Meplating Berger 180Grain hybrids

[Peterla]

Hi Meplater's

I am new to this process but understand how to do this operation
I have just started to do my first 300 180 grain Berger Hybrids before I point them

I found some interesting measurements across the 300 Berger's

After a hour or two of trying to work out why some would trim and others not even get near the trimmer I found the issue
The tip to base length was quite large. My shortest to longest was almost 40th
When I am taking only 5 thou off this is why some do not reach the tip cutter.
The bearing surface lengths are within 2-4 thou so its in the point that this discrepancy appears.
Some of the shorter ones you can see a bigger more open point tip but not all.
Maybe the forming of the point extends the length a bit.

My next step was then to batch the projectiles and sort out the really short and really long one
This gave me three batches of lengths all withing 8 thous of each other and a box for the out of range ones
Will keep these for fouling


Has anyone else seen this type of discrepancy in the the 180 Grain hybrids?
Not sure if this is normal or if this batch has a issue with Quality control

Pete

[Barry Davies]

Hi Pete,
Welcome to the world of projectile sorting.

[Norm]

Hi Peter.

Have a very close look at ogive of the projectiles that are 40th shorter than the longest. If you look closely you will see something a bit different about them...

Yes a very good reason to bullet sort and I have only seen this with the Berger 180gn Hybrid.

[Peterla]

Looks like I will be batching on weight, bearing surface and overall length

Better get myself some small plastic containers to keep them all separated in.
I have done batching on weight and bearing surface on 155.5 projectiles but the meplat brings in another variable

Thanks for the comments guys

Pete

[johnk]

I've always reckoned that meplatting is the most productive way to sort pills.

[6602steven]

I had found this with 180 hybrids also

It for me thinking if the meplat uniformer should index of the ogive rather than the base. Bullets could then be sorted by base to ogive length but all the meplats should be very close to the same.

Steve

[Norm]

I batch by length.
Get rid of the very short ones. and then batch into 5 thou groups.
The longest ones are used for 1000 to 1200 yard events as they have the highest BC and the points seem to be naturally sharp.

[Peterla]

I use a meplat tool I made myself.
Works like a treat and works off the ogive to tip and not the base.

The base to ogive seem to be fine and within 3-8 th . It was just the ogive to point tip that had these large differences

[shooter mcreid]

I started pointing due to a batch of 180 vids that was as you describe, they where also very rough around the rim. Not sure exactly how you like to do yours but I will always point first but only about 80% of final desired point (as an example my last batch of 6mm got a 20 thou point first), then trim the smallest possible amount to evenly trim the majority and finally repoint to 100% (25 thou for the 6mm example above). I'll sort and pull out the short ones during the first point.

[Julian D]

Oh my ......

Something else I have to look into .

At this rate it will take me a week to reload 50 rounds

[Brad Y]

Wait til you get to the point where you batch loaded ammo by seating tension. The joys we go to for accurate long range ammo.

One must also consider that if your projectiles all measure up quite consistently, is there going to be much to gain from meplat trimming?

[Peterla]

Yes we all seem to get really serious about sorting stuff out and killing our free time.
My attitude is if I can do it and control what is in my control what happens at the target was out of control.

Wind reading would be the main item that I cant control as sometime I am right on and other time very confused
I am sure we all get this feeling from time to time

[johnk]

I thought attention to detail was important until I saw a guy win a queens using 2 different loads each distance, eh Lefty?

[Old Trev-39]

Hi all,
I agree with Steve. Since starting to shoot 1000yd. bench rest around 2002 I have metplated all my projectiles. First I sort by base to ogive, in batches of .002 differences, then I measure the length of a few in a particular batch, pick the shortest, and set my cutter to just clean up that projectile then do the rest of that batch. I then do the same for each following batch. This allows you to have the maximum number of projectiles with the smallest metplat possible.
Enjoy,
Trevor.

[plumbs7]

I thought attention to detail was important until I saw a guy win a queens using 2 different loads each distance, eh Lefty?

I've seen a well known ftr shooter at 1000 yds nats change loads half way through a string ! I think he won the ton from memory 58.?? Couple of years ago now , was impressive Shane !