Sorting brass and bullets.

[ARW]

In your experience, has there been an improvement in accuracy from sorting brass and bullets by weight or Ogive to base on bullets, etc. Do you think it helps any or is it pretty much a waste of time with no real benefit.

 

[ngb1787]

Never found sorting brass mattered and I have tested and proved that theory to be true shooting fclass for my standards. However I have found that pointing bullets and ONLY sorting by oal does help.
Nick B

 

[ARW]

If anyone has something in their sorting process, a certain check for instance, that stands out and seems to make a real difference, I would really be interested in that.

 

[JFrank]

I’m up early so WTH,
IMhumblefree & FWIW opinion nothing is a waste of time if you benefit or learn from the time spent.
Brass volume is something I’ll spend more time on in the future, with a chronograph handy. That’s a separate thread btw.
All my Bullets get sorted base to ogive loading only those within.001 each way for each loading session. ( yes it makes a difference especially if you wanna shoot small)
Other fellas sort into separate bins during the winter but I’m probably the minority but it’s mine.
Oppps I see another message is coming through. Later!
J

 

[rsmithsr50]

really depends on
the quality of the components
the quality of the rifle
the distance being fired
ability of the shooter

 

[JFrank]

If anyone has something in their sorting process, a certain check for instance, that stands out and seems to make a real difference, I would really be interested in that.

Hit the search function on the top right corner or scroll down beyond this thread, you’ll find plenty of discussions

 

[Straightshooter1]

In your experience, has there been an improvement in accuracy from sorting brass and bullets by weight or Ogive to base on bullets, etc. Do you think it helps any or is it pretty much a waste of time with no real benefit.

Using quality brass and bullets minimizes any need for it, as well as the benefit of doing so really depends of the type/level one is shooting at.

I do not shoot competitively due to age and physical conditions (other than against myself, which is tough when your a perfectionist ). But in trying to find the benefit of sorting brass, I don't find any measurable or noticeable benefit, except to find those outlier cases, which are just a couple out of 100 (like with Lapua). So, I do sort them just to find those and use them for something like warming up the barrel to get started with my shooting.

Having run some experiments with measuring BTO (base to ogive) and also bearing surface effects, there often is a measurable difference in POI when there's enough difference in those bullets. The difference in the BTO effects seating depth, which impacts velocity. So, I sort my bullets at +/- .002 and in doing so I get very consistent seating depth. It's one of the things that has gotten my SD's to single digits as well as getting my ES where I feel they should be.

 

[golong]

Sorting brass by weight is a waste of time since most of the variation is in the head. To prove this all you have to do is find a few pieces of brass (not Lapua) that are the same weight and then uniform the primer pockets. Weigh again and they mostly likely will no longer be the same. If you are going to sort brass by anything that involves weight, you want to sort by volume. I only spot check volume to see if a new batch appears consistent since it is a painstaking process. Time on brass is better spent getting consistent pockets, flash holes, necks, shoulders, and length/chamfer. Get those right on brass from the same batch and you are ahead. FWIW, I say not Lapua because their primer pockets are deeper than any non-adjustable uniformer that I have ever owned.

I always sort bullets base to OGIVE to get a more consistent seating depth - I adjust the seating die according the group. If I am being total anal I will weight sort those groups but only to find outliers.

Trimming meplats and pointing is something I think about but have yet to get into.

 

[golong]

Here is a great example of why weighing brass is futile. Both of these cases are from the same batch, shot the same number of times, and always prepped the same way. I was just priming when the one on the left did not slip into the priming jaws on top of the Forester. Weight differences down there is not going to change the way they shoot.

 

[T-shooter]

I think it falls into the category, "May help, couldn't hurt". If you do it at least it's not in the back of your mind thinking "what if?"
Even with so called premium components, there are variations. Berger states their margin of error on bullet roundness is .0003". There are slight variations with length and weight too. Lapua brass is good compared to others but by far not perfect. It's best to check things as much as you can for peace of mind if nothing else. I just measured the volume on a few Lapua .308 cases and the water weight ranged from 50.14 gr to 50.76 gr and the difference in weight of the cases was 4.16 grains. The ones that are the heaviest generally have less volume. but not always.

 

[newbieshooter]

interesting references:

bullets:
bullets: http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/ammolytics-bullet-sorting-experiment-part-one.3971874/
https://blog.ammolytics.com/2019-02-02/bullet-sorting-part-one.html

brass:
brass: http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/rifle-brass-sorting-experiment-part-one.3995959/
https://blog.ammolytics.com/2020-01-08/brass-sorting-part-one.html

 

[rsmithsr50]

lol.
fired brass,...and guess what...'sometimes that extractor groove is where it expands.
go to the back of the class.

Here is a great example of why weighing brass is futile. Both of these cases are from the same batch, shot the same number of times, and always prepped the same way. I was just priming when the one on the left did not slip into the priming jaws on top of the Forester. Weight differences down there is not going to change the way they shoot.

View attachment 1152374

 

[Ned Ludd]

For F-TR, I sort brass by weight; bullets are sorted by OAL, then pointed. It makes me happy when competitors claim that none of these approaches work and are a waste of time.

 

[klamathsteel]

When weight sorting bullets what is an acceptable +/- range ? I'm an F Open newbie tryin to do the best i can !

 

[JFrank]

Several studies have suggested that,Weight sorting is not as effective as measuring.

 

[338 dude]

In your experience, has there been an improvement in accuracy from sorting brass and bullets by weight or Ogive to base on bullets, etc. Do you think it helps any or is it pretty much a waste of time with no real benefit.

 

[338 dude]

I don’t sort brass but I do sort bullets and I would say that it does help accuracy and cut down on flyers

 

[ARW]

I measured about 150 75gr. 6mm V-Max bullets yesterday afternoon from base to ogive and was very impressed with their consistency, .002 was the largest variance. Pretty good for a varmint bullet, I thought.

I'm not sure if sorting them will really help or not but I doubt it will hurt either and between measuring bullets, watching old westerns on youtube and watching the snow fall outside it was a pretty good way to spend the afternoon.

 

[JFrank]

Now you know!

 

[golong]

lol.
fired brass,...and guess what...'sometimes that extractor groove is where it expands.
go to the back of the class.

Guess I better since I never thought being that way since new and still having tight primer pockets would be an indication of expansion.