Best way to sort bullet?

A

ACoffin

Guest
When sorting bullets which is more important/beneficial and why?
a. Sort by weight
b. Sort bullets by base to ogive length.
Thanks for the help
Alan
 
I used to do all this stuff.Then I found a bullet maker (in Australia)who's bullets weighed and measure so good I got frustrated trying to find a brumby.I just shoot his bullets straight out the box.jim
 
Speaking strictly as a 100-200 yard Benchrest Shooter, my bullet sorting consist of openning a box, picking them up one at a time, and seating them in the charged case.

In other words, I do not think I can measure one of Barts bullets as close as his Dies make them.......jackie
 
I guess I'm in the sort by maker camp-- I inspected in days of yore before I decided to spend the extra money for non mass produced bullets. I like Don Lahr's 6mms, but I have used various other premium bullets which were very consistent also....
 
The only thing I sort with Randy's BIB bullets is what account to transfer money from...to cover the check I send him.
 
As a bullet maker (118gr. 30cal.), these guy's that sort bullets don't have a clue. I would sort them by color. What an absurd waste of time, bullet sorters need to spend more time at the range seeing what all that sorting looks like on the target. I wonder how many of the basic bullet sorters has a scale that is of sufficient quality (huge cost) to measure accurately bullets to the tenth grain.

To answer your question, if you feel a need to measure bullets, checking the base to ogive would be the most valuable. It is more important to keep a consistant base to ogive dimension than having bullets .2gr difference in weight.

Why, because differing ogive lengths changes the bullets dimensions, hence accuracy. That being said, you have to be very consistant in your technique of measurement.
 
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From one of the Clueless:

If only one could rely on makers to provide bullets with consistent measurements, base to ogive surface where the bullet will touch the lands, then sorting would not be necessary, but Alas! The only lot of bullets I have had to date that were all ecxactly the same in that measurement is a box of 100 that came out of a Waterburry- Farrel machine in a slighty smaller weight than normally sold to the public.

If you are going to jam your bullets then forget measuring OR weighing them. Weight means nothing as far as I can tell. If you are going to try to maintain exact seating depths then sorting will enable you to load faster and not have to adjust OAL's measured where the bullets touch the lands. That's all there is to it. Just easier to load great ammo is all. If you believe the best ammo you can make isn't important, load randomly out of the box or Jam hard all the time.
 
Short range shooters usually don't worry about sorting bullets. All theirs are custom made (usually one at a time) and they find a brand that their bbl shoots and go with it. They also don't weigh powder charges. The short ranges that they shoot don't seem to dictate that sort of effort.

Now if you are shooting at 600 or 1000 yds, sorting bullets by bearing surface length will be beneficial. It reduces the ES and SD of your loads which is pretty critical at the longer distances.

Bob
 
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