Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

[ego235]

I'm planning to do a 300 yard match at my local range in two weeks. I have a bunch of Black Hills .223 69 grain SMK remanufactured ammo which I'd like to use. I'll be shooting my Remington 700 5r rifle. I have an accurate scale which measures down to 0.001 grams. For fun I measured the weights of some of those cartridges and found interesting variances.

They were all within the range of 12.2 thru 12.6 grams out of the 100 or so I measured. My question is, would it be helpful to measure some more and just use those which are within a tenth of a gram of each other. Can this improve accuracy and shrink the group size or is there too many variables outside of powder amount such as different bullet weights or cases, etc.

I do not reload and am a very causual shooter so I am just looking for some guidance if sorting my commercial rounds by weight would help in increasing overall accuracy. Every little advantage helps.

 

[Topstrap]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

I'd probably say at this point being a "casual shooter" your sorting ammo will not make a big difference. Those difference are more than likely just brass variances which after trying that didn't make any difference in accuracy and our scores at our LR matches.

Go and have fun, pay attention to technique and ask questions of others if you see them doing something while setting up for the shot that you're not familiar with.

Good luck, keep remembering this is supposed to be fun.

Topstrap

 

[ego235]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

Thanks, I thought that might have been a little too easy of a plan. The Black Hills rounds already shoot very well. At this point my skills need more work. My friend who was in the military seems to outshoot me often even when using my guns. I have trouble getting under 1 MOA consistently at 300 yards.

This match will be a good opportunity to learn some more from those with experience.

 

[Defusion]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

I know of benchrest shooters that weigh their brass and bullets separately, and then combine those to get the most consistency per string of shots.
I'm not convinced the brass weight will make that much of a difference, but I do feel the bullet weight could affect consistency.

That being said, the smallest group size possible isn't my goal, I just want to hit what i'm aiming at.

 

[MacM11]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

The correct fundamentals of marksmanship will have the greatest impact on scores. I spend a huge amount of time trying to achieve as close to perfect handloads as possible. If I leave out the fundamentals, this time has been wasted.

 

[Quigley77]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

In my opinion shooting is about practice, repetition, and eliminating as many variables as possible. I don't think weight sorting loaded match ammo will make much difference at this point, but......if you have the time, your certainly not hurting anything. Its just one more varible you have helped control.

 

[tylerw02]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

Do you know from simply weighing a cartridge if the weight deviation is bullet? Brass? Primer? Powder? Nope. So there's no way to tell which way to sort them. Its a waste of time.

 

[leadbullet]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

complete waste of time. you would be better off dry firing than weighing loaded factory ammo.

 

[Beanman13]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

I can't argue in favor of either way given my limited time behind a scoped centerfire, however... It seems if you just wanted a sense of the weight variance is due to brass you could mark the weight on each case. Then fire each of x number of rounds and remove the primers (if this is easily done for someone who doesn't reload). You could then compare the weights of each case from the rest, and the relative change in weight from round to round upon firing. That wouldn't give a clear indication for any one component but it might give some clues. Even just weighing cleaned empty brass would tell the tale on the brass

It is likely someone on the forum could give us good guidelines for what to expect in weight variation for each component involved. I'd be interested in knowing from an academic standpoint. I'm a noob though so who knows. Just cleaning the cases sufficiently after firing might take enough effort and chemicals that your markings would rub off anyway.

 

[Tempest 455]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

I do that w/ .22 but seems it would be a waste of time with Black Hills centerfire.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Weigh commercial ammo for consistency??

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: macm11</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The correct fundamentals of marksmanship will have the greatest impact on scores. I spend a huge amount of time trying to achieve as close to perfect handloads as possible. If I leave out the fundamentals, this time has been wasted. </div></div>

^^^ This!

Greg