Bullet Manufacturing Consistency

[beartracker]

I weighed three boxes of 180gr SS Nork Fork bullets and the extreme spread was 180.0 - 180.2grs. It broke down percentage wise as follows.

180.0 = 57%

180.1 - 40%

180.2 - 3%

Now that is some tight manufacturing tolerances. I will see how they shoot when I do load work for my 30-06.

I have a friend who does not like the North Fork because it cost so much and they do not declare the bullet BC. I always loved turning over rocks in a clear stream in Middle Tenn when I was teenager. Just wanted to see if anything was under the rock, it might be exciting stuff or something valuable. I like going up the next ridge, over the next hill and through the next canyon just to see what is on the other side. You all know I try many bullets, and many load chain combinations just to make sure I don't miss a gym that would work in a certain rifle that I am doing load work for at the moment.

In turning over the rocks I have found many an accurate load in my life time and they sure have paid off in the field. I am not crazy either about he North Fork bullet price nor the fact they do not declare their bullet BC. Now that said, when I have been able to get them to shoot in certain rifles, they are usually very accurate bullets and their terminal effectiveness is with the best out there. I think of it this - say I get it 1/2" or under and moving at 2800fps or better out of a 22 inch barrel 06, then I have the following as far as performance is concerned."


180gr SS .308 North Fork









I would estimate the BC to be around .390 (pure guessing, could be more or less). Here it is up next to a Sierra 180gr Spitzer with a .407 BC.





It sure is a consistent weight and there must be a lot of attention to quality control since they cost so much. I know some would not use the bullet because of cost or lack of BC information. I will use my 30-06 for normal hunting ranges so I am not worried about the BC nor the cost since I have three boxes from past use. Just thought it was very interesting how consistent the bullets were in weight.

[Big Al1]

You couldn't grow a better looking mushroom!!

[Pegasus]

Not to be contrarian, but I would put the G1 BC value closer to .300; that thing has a huge meplat and a very shallow ogive. It's closer to a round nose than a spitzer. Compare it to the Sierra 180gr ProHunter RN #2170.

[bisley]

I'm not into this as deep as most, but I did weigh a pile of Hornady 7mm 139 grain SST's, a while back, simply to try to compare them to the Midway Blems that are identical to them. I didn't keep statistics on them, as I was after general information, but I do know that they were nowhere near the consistency you have recorded. Most of them were in the 139.0 - 139.3 range, but there were quite a few that went 139.5, and a few even went to 139.8. There was no noticeable difference between the consistency of the Hornady branded bullets and the so-called 'blems.' I'm guessing that Hornady rejects any lot that reaches a certain threshold number of out of spec bullets, and that my sampling was too small to detect what that threshold is.

Again, neither my equipment nor personal skills are approaching your requirements, but the weight comparisons seem to be relevant to your original subject line, so I offer it for whatever it might be worth. I can't say how much this affects the precision of the load, because my range time has been minimal with this equipment and these load components. My best groups, so far, have been just under 1 MOA, and I haven't detected very much difference between the different bullets or charge weights. I suspect that one would have to have precisely 'tuned' equipment to notice any difference.

[beartracker]

Pegasus, you could very well be right about that.

[MileHighShooter]

That is pretty tight consistency right there! I remember doing that once with several boxes of Fail Safe 165gr 308" bullets...they went everywhere from high 163 to 166. Having a couple hundred bullets I was able to put them into groups of same or very similar weights. Don't know if that did anything accuracy wise, but I did notice it brought the ES down quite a bit.

[Pegasus]

That weight consistency is very good and they do seem to mushroom just incredibly well. Definitely a great hunting bullet. I think you have a winner here.

That's the kind of weight consistency and terminal performance that you just cannot find in .277 bullets.

[beartracker]

Well, we will see how they shoot tomorrow morning if I can't cut away from work for a bit.

[stepmac]

I spoke with a guy who works at Nosler in a gunshow. He said they stop the machines and measure and weight the bullets peridiocially throughout the day. When they shut down a machine it spits out a few dozen. These they sell as seconds. You can look up Nosler and see their seconds for sale at about half price. They are just as good as any of their bullets.

Nosler revolutionized the bullet making industry and for years theirs were the only really good hunting bullets around. Now lots of manufacturers have caught up to them, but still Nosler makes a fine bullet. Ol' John Nosler died recently. He was quite a guy. He lived to be nearly 100.