I've lost my mind - Bullet Sorting

[Old Navy]

1. Sort by bearing surface using a JB Comparator
2. Slightly trim meplats
3. Point up ever so slightly
4. trim meplats (just a touch) again
5. weight sort to the nearest .01 grain
6. sort using Bob Green's tool
7. Go to a match and get beat by a guy who doesn't bother with any of that stuff.

That is a good one!

 

[Old Navy]

Worth sorting 215 Bergers and 147 eld match?

The 147 are real good out of the boxes of two different lots I checked.

 

[group therapy]

I don't sort em, but I aint famous either

 

[R.Morehouse]

Pay close attention when Old Nave says " point up ever so slightly ". Pointing is a delicate process and if done " Ham Fisted " you risk upsetting the the core of the bullet....That is very bad....I pay more attention to the back of my bullets than the front, I use a bench mounted magnifying glass to inspect the boat tail of my bullets.....Give this a try, nick the boat tail of some bullets and shoot them into a group with good ones. It won't take long to see what I mean. I keep a piece of emery cloth handy to do a very light pass to clean up any imperfections when they are found.

Regards
Rick

 

[JMayo]

Worth sorting 215 Bergers and 147 eld match?

Last bergers i got,108's, were all over the place. No middle group ... That's what made me go to custom bullets.

 

[mgunderson]

This is an interesting topic. I get the feeling we have multiple different disciplines sorting for different reasons. Sort with a purpose would be my advice. What problem are you trying to solve and tr u a single sorting method at a time to improve it. Sorting for better accuracy or precision is quite vague and will send you down a rabbit hole.

My opinion, certain lots of bullets are not going to respond to some sorting methods. The next lot may turn into super bullets with that method. I sort with the intention to remove the tails and shoot them in practice.

 

[Trevor60]

Worth sorting 215 Bergers and 147 eld match?

I can only speak to sorting the 215's Bergers but YES... these bullets vary enough that sorting will help.

Bart earlier recommends sorting by overall length into batches within .003

I don't sort OAL i sort by BTO but the variation will show in both measurements.

Trevor

 

[JMayo]

Here's an example of 49 custom 6mm. All measure the correct bto.
These rows are oal.
They are spread out more than the other customs normally are but still within a small measurement. 2.431 - 2.450

The Berger's i had last year required double the headers. 2.413 - 2.470 or something like that. There would be several rows of singles.

I want the 2.431 not to be next to the 2.450 at a match.
I put them in the box in order highest to lowest. First Sighters come from the ends. In this case 2 from the beginning and 3 from the end. Then i just shoot in order because they are all so close.

Just the way i play with my toys !

 

[Ccrider]

Sort by OAL length only.
@BartsBullets help a brother out please.

if you want to get crazy trim those batches.

Not clear what you are referring to trimming? Do you trim?

 

[Bc'z]

Not clear what you are referring to trimming? Do you trim?

I don't do any trimming or pointing.
I just finished loading 26 rounds of 6.5-284 using 136L scenar, all bullets were sorted/measured OAL only.
I checked all round with comparator to find i have a CBTO with only a .0005" difference.

Again I started working with this sort method after conversation with @BartsBullets. If Bart is willing to share this information with us, you can bet I'm gonna listen. I think he's figured a few things out as a shooter and bullet manufacturer.
It works!!

 

[BJung]

I'm hooked on sorting. It started when I acquired a good collection of Lapua and Norma 6.5 brass. I only measured the weight of the brass and the bullets and trimmed the brass. Then I carefully loaded it and shot dime size groups at 200 yards with a M96 target rifle. Since then, I've added neck turning, case volume grouping and ogive to base length. It's important to me because I want to shoot 500+ yards.

 

[Jet]

I agree with Bart on the custom bullets. About 6 years ago I found a .014" variance in bearing surface within a box of 500 on a popular factory made 6mm 105gr bullet. Tested them at 1000yds and the difference in point of impact was very noticeable. All the handmade Barts, VTs, Roys, etc I've sorted have been very consistent. Sometimes the OAL can vary, and I sort these within .002"

 

[Straightshooter1]

View attachment 1321812
I want the 2.431 not to be next to the 2.450 at a match.
I put them in the box in order highest to lowest. First Sighters come from the ends. In this case 2 from the beginning and 3 from the end. Then i just shoot in order because they are all so close.

When I've sorted by case weight, I did the same thing in keeping the loaded cartridges in the same order as they were sorted. It really helped in getting nice ES's and SD's and the groups tended to be smaller too . . . only the groups at each end of the spectrum had little different POI's.

 

[RICK SMITH]

We’ll if I get the urge to sorting bullets I don’t use calipers to measure I make a guage with the throat that I’m using and do it this way.

I've got to have one of those now Stan. When you gonna make me one. LOL

 

[Stan Taylor]

I will m

I've got to have one of those now Stan. When you gonna make me one. LOL

I will get right on that.