I saw in an earlier post that one fellow had weighed his .17 WSM ammo and sorted it by weight as a method to improve accuracy of groups. Being from the reloading world, that seemed to be a plausible method of getting tighter groups. I wondered if the variation was in the bullet/propellant or the case? Figure the hardest component to get consistent is the propellent, right?? I know that to be true with reloading but also know that cases do, sometimes vary in weight. With that in mind, I have decided to conduct a bit of an experiment and invite others to join in. My plan is to weigh and sort each unfired cartridge and to shoot them for groups on a clear, calm (no wind) day. I am looking to compare the accuracy results to my earlier groups at 100yds and 200yds. Following the range session, I plan to weigh the empty brass to see how much the brass cases vary alone. Yeah I know that there will be some residue in them but whatever.

If I can find some more ammo, I will also fire some groups without weighing them for comparison, but at present, ammo is still in too short supply for me to do that. So, will have to just compare to the early groups and look for measurable improvements or not.

So far, I have weighed one box of 49 rds. Here are the results in grams:

4.345g = 1
4.350g = 4
4.355g = 6
4.360g = 8
4.365g = 17
4.370g = 8
4.375g = 5

I also hope to see if my split cases are coming from any specific group of rounds. i.e. Are only the heavy cartridges splitting? or not? Am making the current assumption that the heavy cartridges will be the ones with the most propellant. Weight of the once fired brass should help to confirm this. Will note the weights of all the split cases since they may lose some weight when fired if pieces fly off. My experience with quality ballistic tips is that bullet weights are very consistent and variation is less than my scales would measure with rare exceptions. Wish us luck. I will post the results good, bad or ugly.


Irish