Purpose of bullet sorting

[Jet]

Your assumption is correct. Good shooting.

Rich

 

[Linko]

Smithcollector

I believe the photo below is related to your question. This is a result of a bearing surface sort of 1000 bullets from the same manufacturer and all are the same lot. There is a .008 difference between these bullets. On a previous lot of these same bullets I had a .014 bearing surface variance out of a box of 500. I did a test on those bullets at 1000yds. Shot groups with all things being equal other than a .014 bearing surface difference and the groups printed 4" apart from each other vertically.

IMO, bearing surface, BTO, and seating stem to ogive measurements must be consistent for small groups. I use to measure weight and overall length but stopped since my testing showed these steps didn't prove to be worth the effort. Others may have a different opinion. Remember that information gained from other shooters may be very helpful but you should verify the results yourself before treating it as gospel.

View attachment 991384

Your test results look as a mathmatical bell curve would predict.

 

[Jet]

Tom

Tool is a Mark King Rifles bearing surface measuring tool. In the pic I posted it is in the top right of the picture. I don't believe the tool is made any more.

When measuring machine made bullets I find big variances and don't believe it is possible to win with them if they aren't sorted by bearing surface 1st, BTO then seating stem to ogive. Other shooters may have different opinions/results but I cannot shoot small when pulling machine made bullets straight out of the box. A few of the guys I work with are big NASCAR fans and a couple years ago they got into an in depth discussion on aerodynamics and the importance of the rear of the car. I just listened but it got me thinking about the back half of bullets and I ordered the Mark King tool shortly after. Not sure if there is a correlation between the two but my groups shrank after I started sorting with it.

I started shooting Vapor Trails this year and they measure better than any bullet I've tried. I still sort them but only for peace of mind.

Not sure if I answered your question.

Rich