weighing bullets

Talk with other Shiloh Sharps shooters.

Moderators: Kirk, Lucinda

Post Reply
User avatar
kenny s
Posts: 775
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2015 8:14 am
Location: Venice FL

weighing bullets

Post by kenny s »

Ok, just thinking.
I'm casting , in a custom mold, 360 PP .400 top and .408 bottom 1/4 inch...bore and groove diameters. , for my 40 70 SS, Shiloh of course.
I weigh my bullets...
360 is perfect 1 in 20, some come out 359.5, 359.2, and I keep them.
some come out lighter...379.8 or even lower.

' question...how low would you go to keep them or re pot them .
The gun shoots 1 1/2 at 100 so no problems....

curious...Ken
User avatar
desert deuce
Posts: 3844
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:51 pm
Location: Rio Rico, Arizona

Re: weighing bullets

Post by desert deuce »

This is what I did for gg bullets in a 40-65 to determine my answer for the question you pose.

I cast up 70 bullets 1-20 Saeco #740, R-P 45-70 brass reformed to 40-65 and fire formed to the rifle.

I randomly selected 10 bullets from the last 25 cast and weighed them, totaled the weight and divided by 10 to get the average (406 grains)

All bullets between 405 & 407 were lumped together, 403-404.9 in the light pile over 407 in the heavy pile. Lube and size to .407"

3 were less than 403 and were remelted.

At the range I set up 3 Standard 300 yard BPTR targets at 300 yards in the target frames, put 10 shots from each lot 58 grains 1.5 Swiss, CCI-300 Primer, same rifle, same day, very difficult to distinguish which was the best group. All 3 well under three inches of vertical at 300 yards. That load, that rifle, that day no appreciable difference. Essentially, bullets 3 grains either side of average weight it made little difference. I don't test loads closer than 200 yards.

Bullet weights do make a difference at 1,000 yards but that is way beyond your question
Sometimes you get the chicken, and sometimes you get the feathers!
gunlaker
Posts: 2764
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:16 pm

Re: weighing bullets

Post by gunlaker »

I've shot unweighed bullets a number of time to 300 yards and still had excellent results. These will be bullets with no visual imperfections though. I have shot bullets with minor visual imperfections at 200m with excellent results too. Mind you, there is usually very little variation in weight in my bullets once the mold has come up to temperature. I can't remember any time recently that I've had more than maybe +/- 0.6gr once the mold is up to temperature.

For match shooting I am much more careful. For instance in the 150 or so rounds I brought to Byers, they were all within +/- 0.1gr.

Chris.
Woody
Posts: 6060
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:02 am
Location: Freetown, Indiana

Re: weighing bullets

Post by Woody »

I only weight the first few out the mould, until I see the weight stablize. I then only do a visual inspection after that. When I have checked weight, I found that I could consistently cast bullets with a total spread average of 1 grain. Most of the time it was less than. If that little weight does not make a difference, why bother weighting. So I quit.

Woody
Richard A. Wood
If you are surrounded. You are in a target rich environment.
Post Reply