurt anything, the more consistant the load is the better.-------Hornady's are the most inconsistant in shape, weight and anything else you can measure. I feel the most important aspect of reloading is getting the same seating depth. Most people try this by measuring the overall length. This does not tell you anything.---The last box of 168 gr. hornady match bullets I had I measured them in length from the ogive to the base and there was 32 thousandths difference.-------If you were using the overall length as measurement and trying to seat them .0020 off the lands, if indeed you knew where the lands were for one of these bullets and you had one of the shortest and longest bullets in the mix you would be right for the short bullet but hard in the lands by 12 thousandths for the long bullet.--vernonp

[Mike357mag]

Sierras are very consistant, so much I don't bother to weight them any more.

[Siskiyou]

Years ago I weighed a bunch of Remington 130 grain bronze points.  I found that there was a lot of variances between bullets.  But still less then one grain.  I do not recall the exact number.  Yet they were good enough for deer and ground hogs.

Last month I started loading up old style Winchester 140 grain, Silvertip .277 bullets.  The have to be one of the best bullets I have ever load regarding weight consistency.  Ten out of Ten came in a 140 grains.  That is quality control.

[mavrick10_2000]

Don't get me wrong here, I love Sierra's in all of my rifles.    However, what is your measurement of acceptable min. variance?

I just purchased a new box of .308 150gr Sierra SPBT Gamekings.   I weighed all 100 bullets.   I now have 4 separate bags of these bullets after weighing, which range from 151 gr to 154 gr.   That seems like a bit of a swing in weight to me. Then again they aren't match bullets and these tended to group well enough for Deer and larger sized game IMHO.

The other guys shooting Sierra's what is the normal variation you've found even when spot checking?    Maybe I just got a bad lot.   My .257's have never varied by more than 1 gr.

[t3shooter]

I weigh some, and definitely made a point of weighing the cast bullets I ordered (out of curiosity, turns out they're very consistent), but really, the performance I'm getting is good enough for me without spending a ton of extra time weighing anything other than the powder.