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Berger QC problems, anyone ?

JMayo

Silver $$ Contributor
I believe I'm seeing QC differences in the last lott I've bought.
Anyone else seeing problems like meplat empty looking on some and up to the brim & spouting out on others ?
Ragged meplat, caved over.
Jackets seem to be a mixed variety in shapes.
 
I just opened a new yellow and black, Lot 1720, 500 count box of 200 Hybrids yesterday to sort, which was for the most part, a waste of time. I was impressed with how consistent they were.

What bullet did you find these issues with?
 
I shoot the Berger 73's and 80's in my .223. No variations that I can see. Any lowering of accuracy may be traced back to my inability to read the wind, with or without my flags.
 
I loading 7mm 180 gr. hb. checking base to ojive 2 where .050 off seems like they where different bullets they where shorter so i used them for fowlers .
 
I have seen a H-U-G-E difference in quality control at Berger>>>>>FOR THE BETTER! When I started with the .300WSM, now nearly 2 years ago, with BOTH the 200-20X and 215 Hybrids I had to sort and "point" the bullets. I did NOT point the bullets to INCREASE b.c., I pointed them to merely make the "less than stellar" meplats more uniform. Then, earlier this year, I started shooting the 230 Hybrids. These bullets were nigh on to perfect. No sorting or pointing necessary! These were about the equal of the Berger 6mm 108BT and the Berger 140LRBT! The last 2 lots of BOTH the 215s and the 200-20X bullets were just like the 230s! So far their much better quality control has been a GREAT time and labor saving devise for me! Keep up the excellent work, especially on the aforementioned bullets!
 
This is a copy of my post a couple of weeks ago, regarding Berger quality.

I've been using these bullets in my bolt gun, getting quarter MOA at 100 yards. I seat them at 1.861, which in my rifle, is jamb minus .020. I use a Wilson in line seater with an arbor press. I get very consistent seating depth with this setup. However, for this batch seating depth was all over. 1.855 to 1.875 for the first few I seated. I stopped and measured 10 random bullets out of the box. The BTO measurements ranged from .550 to .522! I set that box aside and opened a new box and measured 10 random bullets again. These measured .5285 to .5290, BTO. This is what I normally see for this bullet. I finished seating bullets from this box. All good at 1.861.
I measured all of the remaining bullets in the "bad" box. This is what I got:
1 .519
1 .521
50 .522
9 .523
13 .524
9 .525
2 .538
3 .539
2 .540
1 .550
The weight was good, between 80.4 and 80.5 gr. I had 1 @ 78.4 grs however.
I usually dont sort Berger's because, they are very consistent for weight and BTO. Very odd that none of this box measured the normal .529. WTF?
Anybody else seeing this sort of crazy?
PopCharlie

Seems as though other folks are experiencing random issues.
PopCharlie
 
I shoot the lrht 109's and the 144's. Have purchased 2.5k of each in the last 2 months. Have different lots of the 144's. After measuring the base to ogive on about twenty I gave up, they were indistinguishable.
 
In the past, there's always seemed to be some way off on bto. Just enough to have to measure them all.

Lately I've been wasting time measuring .264 156 EOLs & 140 hybrids and .284 180 hybrids. A very nice trend.
 
A couple months ago ; I ran into some 185 Juggs that had BTO variations , within one box . But the other nine boxes of the same lot were within a thousandth or two . It caught my attention when I was seating them , and like others , they got used for sighters . Guys ; I know mistakes can happen , especially when you consider the millions of bullets in various calibers and weights they produce . Stuff happens . Your fault , my fault , nobodies fault . Call Berger , explain the problem , and get a exchange , or refund .
 
It does happen to the best outfits.

The types of machines used to make bullets mean that there are always starts and stops that produce defects that get ironed out and stabilized during the run. When escapes make it into the batch that should have been culled, there is some chance they are missed and get all the way out.

They do work very hard to prevent this, but nobody is perfect. Show them what you found and they will make it right. We have been blessed with outfits like Berger, Sierra, Lapua, etc. that many are not familiar with the days when the cull rates were much higher.

Very sorry to hear this got all the way to you and the others. The energy and time you spend inspecting and documenting what you found will likely be returned for your trouble.
 

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