Author Topic: Bullet Samples (Read 978 times)

Buckskin · « **on:** March 01, 2012, 05:47:07 AM »

I don't know if you guys have seen this website, I found it over on the H&R forum. You can buy whatever number of bullets you want to try! So you won't have umpteen boxes of bullets laying around (like I do). I just ordered 10 of each of 8 different bullets and it cost $35. If I wanted to try all of those bullets and had to buy a full boxes it probably would have cost me over $200! I wish I would have found this years ago...
http://www.bulletsamples.com

BBF · « **Reply #1 on:** March 01, 2012, 08:46:50 AM »

Would they have been around 10 or15 years ago I would have saved a bundle of $ and Storage space.

ironglow · « **Reply #2 on:** March 01, 2012, 09:06:23 AM »

Thanks Buckskin;
Somebody has a good idea..

Graybeard · « **Reply #3 on:** March 01, 2012, 12:14:53 PM »

I wouldn't waste powder and primers if I had only ten bullets to work with. What do you think you are gonna tell from so few? When I work up loads and test them I make at least ten with each bullet and each of the at least two to four powders I will use and at multiple charge levels. I consider 50 bullets an absolute minimum to bother with and much prefer 100.

If I don't have good reason to think I'd like it well enough to invest in a hundred of them then I just don't waste time/effort/money on them.

necchi · « **Reply #4 on:** March 01, 2012, 07:15:04 PM »

Yeah I'm with Bill on that one, not much you can tell with so few.
I've learned to get a good loading it's 30 at least just for load development.
Extra's or bullets that don't work out can be traded on "for sale" forums like the one here on GB's,
,,trading is a good thing,

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/board,244.0.html

Buckskin · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2012, 03:01:21 AM »

I completely disagree about that, you can get a very good idea if your rifle will like a certain bullet and bullet weight with 10 bullets, unless it's a new rifle that you don't know at all. I'm not talking about load developement or getting the best possible group in 10 rounds. If you know your rifle and do a little bit of load research on the intended bullets you certainly can find out if your gun will be friendly to a bullet in 10 shots. Don't tell me you guys don't have boxes of bullets laying around that will likely never get loaded.

Anyway, you can buy 30 or 50 if you so choose and still be ahead... And GBO classified is a great place to find stuff, but it would take years to find all of the specific bullets and weights that I ordered.

Graybeard · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2012, 05:30:30 AM »

Quote

Don't tell me you guys don't have boxes of bullets laying around that will likely never get loaded.

Nope not if I live long enough. If I buy them I shoot them at least the box I opened. Now I have so many in stock it is possible I might not live long enough to shoot them all at the rate I currently shoot but I am trying to shoot more and more often.

huntducks · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2012, 05:54:04 AM »

For me 5 bullets would just be one powder weight to start with, now you have at least 4 more different powder charges with that one powder, I usually go thru 3 different powders, now add in 2 different primers min. good by a 100 bullets, and will still have not got to OAL.

I think we all look for something different out of our rifles, in my cases hunting, but if you live in a area and 100 yards is a long shot i'm sure you can get 10 bullets to give enought accuracy, but when your shooting 300-600 yds that 2" group at a 100 really gets big at 600.

Plus all the bullets I bought 10-20-30 years ago are now a investment.

Smokin Joe · « **Reply #8 on:** March 02, 2012, 06:14:25 AM »

http://bulletproofsamples.com/

http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/cid=0/k=bulletproof/t=P/ksubmit=y/Products/All/search=bulletproof

Buckskin · « **Reply #9 on:** March 02, 2012, 06:34:25 AM »

Quote from: huntducks on March 02, 2012, 05:54:04 AM

For me 5 bullets would just be one powder weight to start with, now you have at least 4 more different powder charges with that one powder, I usually go thru 3 different powders, now add in 2 different primers min. good by a 100 bullets, and will still have not got to OAL.

I think we all look for something different out of our rifles, in my cases hunting, but if you live in a area and 100 yards is a long shot i'm sure you can get 10 bullets to give enought accuracy, but when your shooting 300-600 yds that 2" group at a 100 really gets big at 600.

Plus all the bullets I bought 10-20-30 years ago are now a investment.

I agree. If you are going to fine tune a bullet, then you will need a 50-100 rounds. But if you want to see if a bullet or different weight is worth the trouble, I can easily get a feel for it in 10 rounds. Am I going to get all that is possible out of it? Of course not, not my intention. But I will have a good idea of I can expect from it. I got 8 different high end bullets for less than the price of one box. And if I think I need more of a particular bullet, guess what??? I can get more.

I have 150+rounds of test ammo/ladder ammo for 4 different calibers patiently waiting for a nice day. So playing around with another 80 will give me something to keep my mind off the crappy weather we've been having lately...

And all of the rifles that these bullets are for are sub-moa shooters although one is being rebuilt as we speak and I expect it to be a 1000yd shooter when finished. I am always tweaking loads, trying different things to make those holes smaller, shoot further. Fun stuff. I can't imagine just going and buying a box of ammo of the shelf...

Grumulkin · « **Reply #10 on:** March 02, 2012, 09:00:01 AM »

Believe it or not, the powder and primer combination is more important to accuracy than is the bullet.

For me, 50 bullets is a bare minimum and I'm much more comfortable with 500 to 1,000.

Buckskin · « **Reply #11 on:** March 02, 2012, 01:29:17 PM »

Quote from: Grumulkin on March 02, 2012, 09:00:01 AM

Believe it or not, the powder and primer combination is more important to accuracy than is the bullet.

For me, 50 bullets is a bare minimum and I'm much more comfortable with 500 to 1,000.

Well then I guess this website is not for you...

Dand · « **Reply #12 on:** March 03, 2012, 01:29:18 PM »

I've had a couple situations where in the first 10 bullets or so I realized they weren't gonna work for me. So the rest of the box sits around unless I find someone who wants them. I think the 10 bullet sample packs are a good idea for some of us. I have a few loads I'm real happy with but might want to change just the bullet or try a new bullet. Thanks for the link.

Catfish · « **Reply #13 on:** March 04, 2012, 01:21:05 PM »

When I first got my 17 AH I bought several boxes of bullets from 3 different manufactures. I started with a very lite load of powder and loaded about 10 different bullets with it. I went out and grouped all of them and then came back in and did it all over again with 1/10 of a gr. more powder. As I worked up the heavy bullets would hit max. load so I would just not load them in the next round. I said all of that to just say this. The bullet I setteled on was the 19 gr. Calhoon. It had by far the largest group with the lite loads but as it got closer to max. the groups really dropped. If I had only 10 or 20 of those bullets I would have writen them off long befor they started to shoot well.

Buckskin · « **Reply #14 on:** March 04, 2012, 03:35:12 PM »

Quote from: Catfish on March 04, 2012, 01:21:05 PM

When I first got my 17 AH I bought several boxes of bullets from 3 different manufactures. I started with a very lite load of powder and loaded about 10 different bullets with it. I went out and grouped all of them and then came back in and did it all over again with 1/10 of a gr. more powder. As I worked up the heavy bullets would hit max. load so I would just not load them in the next round. I said all of that to just say this. The bullet I setteled on was the 19 gr. Calhoon. It had by far the largest group with the lite loads but as it got closer to max. the groups really dropped. If I had only 10 or 20 of those bullets I would have writen them off long befor they started to shoot well.

If a bullet has to be shot at or near minimum load it's of no value to me, so I wouldn't start there anyway.

BBF · « **Reply #15 on:** March 04, 2012, 04:36:05 PM »

For a guy that only has a few different powders to try and is looking for a specific weight bullet it makes sense to me not to buy a 100 bullets in one box. Of course now we have a number of so called Premiums that come in boxes of 50 for the price of some other makes that charge for 100.

Buckskin · « **Reply #16 on:** April 06, 2012, 06:07:40 AM »

Well as a follow up on this subject, I tested a couple bullet that I bought samples of and had very interesting results. Both bullets were shot using my R-15 223. This gun shoots 60grain VMax's with H332 well under MOA. I did a 7 shot warm up group that measured .778".

I shot 64gr and 70gr Bergers loaded to max mag length, 3 groups loaded with 3 different powder weights. I've never shot over 60 grain pills out of this gun so was excited to see results. I did a little research as to what these bullets generally like in an AR platform with a 9 twist. I did have an estimated 5-10mph tail wind so may have affected vertical results a bit ( I hope!)...

First 3 shot group of 64gr measured 1.68" , 1.050 horizontally $:-\$
Second of 64gr measured 1.54" and 1.028" horizontally

First 3 shot group of 70gr measured 0.647" vertically and 0.175 horizontally

Second group of 70gr measured 0.630" vertically and 0.097 horizontally

I had 4 shots left of each bullet, but tail wind kept getting worse and I forgot to set up chrono... So I will wait for a nice calm day to finish.

So the sample route worked perfectly for me in this rifle and now I don't have 90 bullets of 64gr Bergers that would be of no use to me. I do have 3 other calibers that I have samples for though that may not show such obvious results...

necchi · « **Reply #17 on:** April 06, 2012, 06:34:24 AM »

Glad it worked out for ya,

Quote

,,, now I don't have 90 bullets of 64gr Bergers that would be of no use to me.

Those "extra" bullets I end up with have become VERY handy to have and use on this forum for trading, http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/board,244.0.html
Honest, for nothing more than a 4.95 shipping in a flat rate box, I've come up with many items I need and made others that use those "extra" bullets I've had very happy.
It's really a great way to not only share with others of our ilke, but most of the "trading" can very generous,,
,, but you need things to trade with.
Bullets for bullets,,
Bullets for brass,
Bullets for equipment,,

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #18 on:** April 07, 2012, 12:23:54 AM »

I too have no problem burning up at least 50 of a certain bullet when doing initail load work with a gun. Problem i have is when i order bullets i usually order at least 3 boxes of any bullet i want to try. I hate finding one that works and not having more. It does tend to give leftovers though. But i figure in any caliber before I die another rifle will come along that i want to try them in.

jhm · « **Reply #19 on:** April 07, 2012, 04:51:35 AM »

There are 3 of us that hang out and do alot of reloading/shooting together and between us there is alot of bullet, powder, primer, trading swaping or just giving away to one another that we are always buying a min. of 100 when we buy just for comfort sake any real odd ball bullets are generally used up just checking the overall function of a gun so they do get used up one way or the other. Jim