Bullet Production and Quality Control

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fx77

Member
Rcently I purchased 500 bullets from a boutique specialist maker all of which were marked 105 gr

I found that loading them in my seating die led to inconsistent OAL measrements

I randomly selected 20 bullets of the 500 and weighed them

Of the 20, 13 were 104.9-105.2gr

Then measured the base to ogive on a bullet comparator, and the same 20 bullets had a range of .0040 (55-95 thou)from shortest to longest at the ogive ( distribution was bimodal at 25 and 95 thou)

Questions:
1. Is this normal and acceptable?

2. Is my expectation for more consistency unreasonable?

3. If this is normal , how do you insure every seating is exact to the OAL for your chamber where it shoots most accurately? Must you seat long and creep up on the measurement?

Your expertise and vast experience are most appreciated.
 
fx77 said:
Rcently I purchased 500 bullets from a boutique specialist maker all of which were marked 105 gr

I found that loading them in my seating die led to inconsistent OAL measrements

I randomly selected 20 bullets of the 500 and weighed them

Of the 20, 13 were 104.9-105.2gr

Then measured the base to ogive on a bullet comparator, and the same 20 bullets had a range of .0040 (55-95 thou)from shortest to longest at the ogive ( distribution was bimodal at 25 and 95 thou)

Questions:
1. Is this normal and acceptable?

2. Is my expectation for more consistency unreasonable?

3. If this is normal , how do you insure every seating is exact to the OAL for your chamber where it shoots most accurately? Must you seat long and creep up on the measurement?

Your expertise and vast experience are most appreciated.
Click to expand...

There is a reason they producer is a "boutique specialist."
Stick with one of the larger BR grade makers.


They are no inexpensive, but very, very consistent.
Sound like equipment being run to fast.
It takes a non-zero time for the lead core to flow to the die shape when swaging.
 
are these HAND MADE, or machine made?
one of the best out there, vapor trail sells both, one for prs, one for benchrest.
 
bullet assembly

The weight doesnt look bad to me but the length to ogive could be alot better. Never put bullets together at Lake City but they said it was alot harder to do than case area stuff like I did. Sounds like quality control was asleep to. What the hell is a boutique specialist anyway? Theres your sign. Doug
 
I don’t know, nor do I need to know, who your boutique bullet maker is but I find the opposite to be true regarding weight and length variation when compared to manufactured bullets. There may be variation from lot to lot but who mixes lots? Manufacturers run four or five lines at the same time and call that all a lot. My bullets from a hand made bullet supplier all come off the same press at the same time and that is a lot number.
 
FBecigneul said:
I don’t know, nor do I need to know, who your boutique bullet maker is but I find the opposite to be true regarding weight and length variation when compared to manufactured bullets. There may be variation from lot to lot but who mixes lots? Manufacturers run four or five lines at the same time and call that all a lot. My bullets from a hand made bullet supplier all come off the same press at the same time and that is a lot number.
Click to expand...

I'm familiar with several bullet manufactures and only one runs multiple presses for the same bullet. Think Gov contracts. They may or may not mix bullets from different presses. I doubt it as that leads to complications in making the same bullet in different die sets. Larger lots that are in Gov spec from one press absolutely. Mixed not likely.
 
These answers made me do a comparison

Berger bullets 105 gr 6 mm had one half the variability of weight compared to my other brand (15/20 were exactly 105.0, 3/20 were 104.9, and 2/20 were 105.1 gr) and length from ogive to base was on the money for measurements to 0.0005 and only 7/20 from the box of 500 that I measured were less than the others by .0005" and none was greater. Admittedly this was not free of Alpha or Beta error and was not power tested :), but just an observation

But seems a large commercial product is satisfactory and in one case more reliable.
 
fx77 said:
Rcently I purchased 500 bullets from a boutique specialist maker all of which were marked 105 gr

I found that loading them in my seating die led to inconsistent OAL measrements

I randomly selected 20 bullets of the 500 and weighed them

Of the 20, 13 were 104.9-105.2gr

Then measured the base to ogive on a bullet comparator, and the same 20 bullets had a range of .0040 (55-95 thou)from shortest to longest at the ogive ( distribution was bimodal at 25 and 95 thou)

Questions:
1. Is this normal and acceptable?

2. Is my expectation for more consistency unreasonable?

3. If this is normal , how do you insure every seating is exact to the OAL for your chamber where it shoots most accurately? Must you seat long and creep up on the measurement?

Your expertise and vast experience are most appreciated.
Click to expand...

If I had that sort of variation from any bullet maker, factory or boutique, I would demand a refund, or replacement. That is totally unacceptable.
 
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