berger bullet base to ogive?

[Dubbo]

What is normal in your experience between lots of berger bullets in regards to base to ogive measurements? I expect some difference and have seen it but this last lot is 0.035" longer base to ogive and 0.050" longer OAL. I do not separate by OAL but just wanted to mention it. The base to ogive was surprising as I expected to see maybe +/-0.020" at most.

 

[tmwinds]

I've found that the measurement will vary considerably from lot to lot, but bullets of the same lot are almost dead on. That's why I always measure a few each time I use a new lot number and adjust my seating depth accordingly. I've found as much as .040 base to ogive between different lots. It doesn't seem to make any difference as long as you adjust for it and don't mix lots.

 

[jlow]

I’ve had good experience. My current lot of 140 Hybrid I checked measuring 30 random bullets and did not find more than 1 thousands ES in BTO length and weight ES in the same batch was 0.06 grains in the same lot…. Was going to either BTO or weight sort them, which ever was worse, but gave up the ghost when I saw this.

 

[22BRGUY]

There can be significant Lot to Lot variance from any bullet mfg's. Couple reasons: bullet dies wear; bullet dies get replaced. Lot's very do to these reasons and is why many buy large volumes of one Lot (especially competition shooters).
Donovan

Wondering what is considered an "acceptable" variance if any when loading a batch up for the range. I do realize in competition, perfection is the goal, but there must be some amount of variance that is "negligible".....or not?

 

[broncman]

Because of this variance, I sort the different lots by seating stem to ogive. Most of the variance I have found in juggernauts has been BTO. Even with a .035 difference in two lots, the seating stem to ogive measurement was within a thou or two.

That means the difference is either in bearing length or base length.

 

[Dubbo]

Sounds like this is within tolerance, must have gotten lucky before plus I'm new to this precision game and have been going thru more bullets...

 

[Shynloco]

There can be significant Lot to Lot variance from any bullet mfg's. Couple reasons: bullet dies wear; bullet dies get replaced. Lot's very do to these reasons and is why many buy large volumes of one Lot (especially competition shooters).
Donovan

In my experiences, I can easily attest to what Donovan writes. And Sierra has to be added to the discussion as having that variance. Personally, I use Sierra and Berger a good deal as both make fine bullets (IMHO). And I also believe some of that variance comes from bullets being mixed in packaging that are made on different machines. So I measure my bullets (ojive to base), load and shoot them in the groups by measurement. That way I don't have to keep resetting my seater die. Works for me.

Alex