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Bullet lot and tuning question

Raydee

I have been having good luck with my 6BR setup, everything has been shooting real well until just recently. I thought it may have just been the weather but today I think I found the culprit, it looks like when I opened a new box of Bergers they are a different lot number than the ones I have been using all season.

Now the question is do I go back and do a full new work up, powder, seating and tuner or should I skip the powder and just do a seating and tuner test to see if i can get it back on track?
 
Raydee said:
I have been having good luck with my 6BR setup, everything has been shooting real well until just recently. I thought it may have just been the weather but today I think I found the culprit, it looks like when I opened a new box of Bergers they are a different lot number than the ones I have been using all season.

Now the question is do I go back and do a full new work up, powder, seating and tuner or should I skip the powder and just do a seating and tuner test to see if i can get it back on track?
Click to expand...
I would try seat depth & tuner first. I have learned from experience to check a new box of bullets before starting to load from it. Ogive sometimes is in a different place and often in different places from bullet to bullet. Just sent app. 1500 back to Sierra due to this.
 
Yep, I got burned with a new lot of bullets I didn't fully check out. Weight, OAL and BTO were a match to a previous lot that was giving me 1/2" groups at 200. The new lot gave me 3" groups, found the day of competition and which really didn't translate to 600 yds very well at all. A quick seating depth test gave me a new CBTO number and back to better groups, but not until after a disastrous 3 x 600 score. Lesson learned.
 
I Don't understand WHY but, Berger Has been known to, Change some of their Dimensions on SOME of their Bullets from, Time to Time ! They SHOULD put a Note, in the Box WHEN, changing Dimensions !
It's Best to Buy, large Quantities of the SAME Lot number of Bullets, No matter Whose Bullets, you Use.
You pretty much gotta,.. "Re-Tune", the Bullet of every, Lot number,.. "Change"
 
This is probably my 4th different lot of Bergers, I guess I was lucky in the last three lots but my luck has run out. I am going to make some calls and see if I can find my original lot that shot the best and buy 5k if they are available.
 
I find that with my 6BR, when changing lots of bullets, loading the new lot to the same base to ogive length gives very similar results. some small powder or seating depth changes may be required.
I have been buying in 1000 quantities of the same lot number.
 
I actually did a seating test and a tuner test and found my original seating to still be the best. The tuner test showed a different result but match results were the same as the last match with this lot. I am wondering if this lot is just not going to shoot as expected.
 
JFrank said:
Non - custom bullets can be a real crap shoot to work with.
Click to expand...
I have come to realize best performance requires sorting those before loading no matter which manufacturer they come from. Some say sort by OAL only but there are situations that one needs to sort both OAL and BTO. Just went thru the scenario with Sierra's 131 gr. M K wherein the bullets were so bad base to ogive (.010 variance for 20 bullets) that Sierra took all 1500 ct. of them back and replaced them with new same lot # bullets. Just opened a box of 500 ct. - measured 10 bullets BTO and still found .003 variances between the 10. If seated depth variances of .003 matters and changes the group pattern then .003 variances of the ogive placement matters too.
 
Bill Norris said:
I have come to realize best performance requires sorting those before loading no matter which manufacturer they come from. Some say sort by OAL only but there are situations that one needs to sort both OAL and BTO. Just went thru the scenario with Sierra's 131 gr. M K wherein the bullets were so bad base to ogive (.010 variance for 20 bullets) that Sierra took all 1500 ct. of them back and replaced them with new same lot # bullets. Just opened a box of 500 ct. - measured 10 bullets BTO and still found .003 variances between the 10. If seated depth variances of .003 matters and changes the group pattern then .003 variances of the ogive placement matters too.
Click to expand...
That doesn’t surprise me at all, I was sorting non custom bullets starting at base to seater stem contact point into very small batches then sort the biggest part of the bell curve by base to ogive then again sort the best by OAL into .002 batches, shooting only the best at 1000 yards.

Now I just use Vapor Trails and save all that energy for more important things.

Jim
 
Shooter13 said:
Heck, I don't trust powder with the same lot #!!! Have some N135 and it's running 75 FPS faster than the same lot # that I just finished up. Of course I learned the hard way, match day!
Click to expand...
I have tested the effects of humidity on powder. I’m talking about the moisture content of the powder itself. It is one of the reasons I prefer one pound canisters. That pound can of powder is open far fewer times until it’s gone compared with 8 pound jugs. I would bet that caused your issue with powder with the same lot number.

Dave.
 
Raydee said:
I have been having good luck with my 6BR setup, everything has been shooting real well until just recently. I thought it may have just been the weather but today I think I found the culprit, it looks like when I opened a new box of Bergers they are a different lot number than the ones I have been using all season.

Now the question is do I go back and do a full new work up, powder, seating and tuner or should I skip the powder and just do a seating and tuner test to see if i can get it back on track?
Click to expand...
Seating will usually get you back in business. With that being said, some lots of bullets just shoot better than others.

Dave.
 
Idaho-Lefty said:
I Don't understand WHY but, Berger Has been known to, Change some of their Dimensions on SOME of their Bullets from, Time to Time ! They SHOULD put a Note, in the Box WHEN, changing Dimensions !
It's Best to Buy, large Quantities of the SAME Lot number of Bullets, No matter Whose Bullets, you Use.
You pretty much gotta,.. "Re-Tune", the Bullet of every, Lot number,.. "Chang I use Berger bullets
Click to expand...
I have experienced these same inconsistances in some makers bullets that were "supposedly" custom bullets. I have since been shooting Berger bullets for years. I have bought 8 or 9 different lots(1000ct) over the years and ALL have been so consistant in ALL measurements.....weight,diameter,base-to-ogive,length. All lots have performed equally without any adjustment to neck tension,seating depth,or powder charge. I can't say anything negative about Berger bullets. I have shot a lot of different maker's bullets, and have settled on Bergers.
 
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Dave Way said:
I have tested the effects of humidity on powder. I’m talking about the moisture content of the powder itself. It is one of the reasons I prefer one pound canisters. That pound can of powder is open far fewer times until it’s gone compared with 8 pound jugs. I would bet that caused your issue with powder with the same lot number.

Dave.
Click to expand...
Oh this matter I open an 8 pound jug and use a one pounder to work with keeping the 8 pounder sealed as much as possible. A little quirky I guess
 
Berger bullets benefit from weight sorting. This is not a fix for changing dimensions if any - but help a LOT in making them consistent. Weight sorting do make a difference on target.
I sort them in lot of no more than .02 grain between them. And in each box - there is a couple very low and very high…
 
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