Bullet weight consistency

ramdino

I bought some 55 gr lake city 223 fmjbt off of GB. after I weighted several I found most to be underweight by .3-.5 gr. Anyone know if that is within standards or are they junk? I am just using them for plinking and they seem to be holding good groups at 100yds. What would the expensive bullets, ie Hornaday, consistency be?

shoff14

Rule of thumb for most people is 1%. So you are with in that. Even with match bullets, you will see .1 to .2 difference for smaller/lighter bullets all the way up to .3-.4 with heavier match bullets.

Mobuck

That's better than some Armscor 55 FMJ I had a couple of years ago. They were off almost a grain and some of the bases were visibly different shaped. Good enough for government work-test loads shot 1-1 1/2" groups from a good AR.

Pistollero1050

I just group them into matching weight groups. seems to work well that way.[;)]

RCrosby

In my experience it's quite common, regardless of maker, for bullet weights to average a bit more or less than the stated weight. More important to me is the range of weights. I'd rather have "180's" that were all 179, than mostly 180's with a range of 179.5 to 180.5.
That said, IMHO, sorting bullets down to that .2/.3 grain is fine IF you're shooting beyond 300 yards AND have the equipment and skill to make the effort pay in smaller groups. That guy ain't me![:D][:D]

Rocky Raab

Your first mistake was weighing them. For the kind of shooting you describe, the ONLY thing that has to be weighed is the powder charge, and even that doesn't have to be dead on.

Pulled or rejected military ball bullets are notoriously inconsistent to begin with. We buy them because they are cheap, not because they are good. Think of them as fast food versus a gourmet restaurant.

Pistollero1050

+1