Sorting cast balls
 

I've read on here many times about guys sorting their balls by weight. So if a .495" ball of pure lead weighs in at 183 grains and your cast weights vary. How do you group your balls? Or what variation do you allow (+/- grains)?

When I cast for my .58cal I have a minimum weight of 277 grains and a Max weight of 278.8

Anything lighter or heavier I put into a bag and remelt next time I am casting.

Realistically, anything +/- 3-4 grains won't hurt.

When I finally get out shooting I am going to weigh enough balls and record their weights and shoot a couple groups of these without sorting. Then I will have a bunch sorted with only a 2 grain variance and shoot them also. I will see if there is a noticable difference. Unless someone has already done this and would like to provide me the data collected.

I tried it years ago and balls that were 7 to 8 grains heavier, still shot the same POI.

One thing that concerned me was when I go out to 150 yards + I was worried that heavier ball or even the lighter ball may shoot differently.

Well if that's the case I won't bother. I don't plan on shooting farther than 75 - 100 yards with a PRB anyway.

I weight sort mine, usually to one grain (e.g. .575 balls will be sorted into groups of 284.0 to 284.9 / 285.0 to 285.9 / 286.0 to 286.9 / etc.)

It's fast and easy with a $10 digital scale.

I do have a digital scale so weighing is no problem. So Semi I know you are one who weighs as you sent me some pre-weighed.
Now let me pose this question: Say you sorted your cast balls from 284 grains to 288 grains in the manner you do. Do you see a significant POI from balls weighing 284 gr to ones weighing 288 grains?
I can see sorting for a consistant weight to determine what the optimum charge for your ML would be to eliminate any POI difference due to ball weight. But once the ideal charge is determined, does ball weight difference of 4 or 5 grains make a difference under normal hunting situations?

I sort to a standard deviation of three grains high. If they are two grains or more low, then they are picked out also. Also as I sort I check for blemishes. If any of them have scratches, or pits in the spur (they usually show it in weight too) they are also set aside for recasts. The beauty of casting your own means you can always recast your mistakes.

I did once when sorting keep ten real heavy ones. And shot them just to see if they would shoot different. Now granted I am not a long distance shooter like MD. But out to 50 yards I found no difference in accuracy.

I can't say that I've noticed any difference in POI. However, even if the center of the group shifted an inch or so it wouldn't be noticeable unless you were specifically looking for a change like that. At any rate, I can't imaging there would be enough change to be significant in a hunting situation.

Then its settled. I won't sort by weight. My balls will just get checked for defects in casting.

Guys, I had the Woodsman come in today and it came with 100 round balls, .490" size.

These are the sprue-less balls which supposedly vary greatly in weight. I weighed 12 of them and the light was 177 and the heaviest was 179.8 grains with an average of 178.4 grains. Soooo, next time someone says that the store bought pretty balls with no flat spot on them are no good because they weigh all over the scale. You can tell them, I like my smooth, sprue less balls just fine mister.

I knew I had posted something about weighing balls a few years back. Went looking through my old threads and found one from 2010 where I weighed the balls from a .530 Lee mold.

This is what I posted back then.

Semi...

I see that scale weighs in grams not grains, can it be converted to read in grains or did you convert the weights yourself with a calculator afterward? I have a similar scale that can be set to weigh in grams, ounces, etc.

1 gram = 15.432 grains

BPS

I forget which scale I have but it can switch back and forth between grains and grams. I never use grams so it remains on grains.

BPS, the scale has a "mode" button which allows you to set it to weigh things in grains, grams, carats or ounces.

I don't know why the Amazon ad does not show that feature, but it does show up in the "answered questions" section of the ad.

boy Semi you can't beat that price either. That's a dandy little scale for the price.