Oddball Question

[robertc1024]

A guy in Idaho is supposed to send me 47 lbs of miscellaneous, bulk , factory 30-30 shells. Not sure where to post my question, but I figured you guys would know more about it than I so, here goes. I want to try to sort them into potentially close families. What's the best way to do it? I was going to sort my manufacturer, then group them by weight to separate out different grain bullets. Sound reasonable? I've got sub milligram scales at my disposal. I'm just hoping by the stampings on the brass that I can get ones that have similar powder grouped.

In looking at the ballistics on the stash of 30-30 I've got, there's a couple of inches of elevation change at 200 yards with a zero at 100 - which to me is quite tolerable. Is there something else I should be watching out for? The only oddball ones I have are the Hornady Leverevoluton's. I've talked to a couple of people who say if your rifle is sighted in at 100 yards for regular round-nosed 150 grain bullets, these are about 8" high - which isn't tolerable to me without re-zeroing my scope.

Any ideas?

 

[Vaquero]

Your plan is as sound as any.
The new Hornady stuff is going to perform better, no matter what.

 

[txbikerman]

sounds like a plan. Most 30-30 have a big drop. mine has open sights, 100 yards is my max with it .

 

[Dawico]

You will probably have issues trying to sort them by weight. Take a box of known weight factory ammo and weight them. You should see the problem right away.

I have weighed factory match bullets (not ammo, just the bullets) and had over a grain difference.

Weighing them may not really help much.

Your best bet is to match up headstamps and bullet design/ profile and hope you get close. In 30- 30 bullets each manufacturer doesn't really have a ton of similiar profile bullets with different weights.

 

[robertc1024]

Thanks - that's exactly the info I'm looking for. I've got mass comparators at work that can measure weights down to 100 micrograms. I'm going to take a couple of boxes of factory shells in and weigh them to see how much variation is in a normal box, then start on the mystery shells. My main effort is to categorize them into junk ammo to fire lead down range, reasonable target ammo and deer killers. I'll post results of my tests if anybody else is interested and as much of an egg-head as I am.

 

[robertc1024]

Look what arrived in the mail today. The postman wasn't happy. God knows how many 30-30 shells, all different kinds of .410's, and a brick of .22's.

 

[txbikerman]

Look what arrived in the mail today. The postman wasn't happy. God knows how many 30-30 shells, all different kinds of .410's, and a brick of .22's.

awesome

 

[itchin]

Lol. Nice.

 

[Vaquero]

Yep, postman needs a chiropractor.

Nice haul.

 

[robertc1024]

333 30-30's, 550 count of .22's, 223 .410's with birdshot, 22 410's with three, count them three balls of 00 buck.

Derrick, we need to put a few more rounds down the tube of the lever gun.

 

[itchin]

Yes. I love me some 30-30. I was hoping to go to the new range but will have to go to dietz til it finally opens. I need to shoot my poor ar. I spent the entire panic buying ammo lol.

 

[robertc1024]

It's better when you get it for free.

 

[itchin]

No kidding. That was a major score. I'm glad he came through. And the .22s were a nice bonus.

 

[robertc1024]

To get back to the original post, All the 30-30 was either Winchester or Remington. I sorted through some of it at work and weighed it. Honestly, I was shocked about the differences in weight for the same manufacturer, and same looking round. A gram = ~15.43 grains. I had variations in the same manufacturer of almost 2 grams. I think I'm going to take some unopened boxes of factory ammo and check them out. If that's par for the course, I get the whole reloading thing for consistency.

 

[Vaquero]

To get back to the original post, All the 30-30 was either Winchester or Remington. I sorted through some of it at work and weighed it. Honestly, I was shocked about the differences in weight for the same manufacturer, and same looking round. A gram = ~15.43 grains. I had variations in the same manufacturer of almost 2 grams. I think I'm going to take some unopened boxes of factory ammo and check them out. If that's par for the course, I get the whole reloading thing for consistency.

Might be some 135gr and 150 gr bullets that appear identical externally. The weights you are seeing would be unheard of for brass and powder differences.

 

[Blind Sniper]

I think the 150 and 170 grain rounds may have a -slightly- different OAL, and if you want I can check a few of mine.

ETA: Pretty much what Vaquero said.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

I know in alot of pistol calibers there can be huge variations from the same headstamp. Just kinda the name of the game i guess....also why its fairly useless to try and weigh finished ammo to find squibs or double charges.

 

[robertc1024]

Interesting - I've got four different boxes of different unopened factory 30-30 loads. Green box remington Core-lokt with 150 gr., Winchester Super X 150 gr, Federal 150 gr. Deer Thugs, and Hornady 160 gr Leverevolution. I'll weigh at least 10 out of each of them and post up some results if anybody's interested. This is what happens when you deal with a nerdly engineer.

 

[Vaquero]

Interesting - I've got four different boxes of different unopened factory 30-30 loads. Green box remington Core-lokt with 150 gr., Winchester Super X 150 gr, Federal 150 gr. Deer Thugs, and Hornady 160 gr Leverevolution. I'll weigh at least 10 out of each of them and post up some results if anybody's interested. This is what happens when you deal with a nerdly engineer.

Interested.

 

[txbikerman]

i would be interested as well