IN my quest for total accuracy out of my .41 Magnum,(14" Contender) I've started weighing straight wall cases. This isn't a total waste of time, as it has cut 1/4" off my 5 shot strings. My question is what tolerance do you use to weed your heavy and light cases? I had a 1.6 grain variation in a lot of Remington brass, I set my acceptable variation at 1 grain. (average case weight of 99.7 grns +/- .5 grns.)Can this be trimmed even closer for straight wall cases, or am I the only one anal enough to do this?

I retained 73 cases out of 100 by this "weeding". Not sure if I want to trim any further, or if it's worth it?

[ 03-27-2003, 21:46: Message edited by: T/C nimrod ]

Nimrod,

I have to say up front that I think it a waste of time. Due to the density of the brass vs. the density of powder, you'd have to find a relatively large variation in brass weight to support thinking that there is an important variation in powder capacity. I think we're talking 10 gr. brass to 1 gr. powder. That would make your variations in brass unimportant in terms of powder capacity (particularly if you have ANY variations is powder charge or bullet weight).

Are you using a powder measure or scale? Are you weighing each bullet?

�" in group size could be attributed to improved skill derived from practice. How do you know it is your sorted cases? IME, such case weight differences do not cause detectible differences in grouping ability in any but the smallest of cases (e.g. .22 Hornet) and much less so in straight walled large bore cases.

Now all this is not to be derisive. We all have our particular hot buttons or things about which we are compulsive.

I have a 16�" barrel for my Contender in .41 Remington Magnum. So far in my as yet very brief experiments, the bullet has been much more important to grouping ability than any other factor. This barrel preferring heavier bullets, and doing particularly well with cast LBT styles in the 265-275 gr. weight range.

Hobie - the only hot buttons I have include a freshly dried shirt. I weigh every single charge I drop....in every caliber I load for. I don't trust my dropper, even though it has never given me a reason not to. As far as the 1/4" group - I agree with you totally, practice with a certain caliber tends to improve one's shooting skills. However, what I have done so far is to take the brass that was "weeded" and load them using the same ramps as the "good" brass, and they open up my groups. I've always weighed my bottleneck cases to within .2 grns., so I just carried that process over to these straight wall cases. Trying to get enough .41 mag brass at .2 grains is , well....useless at best. I'm still early in load development (about 3 months), and have only shot my first load ramp 3x to find consistency. Maybe the barrel I have is finicky about brass? Another note to go with the powder charges, I also weed my bullets to within .2 grns. I feel this process eliminates the components as being error during development.

T/C for me the .41 mag is a 100-150 yd max. rig anyway. So your quest for 1/4" better groups (less than 1/2" @ 150) seems more t&t than necessary (JMO).
My 12" .375win. will shoot 1 1/2 moa all day and I don't weigh cases & I throw charges. It's quite a bit flatter shooting than a .41mag, but I wouldn't go much past 150yds. Throw the charges, stop weighing cases & shoot more.

[ 03-28-2003, 00:33: Message edited by: fredj338 ]