For those of you who weigh sort your bullets, how much incremental difference between groups do you use; such as every .2 of a grain, every grain or?
In measuring my Berger 180’s I’ve come up with 179.9 - 180.1 with the majority of them weighing 180. It doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort to me.
Thank you for your opinions in advance.
I used to weight sort and sort by bearing surface for 1000 yard bench rest matches. The bullets were 142 gr SMKs. For me I didn’t see big enough difference to continue sorting. Others might have had bigger improvements to make it worthwhile. If I can’t see the difference on the target, it’s probably not worth the effort. Let your target scores guide you.
Fred from Redding.
Sounds like good advice. How did you measure the bearing surface? I’m all in to sorting for improvement. But which is best, bearing surface, base to ogive, overall length, or weight?
I’m using a quality bullet and get great performance but again knowledge of the arts.
I use a Hornady bullet comparator with my caliper, but with two inserts. One for the ogive, the other for the boat-tail base. This kinda sorta gets the length of the bearing length of the bullet. Let me know if this is unclear. I can try to send a pic.
The best F-Class shooter I ever knew only sorted his bullets by base to tip. He won the Nationals once, The SWN once.and was on several World Teams
Hard to argue with success so I won’t, however I find it interesting that he would measure base to tip. It would seem to me that the ogive to tip, which would be part of the base to tip measurement, is irrelevant as it never touches the barrel.
If I ever get my gun back from my gunsmith, I may give it a try anyway. Willing to try anything once.
Thanks for the info.
Consistent BC has more significance in sorting than any other measurement and the best way to do that is to sort by base to tip.
First of all , Like Brass , it’s best to buy quality bullets that have a reputation of consistency and winning . One example would be 140gr Elite Hunter by Berger . Say you buy 1000 bullets . The weights and base to Ogive will be very consistent . What’s not is the base to tip . Since this has a direct effect on BC this is the best way to measure . It gets rid of the extremes , very short and very long . This measurement doesn’t mean much at 100 yards but is important at longer ranges . I sort in .001 increments and sometimes group 2 to 3 groups in the middle depending on what I’m using them for . Make sure ur buying the same lots and when you have to buy more bullets and end up with different lots , you need to measure the bullets around the pressure ring which can be larger or smaller by .0005 or more which can create a different pressure and now will not shoot the same . You may have to start load development over . They do make special tools by various companies that make measuring base to tip easy . I can do 500 in22 minutes . Hard to do accurately with just a caliper .
I stopped sorting bullets and brass a couple years ago because I’m only shooting 100 yards and at that distance it really doesn’t matter. IMO
I don’t compete, just a hunter and am only able to practice to 600yds. I do sort by weight and separate groups by +/- 0.100 of a grain and sort bearing surface by +/-0.001”. Have always heard overall length for hunting ammunition was not necessary and I really never gave it another thought. I guess I’ll have to try it out and see for myself if it makes a difference. Using a bipod and a hand held squeeze bag, I think the difference will not be noticeable but hey…its another reason to send some lead down range.
You get it. At the elite level little things that make a difference can mean an extra point or two and a few more X’s. Me I don’t have that level of skill or dedication and just buy the best bullets and go from there.