Evaluating Good vs. Bad Bullet Lots of bullets

[antunRC]

I am not trying to be flippant, but the best way is to shoot them.

If you are shooting true custom bullets, this can be rare. But semi custom mass produced bullets can vary from lot to lot.

You can measure the base to ogive distance and shank diameter on a known good lot, and compare this to a newer lot. But that does not tell you anything about the manufacturing process.

If you are shooting semi custom mass produced bullets, lot to lot variation is possibly something you have to live with.

I’d love to try some custom .30 cal 200+gr bullets. What are our options? I know about Hottenstein and Vapor Trail. Is there anyone else making 200+ grain bullets with a decent BC?

 

[jackieschmidt]

I’d love to try some custom .30 cal 200+gr bullets. What are our options? I know about Hottenstein and Vapor Trail. Is there anyone else making 200+ grain bullets with a decent BC?

These are true custom bullets. Backed by some of the best bullet makers around.

 

[JFrank]

Sorting by OAL is also an issue with LOT #3885. They don’t sort as consistently as some of the other LOT I’ve used, including some of my 7mm bullets. Here’s an example showing how two different LOT sort (bad/good).

#3885 - This is a bad lot - it doesn’t group like the other LOTs.
View attachment 1748721

#3368 LOT
View attachment 1748719

Either one of those lots would have to be superb on a long range target to be worthy after that much variation.

Life’s too short to ride bad horses… buy good bullets.

 

[Syncrowave]

They say “you get what you pay for” but with bullet lots, it’s “sometimes you get what you pay for.”

Amen to that. I don't know about anybody else, but I seem to somehow fall into a "gray market" on bullets, where (apparently) vendors are selling seconds or blems, but not labeling them as such.

For example, "Larry" recently had some .308" 150gr FBSPs that he labeled as "major manufacturer overruns." I forget whether I asked (or maybe someone else did?) but my recollection of events suggests that somebody asked, "Are these seconds or blems?" and the answer was no. I've shot a few hundred of them using various powders, primers, seating depths, etc., but I have yet to find any combo that groups much under 1 MOA consistently. Here and there you'll get a group of 3 at 0.75 MOA, but it seems to be luck more than anything else. (I'm not a great shooter, but I'm a lot better than that.)

Another vendor who shall remain "nameless here for evermore" sells lots of projectiles at bargain rates. They don't label them as such, but many if not all of them are seconds/blems. (I checked with the mfgr about a letter that followed the number printed on the box and they said they were seconds...but the vendor doesn't make that clear.)

By checking prices on ShootingBOT.com I sometimes find killer deals on various bullets from various vendors, but those great prices seem to come and go -- as if they're trying to unload some sketchy product. And rarely if ever is it labeled as "seconds" or "blems." So you're left to wonder.

All of which raise some questions in my mind:
1. Should all low-price bullets be assumed to be blems/seconds? Or only the exceptionally low-priced ones?
2. If you want good, first-quality bullets, must you only buy them from the highest-priced vendor?
3. Why don't manufacturers more strictly police vendors to make sure seconds and blems are flagged?

It seems like it shouldn't be this murky. It seems like you ought to be able to shop for first-quality bullets by price.

It also seems that manufacturers, if they want to protect their names and reputations, should demand that vendors who sell their "second-quality" bullets clearly label them as such.

 

[gmr4]

Not long ago a friend start sorting by bearing surface length. He uses two sinclair ogive comparators apposing on his calipers.. this measures from a point up on the boat tail to the ogive. I thought “here we go again” but he is seeing some amazing group consistency by shooting like sizes. Berger has an illustration of this, I believe theres a copy of it above, anyway the five hundred he sorted produced 5 batches varying by .007. He started all this because of a bad lot!

 

[ELR LVR]

I’d love to try some custom .30 cal 200+gr bullets. What are our options? I know about Hottenstein and Vapor Trail. Is there anyone else making 200+ grain bullets with a decent BC?

you might look at some Warner Tool Co "Flatline" 180 grn .30 Cal solids
BC is amazing and they shoot just as good, I would say their advertised 10 twist may be marginal
I tried them in a 10 twist and they shot excellent in a 308
then tried them in a 10 twist 30-06 which shoots 208 Amaxes very well at 600 yds
...But did not shoot the WTC 180's well
So some barrels may not like them
They are worth a first box of 50 to try out at least, I was beyond impressed with them at 900 yds anyhow
Drop was a few Mils less than 185 Juggs at 900 yds too.
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they are so perfectly consistent to each other, there is no need to sort them , you will give up trying to find differences after sorting 20
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I also like their sharp meplat (watch your fingers when you go to grab one out of the box)