Bullet weight

[robertdeans72]

Hello all, I was wondering what kind of tolerances people use when weighing your rounds. Until now I never have but a recently aquired scale has opened the door to this aspect of shooting.
Thanks, Rob

 

[jtmattison]

You'll get some replies saying weighing your bullets is not necessary, waste of time...etc
I weigh mine on ocassion just to see how consistent my casting is.
I look for +/- one grain consistency.

HD

 

[GreyWhiskers]

I agree with the DAWG. I weigh my r/balls after casting and sort them into 2 piles. The bullets in each pile are usually within .5 grains. GW

 

[Andrew Halsey]

I weigh all of mine. I do them in batches of 1 grain.

The wife always laughs at me when I settle down weigh up my RB's :youcrazy:

 

[arquebus]

I weigh my bullets & Minies. I segregate them into groups where they all within a grain of each other, so I guess that would be considered to be + or - .5gn. However, I also punch a light index mark on the ogive section of my bullet moulds which puts a small bump on each bullet, which I then use to index the bullets on loading. I also use different colored felt-tip pens to color code each of the weight groups, this also helps visually in lining the index point when loading.
This may seem extreme, & it probably is, but it gives me a psychological edge in having reduced a couple more variables!

 

[robertdeans72]

Thanks to all. In addition, I was wondering what the spread of weights that everybody ends up with over a, say, 100 or 200 round casting session?
Thanks, Rob

 

[2172]

Rob, I don't have as good a scale as the others..mine shows only to a tenth of a gram, but I got a range the other day of from 11.1 g to 11.8 on a single run of balls...I would guess that 40% were in 11.4 g and another 40% in 11.5 g,of the rest, the majority were underweight, i.e. 11.2 or 11.3, and I attribute that to wrinkling from the early castings of a not-yet-fully hot mold...given the rougher accuracy of my weighing, I shoot only balls of the same weight at one time....Hank

 

[paulvallandigham]

YOu can buy a Lyman powder scale for a little of $40.00 that will measure in tenths of Grains. This is the simple balance beam style scale, but they work very well, particularly when sorting balls and bullets by weight.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I set up an RCBS 5-10 scale. I set up three coffee cans beside the scale. I use the balance index marks and keep only those balls within the +/- 0.2 grain (one line above and below the center). These balls go in the Primo can. I also have a "near nuff" can for those balls that still float the balance arm, so that would be within .5 gr light. Heavier balls and those that don't float the balance arm I toss in the remelt can with the sprues.

A heavier ball is caused by the mold not closing properly and they're out of round, and voids and swirls or impurities cause the lighter balls.

I visually inspect and weigh every ball. It could be the one down the tube when the deer of a lifetime is in my sights. Or a squirrel's head is 30 yards away.

 

[Greenmtnboy]

yup .5 or under