Accuracy in weight?

[borg]

Just wondering what others are getting as for the SD in weight variation on rifle boolits?
I've always casted for pistol, so really don't have anything to judge.
I cast about 10 Lbs of Lyman 311299 and, later I did a little weighing.
My pistol boolits always had a big fluctuation in weight, cause I just threw anything in the pot, but with rifle, I tried to get them as close to the mold target weight by using the Calc on the site.
I was really amazed at the accuracy of a good pot of lead.
Weighed about 100 and all were within 200 to 200.90, that's better than the SMK bullets!

I just hope they shoot as good.:smile:

[Digital Dan]

Borg, I don't know this is pertinent for work-a-day shooting, but a fellow who I respect greatly in the world of cast bullets and long range shooting suggested that .3 grains of spread was acceptable for that craft. My own experience suggests that for general field work, modest ranges ( less than 100 yards) a variation of 1-1.5 grains is not significant for the likes of .25-.30 caliber bullets. I think (scary, no?) that the easier and perhaps more functional way to look at this is a percentage of weight objective might serve as a worthy goal. The aforementioned long range guru was referring to big bullets and very long range. 500+ grains and 1,000 yards or more. By his standard .3 grains equates to .06% of a 500 grain bullet. WOW.... By my own standards and for general use, my acceptable spread for a Ideal 257283 (85 grains) is in the range of 1%. For a Lyman 311041 I'm looking at about the same standard. I do love me some simple.

With that said, I have several medium BP target guns and I do in fact tighten standards for those application. Haven't gone completely over the hill yet, but will use bullets with weight variation spread of 1/2 grain for 350-400 grain bullets. .50 caliber gets a pass with a 1 grain spread at 650-700 grain bullets.

[cbrick]

Yeah, it's a percentage of the whole. A .5 gr weight difference in a 200 gr bullet is far less a percentage of total bullet weight than would be a .5 gr variation in say a 45 gr 22 bullet. Bottom line is your intended use. If long range match shooting with a match grade firearm it could matter, hunting, plinking & such at shorter ranges it's pretty doubtful the difference could be noticed.

Rick

[bhn22]

For serious rifle work I generally try to hold SD to +/- 1/2 of 1 percent of actual bullet weights. The rest simply get remelted. The only way I 've been able to achieve this is to ladle cast in one sitting, and to keep my alloy well fluxed.

[trapper9260]

For serious rifle work I generally try to hold SD to +/- 1/2 of 1 percent of actual bullet weights. The rest simply get remelted. The only way I 've been able to achieve this is to ladle cast in one sitting, and to keep my alloy well fluxed.

I go by the same way for weights also. and have no problems.But I use the bottom pour as for the rest that is not within the weight I am looking for .I use it in my other guns of the same cal.and use it for them since some of them is not for long range.What I do I weight them after I size and GC and lube them That way I get the right weight of that one boolit.

[Foto Joe]

Mike Venturino of course advocates a +/- of .3 grains per boolit but most of us are NOT in the same class when it comes to shooting as Mike. I think a lot of it has to do also with what your putting those cartridges into. Are you feeding a bolt gun or a lever gun? A lever supposedly isn't going to make a ragged hole at 100 yards although I'm still trying to prove that theory incorrect. I personally use +/- .5 grain on a 311041 dropping a nominal weight of 174.1 grains.

The main reason I weigh mine is that I'm looking for voids that I might not initially see on inspection.

[45 2.1]

A lever supposedly isn't going to make a ragged hole at 100 yards although I'm still trying to prove that theory incorrect.

Quite a few people have lost quite a bit of money betting against that happening.

[borg]

These are to be used in a 300 BLK, so not target, just hunting.
What amazed me was I have shot Sierra Match Kings at 1000 yrds well, and they have more variation in weight. I used to weigh them into groups for the long ranges, then someone suggested that I shoot some without weighing,, no difference in score noticed. So I quit weighing them.
Thanks guys,, they should be good for the 150 yrds and under.

[Jeff Maney]

3 lots of 311299, Lyman DC, COWW+95/5 solder, about 2% Sn. Bullets were cast Nov. 2013
Range of 10 random bullets weighed & entered into spreadsheet.
200.6/201.4 gr. Sd 0.31
198.1/202.6 gr. Sd 1.10
201.5/203.6 gr. Sd 0.61

[borg]

How'd they shoot?

[Jeff Maney]

How'd they shoot?
Excellent, 1975 vintage Rem 700 in 30-06, Leupold 6.5-20x50, sized 0.310"/GC, seated "just touching", 2400/18.0.
Bore slugged 0.3083". 3.244" COAL, 1,541 fps, Sd 13.3. Several 3 shot groups near 5/8", most were about 1" at 100 yards.

Jeff