I have searched long and hard for these as they are loaded in the excellent Prime 6.5 CM ammunition and shot very well from my rifle.


Last week, I scored, both Graf's and MidSouth had these. I ordered from MidSouth and they came in today.

Visually, they are beautiful. Uniform meplats and just overall pretty to look at.

On the scale, all is not so well.

I weighed a sample of ten: High 130.28 Gr, low 129.76 Gr. Average, 129.92 ES: 0.52 GR and SD (yeah I know - small sample size) 0.175 Gr.

Now, I'm not a benchrester and I admit to OCD as all good reloaders should.

How much of an issue is this variation in weight going to be?

Thanks for all advice.

RMD

P.S. I hate sorting bullets by weight. Is that the solution?

Normally a .5 gr has very little impact. I don't shoot competition but ±0.5 gr in bullet swing I do not see any difference. If you calculate the percentage of change it's very very low, 0.19%.

Probably no surprise here, never weighed bullets, never will

I tried those Norma's in two 6.5x47, couldn't get them to shoot, .010 jam to .120 jump... Berger 130VLD's and 140 Hybrids easily shot inside them with very little work.

quote:

Probably no surprise here, never weighed bullets, never will Big Grin

Yeah, well, I don't usually either. Wish I hadn't!

RMD

Weighing bullets is a waste of time and money (time IS money, right?).

*IF* you're going to sort your bullets for anything, sort them by bearing surface. That will have much more effect than will anything else about the bullet.

When I've weighed bullets I find they usually average slightly under the stated weight. That makes sense from a pressure perspective, though splitting hairs I know.

I can't see that slight weight variation mattering any.

I doubt you find any match bullet lot where they are all exactly the same wt. 1/10-1/2gr is pretty normal IME weighing diff lots. You certainly could sort by weight but try shooting 300yd groups with sorted & random & see if they vary much.

When I weigh my match bullets the weight is never off more that .1 grain from the stated weight and it's most often right on.

Base to ogive is also important as that will impact the shape of the bullet, which will alter the BC. The extreme spread in the base to ogive when I measured it was .004 inch.

I don't weigh or measure the bullets anymore, just a quick sampling for a new batch, then they all get pointed which made the biggest difference for me.