How much bullet weight variance is acceptable?

[B23]

Just received my order of 6 boxes of Hornady 80gr ELD-M bullets. Was hoping they'd all be the same Lot# but unfortunately they aren't. Three boxes are of one Lot# and the other three are a different Lot#.

I opened one box from each Lot# and weighed all 100 from each of the two boxes. One Lot# was pretty decent and varied from 79.9 - 80.2 grains with 85% of them, from that box, weighing 80-80.1 grains.

The other box, from the other Lot#, ranged from 79.7 - 80.5 grains with no real consistency to any one particular weight. Except for there only being one that weighed 79.7gr all the others were pretty equally spread out with regard to weight.

I'm used to shooting non tipped bullets but my Bergers and Sierra MK's rarely ever vary more than .1 grain.

Maybe I'm just being nitpicky but for "Match" grade bullets, I'm not very impressed, and to me, a nearly 1 grain variance in a 80gr bullet, seems like a lot.

What do you all think???

 

[Bc'z]

Send em back and request the other lot # in return

 

[rhovee]

I bet the bearing surface length and pressure ring on the bullet will be more off than the weight as far as effecting accuracy goes. I have seen the same things with Hornady. I could still get 1”’groups at 300 for my hunting rifles with no sorting.

 

[IdahoSharpshooter]

1% variance is all I usually expect up to 200gr bullets. Berger and the original JLK's hold that.

 

[newbieshooter]

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/ammolytics-bullet-sorting-experiment-part-one.3971874/

 

[dcali]

If it’s not indicative of some other manufacturing inconsistency, weight doesn’t matter as much as people tend to think. A couple tenths here or there isn’t going to matter, especially with heavy bullets. 0.2grains out of 200 is 0.1%. That is pretty good.

It also turns out that the slightly increased pressure behind a slightly heavier bullet partially compensates for its extra weight, further reducing the impact of weight variance.

That said, an 0.8gr spread is unusual in my experience and would concern me. +/- 0.2 over an entire box is more typical, and you often see a little better. Berger tends to keep a pretty tight spread in my experience.

 

[B23]

I've shot a fair amount of lighter Hornady Vmax bullets, particularly the 53gr Vmax and 6mm 75gr Vmax, and don't recall there being this much variance in bullet weight for those two and they aren't even considered a "Match" bullet.

If all of these new 80gr ELD-M bullet were within the .3gr variance like one of the boxes were I could live with it, I'd still be a little disappointed though, especially considering Hornady really promotes and tries to sell you on their "Superior uniformity" and "AMP jacket design for optimum concentricity and accuracy", but I could live with a .3gr ES. Having said all that, I do find it challenging to accept a near 1 grain ES in bullet weight from a box of only 100 bullets.

If I get a chance to today I plan on calling Hornady and see what they have to say.

For what it's worth, the Lot# with the .8gr variance is Lot# 2182451 and they one that was much better is Lot# 2182310

 

[MGYSGT]

question? Have you shot them to see if your fears of inaccuracy are founded. Why not use the widest ranges of weights for foulers and sighters? I think we get too upset about weights under a grain. Let us know how they shot.

 

[Ned Ludd]

A 0.8 gr spread in an 80 gr bullet is 1.0%. That is totally unacceptable, regardless of the manufacturer. It doesn't even matter whether 1% weight variance is enough to affect velocity because I'd always be wondering what else was wrong with that Lot# of bullets. I'd also be contacting the vendor and/or Hornady for a replacement. In the future, I would suggest specifically requesting that the vendor provide all the bullets from a single Lot#. If they cannot or will not, take your business to someone that will. Plenty of reloading supply outfits provide all of the same bullets in an order from the same Lot# as a routine practice and will notify you at a very minimum if they cannot.

 

[Mad_Charlie]

My question would be, and is, what PERCENTAGE of variation would be considered to be detrimental to long range accuracy?

 

[dcali]

The best way to get a feel for how much it matters is to use a ballistics calculator. BC is linearly proportional to weight. In other words, a 1% decrease in weight will result in a 1% decrease in BC. So is 1% tragic? No, not really (depending on your requirements). It is unusual, though, and I would wonder why there is such a large variation - what else might be wrong?

 

[Ned Ludd]

The best way to get a feel for how much it matters is to use a ballistics calculator. BC is linearly proportional to weight. In other words, a 1% decrease in weight will result in a 1% decrease in BC. So is 1% tragic? No, not really (depending on your requirements). It is unusual, though, and I would wonder why there is such a large variation - what else might be wrong?

^^^This. Something within the bullet must vary for the weight to vary by 1%. If it is boattail, base-to-ogive, bearing surface, or nose length variance, those can be measured and sorted. If it is an issue with the core weight, the bullets can certainly be sorted by weight, but that's a significant weight variance for a match bullet and would not leave me with the greatest of confidence.

 

[Joe Salt]

My question would be, and is, what PERCENTAGE of variation would be considered to be detrimental to long range accuracy?

Believe me don't bother weighing them just shoooot um. 1.5 grains at a 1000 yards was with the rest of my sighters your better off measuring OAL.

Joe Salt

 

[Liven The Dream]

I found them hard to shoot in a 223 Wylde chamber lot of bearing area ?