First attempt at sorting by weight

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Sqwirl57

Sqwirl57

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Apr 13, 2020
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Ok so I'm really not sure exactly how to process this. My gut is telling me to seperate the 15.98gr (possibly 15.94gr?) through 16.12gr into a seperate tin for testing. These pellets as a whole have done very well for me aside from the occasional flier. Looking at the group here I think its safe to say where those occasional fliers came from...

Just looking for some insight from guys who have done this before I start grouping them. It's a bit too windy to do that today anyway so hopefully next week.
 
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Don't think you need such small divisions. I sort into batches .08 grains apart. While nothing wrong with .02 grain divisions, I doubt it will help either. I would sort into 15.80-15.88/15.90-15.98/16.00-16.08/16.10-16.18/16.20-16.28 (Those lighter than 15.80 or heavier than 16.28 are outlyers and are saved for punching tin cans at 25 yards 😂)

That's plenty small divisions in my mind. That's the way I sort then after I have many tins of these sorts, I head size each tin.
 
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I would throw all the ones at the extreme ends of the scale for both top and bottom in a different pile expecting them not to perform as well. It would be interesting to see what kind of groups come from that pile….

Then group the others into two piles. It would be interesting to see what shoots better or if there’s a difference between the heavier and the lighter pile.

The only time I’ve sorted is for a nationals field target match. I just threw out the highs and lows and kept the ones in the middle.

That seems like a wide range of variation.

Mike
 
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rsfrid said:
Don't think you need such small divisions. I sort into batches .08 grains apart. While nothing wrong with .02 grain divisions, I doubt it will help either. I would sort into 15.80-15.88/15.90-15.98/16.00-16.08/16.10-16.18/16.20-16.28 (Those lighter than 15.80 or heavier than 16.28 are outlyers and are saved for punching tin cans at 25 yards 😂)

That's plenty small divisions in my mind. That's the way I sort then after I have many tins of these sorts, I head size each tin.
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Ok so I'll make a junk tin for the crazy outliers! I'm sure they'll do well enough on spinners still. I like your system though so I'll go with something like that for my accuracy tests. Thank you!
 
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Flintsack said:
I would throw all the ones at the extreme ends of the scale for both top and bottom in a different pile expecting them not to perform as well. It would be interesting to see what kind of groups come from that pile….

Then group the others into two piles. It would be interesting to see what shoots better or if there’s a difference between the heavier and the lighter pile.

The only time I’ve sorted is for a nationals field target match. I just threw out the highs and lows and kept the ones in the middle.

That seems like a wide range of variation.

Mike
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I shoot a lot of paper. Tiny groups always make me smile so I really wanted to see if putting some effort into sorting would help create more smiles per tin. Gotta be frugal in this economy!
 
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Sqwirlfugger57 said:
Ok so I'll make a junk tin for the cray outliers! I'm sure they'll do well enough on spinners still. I like your system though so I'll go with something like that for my accuracy tests. Thank you!
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That's EXACTLY what I do. Here is a pic of some I sorted and will shoot each tin separately at .10g differences.
20221215_085856.jpg
 
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Richieg said:
That's EXACTLY what I do. Here is a pic of some I sorted and will shoot each tin separately at .10g differences.
View attachment 335712
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You know if someone had told me a few years ago that I would be measuring pellets to the 1/10 grain I would laugh in there face. Now I'm looking at your picture and thinking you're a genius. What has this hobby done to me?
 
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Sqwirlfugger57 said:
Alright so this is what I went with to keep it simple here

View attachment 335723
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That's great..NOW if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, now sort each tin by head size...and that really sucks lol. I have a pellet gauge will works kinda but if you turn the pellet slightly it may fall thru, or not if it did fall thru before. I haven't found a head size measuring tool that actually works and can accurately measure head size. Unless you get a t robb pellet sizer and size the heads to a smaller size and that does work.
 
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Richieg said:
That's great..NOW if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, now sort each tin by head size...and that really sucks lol. I have a pellet gauge will works kinda but if you turn the pellet slightly it may fall thru, or not if it did fall thru before. I haven't found a head size measuring tool that actually works and can accurately measure head size. Unless you get a t robb pellet sizer and size the heads to a smaller size and that does work.
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Thats the next step. I wanted to group these first before doing head sizes so I could get a baseline for accuracy first. The next tin I will be doing weight and head size so I can do a comparison. If they're close, I'd rather not spend an extra hour with a PelletGage
 
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SpiralGroove said:
Hey Guys,
I'm no expert, but I try to keep my weight sorting differentials to around 1% of weight.
Hence pellets weighing:
<18 grain = .10 grain intervals
>18 to 29 grain = .20 grain intervals
> 30 grain = .40 grain intervals

Any remaining outliers are shot for tuning/testing waste.
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That seems like a good rule of thumb to me. I'll keep it in mind
 
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Sqwirlfugger57 said:
Thats the next step. I wanted to group these first before doing head sizes so I could get a baseline for accuracy first. The next tin I will be doing weight and head size so I can do a comparison. If they're close, I'd rather not spend an extra hour with a PelletGage
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I understand that. The pellet gauge is better than doing nothing, it will get you close in head sizes. But unless you can size the head, to a given size, everything else is just close...but may very well be close enough to matter.
 
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iAMzehTOASTY1 said:
I've been wondering about length symmetry 🥴
...if a pellet gets slightly smashed but no visible skirt or deformation, but maybe " squished" a bit in length.
...*been also studyin magazines and pellet lengths😅
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I'm sure there are lots of factors involved. When shooting powder guns for precision many people choose to remove the magazine from the equation completely. I have a single shot sled for nearly all of my mag fed rifles.

I shoot with some guys who will actually count down the time a round is loaded into a warm barrel. Heat creates expansion, which can slightly change pressures, which can throw a round a whopping 1/4" at 100yds. People can be very picky with shooting sports.
 
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OMG had no idea people got this detailed about their pellets. I get the sorting thing but assumed a .25 gr variance was about as tight as made practical sense. However, getting down to .10 grain then sizing them?
I don’t shoot paper except to tune and sight in. My guns shoot nice tight groups. This would undoubtedly shrink the groups a bit but I don’t have the patience. As long as I am minute of ground squirrel head at 50 yards I am happy. You folks seem to be going for minute of squirrel eye.
I do admire your diligence, perseverance and dedication though.
 
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Chukar60 said:
OMG had no idea people got this detailed about their pellets. I get the sorting thing but assumed a .25 gr variance was about as tight as made practical sense. However, getting down to .10 grain then sizing them?
I don’t shoot paper except to tune and sight in. My guns shoot nice tight groups. This would undoubtedly shrink the groups a bit but I don’t have the patience. As long as I am minute of ground squirrel head at 50 yards I am happy. You folks seem to be going for minute of squirrel eye.
I do admire your diligence, perseverance and dedication though.
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Not even going for minute of squirrel eye honestly. Every tin seems to have a few pellets that inexplicably don't go where they should and is exaggerated by longer ranges. Those four in the top corner and the two in the bottom right corner definitely explains the fliers though. Keep in mind this was only a 200 pellet tin so a 500 pellet tin would likely be even worse. Honestly I probably could have just tossed those 6 and been happy with the results, but since they're already sorted I may as well sperate them even further. The hard part has already been done!
 
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Sqwirlfugger57 said:
I'm sure there are lots of factors involved. When shooting powder guns for precision many people choose to remove the magazine from the equation completely. I have a single shot sled for nearly all of my mag fed rifles.

I shoot with some guys who will actually count down the time a round is loaded into a warm barrel. Heat creates expansion, which can slightly change pressures, which can throw a round a whopping 1/4" at 100yds. People can be very picky with shooting sports.
Click to expand...
Oh I'm with ya there😅 spent most of my life pb'N.
Only less than a third of my life has been with "air" slingers🥴 however I've bow hunted, muzzleloader hunt3d....pretty much everything else extensively. Working on "air" lead slingers for now and realizing(like other have/will) that THIS sport is a BIG/complex challenge when compared to pbS
 
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