maybe I expect to much....
i am trying to step up to the next level of shooting and reloading so i bought 500 pieces of 308 lapua brass. i opened the first box and decided i'd weight sort them, i ended up w/ a spread of 171.9 to 174.6, i was expecting a few 10th's but not that type of a spread, the most of any one weight i found was 8, the spread between 172.0 and 172.7 yielded 50 cases, so that is what my first batch will be.
i started checking 168smk's and found a spread from 167.7 to 168.0, w/ most being .8 or .9. maybe i am being too picky, i don't know....
Re: maybe I expect to much....
I don't feel that you expect too much, considering how much Lapua wants for their brass. I haven't put my Lapua on the scale yet, so I am of no help to you.
I have always read where Lapua brass was very consistent, so this is a little surprising.
Re: maybe I expect to much....
Yep...not any better weight wise, than any other brand.
Quality of the brass though...some of the Lapua is VERY good.
My 6.5x55 Lapua is not any better than some older Remington that I bought.
The primer hole is always perfect on the Lapua brass though.
Re: maybe I expect to much....
2008 Lapua .308 Winchester brass put in ammo boxes of 100
Code:
Weights # Box
172.2 1 A
172.3 1 A
172.4 6 A
172.5 16 A
172.6 15 A
172.7 36 A
172.8 53 A(25) / B(28)
172.9 44 B
173.0 69 B(28) / C(41)
173.1 69 C(59) / D(10)
173.2 63 D
173.3 47 D(27) / E(20)
173.4 26 E
173.5 54 E
173.6 44 F
173.7 57 F(56) / G(1)
173.8 59 G
173.9 83 G(40) / H(43)
174.0 56 H
174.1 46 H(1) / I(45)
174.2 30 I
174.3 18 I
174.4 5 I
174.5 0
174.6 0
174.7 1 I
Total # of cases: 899
Average case weight: 173.43
Min. case weight: 172.2
Max. case weight: 174.7
Extreme spread: 2.5
2007 Lapua .308 Winchester brass boxes of 50
Code:
Weights # Box
171.8 1 A
171.9 7 A
172.0 13 A
172.1 20 A
172.2 23 A(9) / B(14)
172.3 30 B
172.4 47 B(6) / C(41)
172.5 50 C(9) / D(41)
172.6 76 D(9) / E (50) / F(17)
172.7 62 F(33) / G(29)
172.8 82 G(21) / H(50) / I(11)
172.9 57 I (39) / J(18)
173.0 58 J(32) / K(26)
173.1 26 K(24) / L(2)
173.2 20 L
173.3 16 L
173.4 7 L
173.5 2 L
173.6 1 L
173.7 0
173.8 0
173.9 2 L
Total # of cases: 600
Average case weight: 172.69
Min. case weight: 171.8
Max. case weight: 173.9
Extreme spread: 2.1
2006 Winchester .308 Winchester brass
Code:
Weights #
156.0 2
156.5 10
157.0 20
157.5 57
158.0 68
158.5 43
159.0 25
159.5 17
160.0 5
160.5 2
161.0 1
Total # of cases: 250
Average case weight: 158.09
Min. case weight: 156.0
Max. case weight: 161.0
Extreme spread: 5.0
Re: maybe I expect to much....
Don't worry about he actual weight difference, look at the difference in percent. It's less than 1.5% difference.
Re: maybe I expect to much....
IMO your being a bit too picky,
All the Lapua brass I have ever weighed has been very consistent.
What I see is your looking at 2.7 gr different from low to high. What is the average? Weigh all the brass, and add the weights together then divide it by the number of brass to get your average. 1% deviation is what I shoot for in brass. Take your average number and divide it by 1% then take that number and add it and subtract it from your average this will give you the high and low side of your brass. Any brass that is heavier or lighter than the acceptable range you cull out. I am willing to bet that every piece of brass will be in acceptable range. I would not get to carried away with weight. If you want to really check cases look at water displacement.
On the Sierra bullets, they are mass produced, so what do you expect? You will find handmade bullets like BIB are closer in weight from bullet to bullet. I never weigh bullets, I found it serves no purpose. I segregate them by ogive length. This insures that they are all the same distance from the lands. I am willing to bet that if you separated them by ogive, the bullets with the same ogive are the same weight. I find that in a box of 100 Sierra bullets I will find two, three or four different ogive lengths. Again handmade bullets the ogive's are closer.
Re: maybe I expect to much....
Re-size and trim the cases first. If you trim some off, they're obviously going to change.
Re: maybe I expect to much....
If you expect better precision than that from un-prepped impact-drawn brass, you will have a hard time being satisfied. Might be a bit outside of what I have normally seen from 6mm BR Lapua (only kind I use regularly) but for a mass produced item it is pretty consistent.
Re: maybe I expect to much....
i guess after researching everything it is fairly normal, i read an article where a veteran shooter would weigh everything individually and then as final check you weighed the loaded round, i am just gonna run w/ it and not get excited over it, i was just lead to believe that w/ a lot of 500 i would be able to get 100 that matched exact.
and no i am not that good of a shooter to realyy justify all this, but so often w/ my hodgepodge of brass i wonder if it is me the ammo or the rifle, as my skills improve, i can sometimes get the bughole thing working well.....
Re: maybe I expect to much....
if you want extreme consistency get Nosler brass. It is rather pricey, but very nicely prepped right out of the box.
