Boolit Weight Variation

[Jagdhund]

I have been using W231 in my .45's for lo these many years. Right now, it's not on anybody's shelves around here. So I loaded some test rounds with various potential substitutes. All that is by way of introduction to my question. I decided to make things fair, by weighing up some 185 gr. commercial cast boolits I've had in the inventory for some time. Don't know who cast them, I just bought part of a lot from a co-worker and have never loaded any. I figured they would probably be more uniform than any I pour. I don't usually weigh boolits, because I don't shoot competition with cast and only need minute-of-pop can at 15 yards. Besides, it's tedious and takes away from loading more ammo to shoot. I guess I was surprised to find a fair amount of weight deviation between these boolits. So, I decided to compare some .45 boolits for Standard Deviation (Sd), Mean or average weight and Extreme Spread (Es). All weights in grains of course.

Here's what I found: 1)Unknown 185 gr SWCs AW=188.3 ES=4.7 Sd=1.6 2)Speer swaged SWC AW=200.0 ES=0.4 Sd=0.13
3)My Lee 230 gr. TCFP AW=233.9 ES=2.6 Sd=1.05 4)My 452374 AW=224.2 ES=1.0 Sd=0.4
5)My Lee 452 200 RNF AW=207.5 ES=0.6 Sd=0.2 6)Mid-Kansas 230 gr. RN (looks like the RCBS 230 gr. RN) AW=230.4 ES=0.9 Sd=0.5
7)Missouri Bullet Company 230 gr. RN (looks like the Mid-Kan, but with different lube) AW=230.1 ES=0.9 Sd=0.4
8)Unkown make of SWC similar to 452488 from a friend AW=199.0 ES=6.4 Sd=2.5 9)452488 cast by a friend of a friend many years ago AW=197.4 ES=3.1 Sd=1.2
9)My 452460 AW=202.2 ES=3.1 Sd=1.7

I guess my question is, I'm curious what are YOU satisfied with as far as boolit weight uniformity for general plinking and the occasional furry varmint.

[Tatume]

Try this test. Load 50 unsorted bullets, and 50 sorted by weight. Spend the day at the range and shoot ten, ten-shot groups. It will be a good day of shooting. Measure the targets. If sorting bullets is worth the effort, you will know it.

[freebullet]

Interesting.

Gunna be doing a test on this soon myself. Casting better boolits for high velocity rifle rounds is an interesting task. Initial weight sorting showed my technique needs refinement.

We were getting into this subject on another thread a few weeks ago but the thread was closed.

[upnorthwis]

I quit weighing boolits years ago. Last year I ran out of boolits that were in the "Match" box before a BPCR match. This is determined only by how they look. Decided to use the box marked "Scrap" Those are the ones with the rounded corners. Still won.

[.30/30 Guy]

The only test I have conducted was with some .30 caliber boolits. I got better results with the boolits that were not weighted than the weighted boolits!

[canyon-ghost]

When you get over 150 grains in weight, you can shoot anything within 1 grain of variance. If a lot are culls, go 1&1/2 grains in variance. It not all that big a deal.

[BruceB]

Many years ago, I decided that weighing complete casting runs of bullets was a waste of time.

Even though an electronic scale makes quick work of the process, it just wasn't worth it.

One occasion that weighed" heavily in that decision was when I test-weighed a batch of over 800 RCBS 416-350s, finding an extreme spread of LESS than one grain (365-grain bullets!) and rejecting exactly ONE bullet.

Visual inspection finds more flaws in my products than does weighing, anyway.

In our Bullseye competition days, I cast and loaded over a quarter-million .38 wadcutters, without ever weighing them beyond satisfying the simple curiosity of establishing a general idea of what a given type weighed on-average.

Maybe if I were shooting cast-bullet benchrest matches, weighing all bullets might be a possibility.... but I'm not firing such events. Therefore.....

[Jagdhund]

Try this test. Load 50 unsorted bullets, and 50 sorted by weight. Spend the day at the range and shoot ten, ten-shot groups. It will be a good day of shooting. Measure the targets. If sorting bullets is worth the effort, you will know it.

I may, in time, run such a test with my Kimber, before I get too where I can't shoot a good group anymore. I've cast bullets since 1969 and have weighed only a small percentage. I think for most of the shooting I do now, I'll probably load without sorting by weight. The exception would be for hunting load development and for my old Blackhawk .357 for 100 yd plinking. Thanks everybody for your replies.

[dragon813gt]

I will weigh a particular design w/ a particular alloy to determine it's weight for load workup purposes. After that gets entered into the spreadsheet and the ammo can labeled properly I don't bother weighing anymore. Beyond randomly being bored and throwing a few on the scale I haven't seen any difference. About the only time I will start weighing is if a mold is giving me issues and I'm culling a lot of them. I want to know if the keepers are consistent or not.

[jhalcott]

Plinking ammo does not get weighed at my house. RIFLE boolits will get weighed IF I Plan on LONG shots at small targets. I found that IF the cadence in casting is correct, the weights do not differ that much. Buying cast bullets is not normal for me, I like to KNOW what I'm shooting!

[freebullet]

Of course when your attempting to push velocity way up there things might change.

Weight sorting pistol boolits, no thanks.
My test will be in rifles.

[TXGunNut]

I wouldn't bother for pistol boolits, I do weigh my rifle boolits when developing hunting loads. I generally wind up with two groups, all in each group within a grain of each other. Boolits outside these groups go back in the pot or into fouling loads.
If you want an eye opener weigh a handful of good commercial j-word bullets. The Hornady bullets my 165 and 180's 30-06 likes have a 3-4 grn ES. RP component bullets often go more.
Weighing boolits, IMHO, will tell you more about your pouring technique than your targets.

[GhostHawk]

I just weighed a few 7.62 boolits for my Mosin, .312 155 grain, GS design, with lube and GC they weighed in an average of 168, some a half under, one a half over.

I have to admit I'm surprised. I wouldn't have guessed they grew "That" much.

Leads me to wonder if my .312 185's will approach the 200 mark?

[Shiloh]

For pistol boo;its, I don't weigh them. Only the rifle boolits get separated into lots by weight. And they are usually all pretty close as dropped.

Shiloh

[dh2]

I sort by weight and every thing out side the "Standard Deviation " goes back in the pot to try again. and try to load the one's closest in weight togather

[hickfu]

When I first started casting I got into the weighing of every boolit and separating them by grains and culling the ones that were too far outside of those ranges... Then I actually shot them! I had 36 boolits with a 12 grain spread between the heaviest to the lightest and they all grouped as good as the ones I fired that were of the EXACT same weight. I no longer weigh my boolits, its a waste of time.

I have purchased boolits from Beartooth and other manufactures and got the same spread I saw in mine.


Doc

[44man]

I go by looks only. A bad casting is a bad casting. Every time I weighed batches for groups I got worse groups anyway.

[Jagdhund]

I just weighed a few 7.62 boolits for my Mosin, .312 155 grain, GS design, with lube and GC they weighed in an average of 168, some a half under, one a half over.

I have to admit I'm surprised. I wouldn't have guessed they grew "That" much.



Leads me to wonder if my .312 185's will approach the 200 mark?

Thirteen grains sounds somewhat excessive on a .30 cal. boolit. My 200 - 230 gr boolits typically weigh 3 to 5 or 7 grains, a few go backward a grain or two.

[williamwaco]

Doc + 1

Been there. Done that. Same result.