I'm sitting here on a beautiful Sunday morning.....watching bucks get slammed on the outdoor channel, loading up some .06 rounds. I'm watching what just a couple of sticks of IMR 4064 does to the scale and I'm wondering....just how much darn variation do factory rounds have since they are loaded in assembly line style? Are the more $$$ "premium" rounds closer in tolerance? Thanks~

I have attributed the price difference to the premium bullets used in the premium rounds and have assumed that the rounds were all loaded on the same equipment. But assuming does tend to make ....... out of u and me!

LWD

YEARS ago I disassembled an OLD box of factory Rem .300H+H rds for the casings. Just for fun I weighed each charge. Charge weight consistancy wasn't good(may have results in my records somewhere,but iirc it could have been as much as a 6gr variation). In all fairness though,they were an OLD lot possibly from the early 70s. May have to try it on a new box of ammo.

til later

til later

I've disassembled several boxes of various factory ammo over the years, including 30.06. The only brand with any consistency was Federal. Remington was as much as 2 grains difference in standard long action.

quote:

I'm watching what just a couple of sticks of IMR 4064 does to the scale and I'm wondering....just how much darn variation do factory rounds have since they are loaded in assembly line style?

I believe your question is valid, "Just how anal should we be with powder measurments?" Answer - Not nearly as much as we seem to assume!

IF a powder charge is within a certain range, I find no evidence that a variation spread of as much as .3 to .4 gr. makes a bit of difference on target with varmint ammo and twice that for hunting ammo.

Silly me, I still weight my charges anyway!

EP - 30 year old ammo ain't old!

Come on Jim,I was trying to make up an alibi for Remington.

til later

If you use Federal Premium .30-06 ammo, you have no alibis!! That stuff is the equal of the best handloads made, then that may be why it is so expensive. If I did not handload, I would be a 100% Federal Premium shooter.

LLS

Since the factory has access to non canister grade powders the cartridges are loaded "to maintain ballistic requirements" and not by grain weight. One cartridge may be loaded with a slightly different burning rate of powder, which would give you the large difference in grain weight of the charge. However, all cartridges will have the same pressure and velocity + - a small unavoidable variance.

What I wrote above is what was told to me by Wichester in the early 80's in response to my question of why charge weights in their factory rounds varied so much.

I think Win was referring to lot to lot variations in powder charge. Not cartridge to cartridge variations within a single box of ammo.


I think the price of "premium" ammo is high because that is what enough people are willing to pay. Possibly hoping to find that "magic bullet" without going through developing a load for their rifle.

just my thoughts
muck

quote:

Originally posted by muck:
I think Win was referring to lot to lot variations in powder charge. Not cartridge to cartridge variations within a single box of ammo.


I think the price of "premium" ammo is high because that is what enough people are willing to pay. Possibly hoping to find that "magic bullet" without going through developing a load for their rifle.

just my thoughts
muck

Yes, their reply was in reference to variations from lot to lot of powder.

I shot some Federal Premium 300 win mag over my crony yesterday and was amazed by how inconstant the velocities where.

1 2939
2 3100
3 2811
4 2917

I stopped after 4 and concluded that the 300 fps spread would explain why my groups where so wide.

My hand loads that I was developing had much more constant velocities, in one case 7 fps for 4 shots and I weighed every charge.

It depends upon your application. If all you need to do is hit a dinner plate sized target at 100 to 200 yards, you don't need to worry about powder charge uniformity as much as you do when you're shooting for tiny fraction of MOA accuracy at a BR match........