? for BT Sniper, or any other Bullet Engeneer...I'm just curious

[nun2kute]

I am just curious as to why there is a variation in weight at 400g. Why a five grain variation to 405g ? (I'm talking about the 405g bullets the Big Guy's are making for the 458 caliber rifles) Can't they make a bullet any weight they want like you and me, Or is there some reason I don't know about that makes a need to jump to (or stop at) 405g.

Lead boolits can vary several grains due to alloy, but the Jacketed bullet depends on Lead and Copper. So just balance the two for whatever weight you want. I could almost understand on a smaller bullet like the 68g 223 (5.56) round, it may be a little more difficult to balance out the weight. But on something this large, seems like it should be a piece of cake.

[Mauser 98K]

not really sure what your asking... if your talking about weight variation with commercial production then they vary a little due to production tolerances on the high speed machinery. this machinery runs so fast and they produce so many bullets that there is bound to be a little variation. when doing it by hand you can be more exact as to the weights you make..

as for the selection being limited for certain weights for commercial bullets. weights are usually standardized and it is not cost effective to have machinery that makes a bullet that is just 2 grains one way or the other. it would also require the companies that load them to work up more loads and would require the reloading data people to list more loads and it just snowballs real fast.

as for 5 grains variation you would most likely never even notice on a 400 grain bullet as far as accuracy goes. if you want perfection then you will have to do it yourself as you will never get perfection from mass produced anything as they are just interested in selling a product that will work good enough to sell more... but even hand cast or hand swaged bullets can vary in weight by a grain or two.. to get perfect bullets that do not vary any in weight you would have to weigh every core and every jacket and cast the cores 1 grain heavy and then use a file on the cores to lightly shave them to the weight you want. it would get very involved real fast.

[nun2kute]

Miner variations in manufacturing aside, Remington manufactures and markets a 405g jacketed bullet. That's not standard from my point of view. And accuracy has nothing to do with it, I just don't know why it's not 400g, and wonder why they pegged it at 405.
I can make my bullets any weight I wish, to a certain extent. But I've learned that I can cut my lead consumption almost in half by going from a 470g lead boolit to a 400g jacketed bullet. During that process deciding what weight to build, wondered why might I want to raise myself by 5 grains. My brain comes up with strange questions like this all the time ... like, what flavor is Water ? I just thought 400g bullets were standard, not 405, but I don't know why. I'll just go back to the reloading room and try not to think about it any more.

[ReloaderFred]

Remington makes it because it's a great bullet. I took a Canadian moose with one in Northern Alberta several years ago, and it put him right down. I loaded it with a healthy dose of IMR 3031, and the guide said it sounded like a kettle drum when it hit my moose. The guys shooting .300 Win. Mags were shooting them 3 and 4 times to put them down, with good hits. They were also destroying a lot of meat in the process, and I lost maybe a double handful of meat out of mine.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[runfiverun]

they make a 405 cause some dude in 1873 done a mathematical calculation and that's what the 45-70 [45-70-405] has taken as the standard government weight since then.

[BT Sniper]

If you are asking about why a manufacturer pics an "odd" or "unusual" weight for the final bullet......... then I suspect there are many possible reasons. For example just to name a few popular weights....... 52 grains, 142, 175 208, the list goes on.

When I make bullets I do not necessarily go for a "common" weight like typically done from major manufactures in multiples of 5 or 10 grains, I simply make the best bullet for given jacket size and the specifics of the die. Or if I happen to have a lot of cores all ready swaged with different possible jackets I'll make it easy for myself and use the same core rather then swage two cores of slight different weights, for example...... the 43 grain core I might use in a 22lr jacket to make a 53 grain bullet also works in an RCE .800 length 22 cal jacket to make an awesome 62 grain bullet.

So my guess to why big mfgs. Make bullets of "uncommon" weights is..... it is best for the given jacket or...... it is easiest for their given equipment or......... more often then not it might be marketing ploy..... "why shot a 400 grain bullet when our 405 grain wiz bang bullet will do much better?"

Who knows?

Just my 2 cents, I'll always tell my customers to make a bullet weight that works well with the components they are using and not to worry so much about a specific weight.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

they make a 405 cause some dude in 1873 done a mathematical calculation and that's what the 45-70 [45-70-405] has taken as the standard government weight since then.

This probably best answers the question I suppose. I haven't researched it but it sounds good.

Brian

[runfiverun]

I never could figure some of the weights out either, the 175gr 7 mauser for instance makes almost no sense but a 170gr 8 mauser does.

[Valornor]

they make a 405 cause some dude in 1873 done a mathematical calculation and that's what the 45-70 [45-70-405] has taken as the standard government weight since then.

This rings true to me too.

Manufacturers typically will try and stick with "Norms" as customers are familiar with certain bullet weights in certain calibers no matter how arbitrary it may seem. Another good example would be 124 and 147gr both typical bullet weights for 9mm Luger. How about the famed 168gr in the 308 Caliber? Why not 170gr or 165gr? The ballistic world is full of examples. As the rest of the world seems to run on Grams, the conversion of typical gram weight to Grains may also leave some arbitrary grain weight bullets.

From what I have seen, manufacturing tolerances in the worse of ammo *Cough* Remington *Cough* can be as high as +/- 2gr in their cheap target bullets. High Volumes certainly doesn't lead itself to better tolerances. One of the many bonuses to "rolling your own"

[nun2kute]

I sure am glad you'all are here. Talking to myself doesn't always help. (specially when I don't like the answer) So Thank You ! For being here for me.

And a special Thank You to BT, Pictures are worth a thousand words. I sure am glad you're reposting pictures. I can't count how many pages I've closed without reading cuz there's no Pic's. If I could just move to Oregon next to you, I could do all your bullet testing while you're in the shop making more to test, and dreaming up new Cartridges to build. Then I wouldn't need pictures.

[Soundguy]

they make a 405 cause some dude in 1873 done a mathematical calculation and that's what the 45-70 [45-70-405] has taken as the standard government weight since then.

agreed.. they make that 405 to mimic the 405 cast loading.