Nosler bullet weight inconsistancies

[wraith1516]

So I bought a box of 120 gr nosler ballistic tip bullets, the weights ran from a low of 119.4 to a high of 120.2. I used a digital scale that has always been right on, so I don't think it's my scale as I always make sure it's calibrated and I triple checked the low weight ones.most of them fell in the 119.8- 119.9 range . Won't this pose a problem for 600 yard plus shots?

[Joseph5]

I may be mistaken but I think the shooter will have a much greater impact on group size at any distance than a 0.8 gr spread in bullet weight. You might be able to detect the effect that would have if shooting out of a machine and with zero wind but your trigger finger and breathing will be much more influential.

[JASmith]

For a given bullet shape, the BC is proportional to weight.

That means one can adjoust the BC in your balistics calculator and see what change occurs.

Of course the shape mighut change a skosh too, but that gets more complicated.

[kmon]

Agree with Joseph5, most shooters if not all will never be able to tell a .66% difference in bullet weight.

Haven't measured and sorted bullets in years, figured out with my shooting I was wasting time.

[acourvil]

That's typical of what I have measured for bullets in that weight range EXCEPT Bergers and Lapua -Ls, which have much less variation.

[LRRPF52]

Did you you have your cell phone near you during the weighing?

[FW Conch]

You can always separate them into groups by weight and see if you can detect any difference in how they group.

But I have known others who never weigh their bullets and shoot "one hole groups", some as small as .039" .

[wraith1516]

Nope cellphone not near me at the time when I reload I have as little distractions as possible , even told wife not to disturb me unless house is on fire

[NugginFutz]

wraith1516 - in addition to the potential for distraction, I believe LRRPF52 was alluding to the potential for RFI. Some electronic scales are more susceptible than others, but all are susceptible to some degree. Some of the filthiest phones I know of are Nextel phones, followed by some Sprint phones (mainly because Sprint bought Nextel and would also run on Nextel networks). I've even heard interference from some phones (usually Blackberries) while wearing electronic hearing protection. The long and short of it is to try and keep any sources of radio emissions away from your electronic scales - at least 10 feet should do it.

[wraith1516]

Understood that but main reason I don't have it with me is no distractions

[NugginFutz]

Understood that but main reason I don't have it with me is no distractions

I see. Well, then...

[wraith1516]

Good one

[LR1955]

So I bought a box of 120 gr nosler ballistic tip bullets, the weights ran from a low of 119.4 to a high of 120.2. I used a digital scale that has always been right on, so I don't think it's my scale as I always make sure it's calibrated and I triple checked the low weight ones.most of them fell in the 119.8- 119.9 range . Won't this pose a problem for 600 yard plus shots?

Wraith:

No. Won't pose a problem at all.

If you had some bullets shorter than others when measured from the ogive (not overall length), then probably. 8/10th of a grain over 120 total grains won't be an issue.

LR1955

[Savage Shooter]

I had the following in an archived word doc, which I had copied from www.6mmBR.com, I think. (My apologies to the original poster for not being able to give the right credit). It will give you the formula for how to determine the answer to your question. BOTTOM LINE - probably less than .3" over 600 yards. I don't think anyone can hold that tight.

Re: Does bullet weight variance .1gn affect accuracy
One thing you can do is look at the change in sectional density (SD) due to this weight change and from that, calculate the change in BC. You can then run the different BCs thru a ballistics program and see the downrange impact of the differences. This way you can judge if the difference in weights is material to your accuracy and distance needs.

For example,
a 140gr bullet that is perfectly 140.0grs has a SD of .287 lb/in^2. One that is 0.6grs lighter (your ES), its SD is 0.286. BC = SD/i, where i = form factor of the bullet in question. Say you where using the Berger 140gr VLD (I would be shocked if the Bergers had that big a spread, but this is just an example). Its i = 0.918 (on the G7 BC model) per Litz's Applied Ballistics. So 0.286/.918 = adjusted BC of .312, vs the 140.0gr's BC of 0.313.

The difference in inches of drop for a .312 vs .313 G7 BC bullet is:

-0.1" at 500yds
-0.5" at 1000yds
-2.5" at 1500yds
-8.1" at 2000yds


other question would be: are you zeroing your scale after weighing each bullet so there is no drift?

if not the .1 gr is not real anyway

[wraith1516]

Thank you savage shooter but shouldn't nosler have better qc. I know it was only one bullet that was 119.4 gr but that is a lot