Weigh sorting loaded ammo

[Jim D]

Recently There has been discussion about weigh sorting brass.

I may have missed some of it !

So in my ignorance, I'll ask this question ?

So I have a lot of loaded ammo, loaded by me ! I did not weigh sort the brass, but very accurately over my balance beam scale weighed every charge.
The bullets I've scale are so close, and the primers can't have too much weight variation.
Would I benefit by weigh sorting this ammo, and gain any extra accuracy ?

Thank full and Healthy !

Jim

[Bill K]

My thought on such, is that if I were shooting them for score in a match, might take the time. For general shooting, varmints, etc. I just can not see it being worth the extra time. Bill K

[Jim D]

Bill.
I always consider shooting Game as Shooting for score ! One and the same to me !

Jim

[Bill K]

Then I think you answered your own question. Bill K

[GrocMax]

It won't help accuracy for most of us, but it can definitely cull out problem rounds.

How I discovered large chunks of brass shavings from the forming process stuck inside commercially formed 17FB (from 223). They were like 3 grains over the mean weight. The chunks were large enough to get trapped inside and not be able to fall out the neck. Discovered during the load dev process, ended up with about 40 cases out of 225 with big chunks of brass stuck inside. I was NOT happy.

Obviously, had I weighed every case this would have been discovered earlier, but like a fool, trusted this company to do a proper job. NEVER again.

[Dean2]

If you are having to weight sort your loaded ammo there is something seriously messed up in your reloading process. You need to track down the source of the wide variation and eliminate that issue. GrocMax is completely right when he said in his post that the shavings in the cases should have been found well before they were ever loaded up either through weight sorting or from visual inspection.

[Jim D]

Originally Posted by Dean2

If you are having to weight sort your loaded ammo there is something seriously messed up in your reloading process. You need to track down the source of the wide variation and eliminate that issue. GrocMax is completely right when he said in his post that the shavings in the cases should have been found well before they were ever loaded up either through weight sorting or from visual inspection.

I'm not having trouble, I'm trying merely to improve accuracy!

I sorted some New factory brass, and some Factory loaded ammo. They both have about the same variation.

My question is will sorting, improve my Accuracy worth the sorting ?

It will be a month before I can get to the range, and do some testing .

Thanks for the responses so far !

Jim

[B23]

Minimal sizing of your brass and consistent seating will do far more for than weight sorting brass.

Weight sorting brass really doesn't tell you a whole lot. It's just kind of assumed that brass that is heavy has less internal volume, but it is far from being exact. If you're really that concerned about it you would measure the internal volume of every case with water and sort them by that.

As for trying to weight sort loaded ammo, there are just to many variables for it to be of any value.

Are you measuring the OAL from base to ogive on your loaded ammo? Do you measure base to shoulder datum on your brass after you size it?

[GrocMax]

Originally Posted by Dean2

If you are having to weight sort your loaded ammo there is something seriously messed up in your reloading process. You need to track down the source of the wide variation and eliminate that issue. GrocMax is completely right when he said in his post that the shavings in the cases should have been found well before they were ever loaded up either through weight sorting or from visual inspection.

Actually, you couldn't see them without a 17 cal borescope, but you are correct, its always the reloader's responsibility for final QC.

But on the other hand, this is totally unacceptable for a product portrayed as fully prepped ready to load converted 223 brass, with a price to match.

[dungheap]

In some circumstances, I think there is value in weight sorting brass, particularly if there is a large weight variation in a given batch. I found this to be true using Federal .223 brass.

I also think there is value in weighing each powder charge with many powders. Conversely, weighing charges with powders that meter well, like W-748 and Benchmark, seems to be a waste of time.

Weighing/separating cast bullets isn't a bad idea; jacketed, not so much.

Attention to detail in the case prepping process yields better accuracy more often than not.

If I were to weight sort ammo, I would try to find small batches (3 or 5) with almost exactly the same weight and shoot groups with these, then shoot groups with the same ammo unweighed and see if there's a difference. I suspect there would not be much difference. JMO