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Just for sp

so just for spite, I went And pulled one 6mm bullet out of every box I have. I looked at each one with a loupe. Not one bullet is polished. I was surprised by this. In fact the amount of dents, scuffs and scrapes is amazing on bullets.


Then for spite I mesaured six bullets from every box of 6 mm bullets I have using a bullet comparator and digital calipers. I was surprised to find that there is a difference in “every” bullet by a few thousandths. After do the math, this means that when I load my cartridges to the lands, using the numbers I have, I may be in the lands .003 or off the lands by .003”

So, like wow right? How could it be .003”?

I’m not a math guru, but I did use to build race car chassis for we bit. My experience is I don’t question geometry and trigonometry especially when they are working together, unless you like math.

Anyways just thought it was interesting enough to post.
 
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curious. what brand of bullets?
Berger, Barnes, Hornady, nosler, speers, Sierra. I have not any bullets from Any handmade bullet makers, only because I order through midway USA for most my shooting stuff and they don’t usually have any of those handmade custom bullets when I order. So if I wanted to order any of the bullets on 6ppc cartridge guide, I think all that shows up on midways site is the Berger and Noslers. I have yet to be able to find a website for zia, euber, bart, and there is another or two names in there, but anyways getting on with why I bring up handmade bullets vs commercially available bullets...I do not know of anyone that would take the time to polish the jackets to size vs just pressing or forging..I am guessing this is how the jackets are sized before swaging, just me thinking out loud.
 
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no bullet should be polished (think golf ball)
and youre measuring bullets that are made on multiple dies, maybe even multiple days dumped into a huge hopper and shoveled into a box. you only finding .003 difference on the bullets you listed is actually surprising.
 
no bullet should be polished (think golf ball)
and youre measuring bullets that are made on multiple dies, maybe even multiple days dumped into a huge hopper and shoveled into a box. you only finding .003 difference on the bullets you listed is actually surprising.

The .003" is the +/- tolerance that I will be taking into consideration when I load base of case to Ogive of bullet.

one of the six bullets was .007 longer than the shortest. but being the average is from six bullets, the center of the average is .0035", which leads me to +/- .0035"

But to place a ogive in the same exact spot every time is going to be very hard. There is triganometry, geometry, basic math all raveled into the bullet.

I even found a difference in measuring my seating depths because it changes for every measurement. The worse ones being .015" and best ones being.003". I suppose I could use the calibration weight for my powder scale to engage the bullet into the lands to get a more accurate measurement.

I know bullets which are turned on a lathe from solid copper bar are the most accurate dimensionally, but I do not think the BC are anything near the jacketed stuff. ( i am just thinking out loud here)

This is all more for entertainment value though. I just thought others may be interested in reading my findings.
 
I would not be surprised, after sufficient scrutiny, that many would abandon shooting altogether as being physically impossible given the horrific nature of the tolerances. Especially since the advent of the Internet, where additional scrutiny to every detail, no matter how unimportant, must be "better" than the heathen that ignores said detail.

Like giving importance to a butterfly flapping its wing in the Himalayas, must change the weather in Oklahoma.

Not saying this to anyone in particular. Just an observation.
 
so if your seating die, with a properly fitted stem that engages the bullet in the same spot along the ojive, seats them in the exact same spot, how would your measurements vary from there? there may be differences in the base to ojive but does that matter more than how far that ojive is from the lands? a good seating die will set em the same every time so go seat some THEN do your measuring. that'll make you feel better than measuring an off the shelf bullet by itself. go shoot them and see how they do.
 
I was referring to when using the hornady seating depth gauge to figure out the seating depth of the bullet for when loading. So this would be before the bullet even sees a die.

When I push/insert the bullet to rest against the lands, I noticed the difficulty I have in applying the same pressure each and every time. I seen the proof of this in the different dimensions I was reading using the same bullet several different times just to see if I was consistently applying the same pressure. It is more of a personal thing that I thought was interesting.

You are correct in that when you are using the die, it will be the same every time from ogive of bullet to the base of the case.

Now as for where the base of the bullet is in relation to the base of case, I wondered if shaving bullet lengths from base of bullet to ogive of bullet to tune for consistent pressure. I think that this would hurt the integrity of the bullet though and also alter the final weight of the bullet too.

Take all this like a grain of salt, as I often times find myself in deep thought beyond frivolous points of return, brain storming about ideas that are well beyond my skills and knowledge, to improve accuracy. Sometimes i even try it. Most times I find it a waste of time as the returns on my curiosities lead to chain reactions that effect something else down the line. The next thing i know is i am asking myself what the heck is going on...lol go figure. What do i know...lol
 
i use neck turned and carefully prepared lapua brass, berger 6mm 105 hybrid, a 21st century hydro press and wilson seating dies. cull all rounds that don't meet my seating pressure range. my base to ogive dimension is usually spot on. never over .001 off.
 

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