I'm wondering what you guys that sort brass by weight use as an acceptable range. These are hunting loads for a 3/4 MOA rifle on the first loading and I'm experimenting...for the heck of it.

I had some 'spare' time and 80 pieces of once fired, sized, and trimmed brass. Since I wanted to load a batch of 50, I decided to sort by weight and see how it went. If I go with a range of 3 grains I can get my 50...is that a decent range for most of you?

here is how I do it,...

first they have to be fireformed, then trimmed, then flash holes deburred and primer pockets uniformed. NOW all cases are the same and can be weighed for the true variance in body thickness without extra material in the primer pockets and/or flash holes and necks.

for a 3/4moa rifle,..I doubt you'll see much other than a reduction in flyers or their severity.

I usually like 1-2% for long range BR loads and rifles. I really like < 1% if I can get it.

take the variance weight in grains and divide it by the avg weight, and that will give you your % variance.

quote:

Originally posted by CDH:
I'm wondering what you guys that sort brass by weight use as an acceptable range. These are hunting loads for a 3/4 MOA rifle on the first loading and I'm experimenting...for the heck of it.

I had some 'spare' time and 80 pieces of once fired, sized, and trimmed brass. Since I wanted to load a batch of 50, I decided to sort by weight and see how it went. If I go with a range of 3 grains I can get my 50...is that a decent range for most of you?

Here is some information to help your thought process.
Most powder has a specific gravity of about 1 compared to brass at about 8.
Whatever you think is a good variation for your powder charge is--- say ±.2 grain, the same volumetric variation of the brass case would be 8X the .2 or ±1.6 grains

I don't know how much is gained by weighing brass but I can shoot 1/2" groups and less without weighing brass. You will get tight groups by spending time with glass bedding and good scope mounting and good quality control when loading.
A lot of people weigh brass and may swear by it but I can't the waste of time myself.
The nice thing about loading is you have a lot of options but the rifle has to be right before any of the other stuff has a positive affect .