Weight-Sorting .22 LR Cartridges

[South_Pender]

Please excuse me if this has been discussed. I did try to do a search, but couldn't find anything. My question is this: Is there a consensus among you rimfire BR shooters regarding the advantages of sorting cartridges with respect to weight?

On the face of it, I don't see why there should be an advantage, but I may be missing something here. The weight of a cartridge comes primarily from the sum of the weights of (a) the bullet, (b) the case, and (c) the powder charge (let's ignore the weight of the priming compound). This means that two cartridges could have identical overall weights, but differ in each of the three components listed. For example, Cartridge A could have a slightly heavier bullet than Cartridge B, but a slightly lighter case and maybe slightly lighter powder charge, but the two cartridges could end up with identical weights. By placing them together via weight-sorting, you have equated two cartridges that could produce different POIs because of slightly differing MVs and/or other factors.

So does weight-sorting fall into the category of superstitious behavior or is there really something to it?

 

[tim]

Please excuse me if this has been discussed. I did try to do a search, but couldn't find anything. My question is this: Is there a consensus among you rimfire BR shooters regarding the advantages of sorting cartridges with respect to weight?

On the face of it, I don't see why there should be an advantage, but I may be missing something here. The weight of a cartridge comes primarily from the sum of the weights of (a) the bullet, (b) the case, and (c) the powder charge (let's ignore the weight of the priming compound). This means that two cartridges could have identical overall weights, but differ in each of the three components listed. For example, Cartridge A could have a slightly heavier bullet than Cartridge B, but a slightly lighter case and maybe slightly lighter powder charge, but the two cartridges could end up with identical weights. By placing them together via weight-sorting, you have equated two cartridges that could produce different POIs because of slightly differing MVs and/or other factors.

So does weight-sorting fall into the category of superstitious behavior or is there really something to it?

With ammunition suitable for bench rest, a complete waste of time.

 

[MaxxPower]

I tried it for a while and, like Tim said, I found I was just wasting my time. I know some do it and believe in it but I personally saw no difference in results.

The one advantage in sorting of any kind is that you will handle each bullet and look at it. I have found some terribly malformed bullets as well as casings with bizarre crimps in them that I probably wouldn't have seen if I was chambering them in a match. If you've ever had a round drop 3 or 4 inches in a match it was probably one of those.

 

[Dave S]

I agree, plus you left off one key ingredient, the lube.. Some bullets have more lube on them than others and when you weigh them, you can reduce the overall weight by up to .2 gr, just by wiping the lube...