Hornady Bulk 6.5 ELD vs. Box of 100 bullets

[Autofire]

I recently received a 2000-piece bulk box of Hornady 147gr. 6.5 / .264 ELD Bullets. Hornady says they are first run on their website. The bullets all look good. Curiosity got to me and I did a comparison between 10 of the bulk bullets to 10 bullets from a box of 100 bullets. All but one of the bulk bullets came in under 147gr. (146.78 – 146.98) with one at 147.00gr. The box bullets all but one came in above 147gr. (147.30 – 147.35) with one at 146.82gr. I then measured the base to ogive of the bulk bullets they ranged from .8040 to .8065. The box bullets base to ogive was .8025 to .8035. It sure seems like seconds to me or is it just a different batch run?

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

Sounds like a different lot/machine. If they were seconds, I'd expect more variation or cosmetic issues.

 

[Jordanwickham]

I doubt they are seconds. If you tested the whole batch of 2000 and the whole batch of 100 you will probably have the same spreads. Now they may hold the under 147 and over 147 but that is typical lot to lot variations.
I have an 8# jug of 4350 that shoots 25 fps higher than my other jug. Doesn't mean it's messed up.
If you were to buy 3 100 round boxes ( different lot numbers )of ELD-Ms they will all be different in some way. That's why you are better off to buy enough components (lotted) at once to last the barrels life.
A 2000 box may have a little more tolerance than a 100 round box since it's pulling 1/20th the amount.
Just like if you load up 39 rounds and Chrono 1, 3, 5, 10, and 20 rounds strings, your numbers will tend to increase with more data points.

 

[Mike Casselton]

IIRC,
Hornady and Sierra produce projectiles on more than one machine and they become a single lot.

Most lots are based on production date, not which machine is used to create them.
That would account for the different bto lengths.

I know that some shooters had pushed for Sierra to offer single machine lots. Don't remember what ever happened with it or if it actually made any difference in their shooting.

There's a simple cure for your woes. Get a seating die that seats based on the ogive instead of the nose or major diameter.

Or,
just load and shoot and stop worrying so much about minor differences in your projectiles.