-Sorry, I couldn't resist using a Goodsteel-ism in the thread headline.
For some time, and especially since I got involved in the XCB rifle and bullet project, I have religiously weight sorted all my bullets cast for High Velocity. The bullet I shoot the most is the NOE 31-165 (XCB), and I spend long hours building bell curves, sorting and bagging the bullets I cast. Then they are loaded in 10-shot strings with every bullet in each string weighing exactly the same down to 1/10 grain (the limit of my scale).
So I got to thinking: Is there a way to quantify the importance of this practice of weight sorting, in a way that's statistically valid? You be the judge, but here's what I came up with:
From a casting session that yielded a gross quantity of 474 bullets (linotype), I culled 29 for physical defects, for a net of 445. With the 445 bullets sitting in a plastic container, I asked my daughter to pick out 30, and to put them in a plastic bag. They were put aside and no further weighing or inspection was done with these bullets.
This left a balance of 415 bullets, which were weight sorted into this bell curve:
Not a spectacular bell curve, but not totally cr@ppy either.
I then selected 30 bullets from the largest group in the curve: these weighed 154.4 grains naked.
All 60 bullets were then gas checked (Hornady), lubed (Lars 2700+), sized (.310 Buckshot push thru) and loaded in cases that were from the same batch of originally formed W-W cases. CCI 200 primers and a thrown charge of 52 grains WC867 was used. From experience this load gives me right around 2360 fps on the average, so I saw no need to hook up the MagnetoSpeed.
Shooting protocol: 2 foulers (same lube and powder) from a clean barrel, then 30 shots with 2 minutes between each shot. Every 7-8 shots the pause would be slightly longer when Cease Fire was called at the range (we shoot 15 minute volleys).
Then the barrel was cleaned (1 wet patch Ed's Red, 2 dry patches), then repeat as above.
All said the shooting took 3 1/2 hours, and I have to say the results were not what I expected:
I made a double take and re-checked my ammo boxes, but the picture correctly shows what happened. I was surprised.