Those of us that handload know that there are several things that can and will effect accuracy.

Case quality and preparation, primers, powder, and bullet quality will all affect the accuracy of the load.

Today, we will look at one of those parameters, bullet quality.

I started out with some once-fired, Israeli military brass. It was full length resized, chamfered inside and out, and polished.

Federal Small Rifle Primers were used in all cases.

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I will try two kinds of bullets today.

First were some pulled military Ball M-193, 55 grain bullets that I got at a gun show.

I polished them up in my tumbler so maybe if they were "pretty" they would shoot better.

The quality of the military ball bullets is "so-so".

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The other bullets were some Sierra 1410, 52 grain BTHP bullets.

The Sierra bullets are very high quality.

They usually shoot very well for me.

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Will there be much difference in accuracy? Let's see.

I loaded up 10 rounds with each bullet with some H-335 powder.

The only thing different is the bullets.

I also loaded up 10 rounds of each with some AA-2460, and 10 rounds of each with some WW-748.

Let's go to the range and see if there is any difference.

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It was a little windy today, but that will affect both bullets the same, so we won't worry about that too much.

Also, keep in mind that these loads are not "carefully worked-up" handloads.

They are just quick loads, straight from the loading manual. I will be shooting at 100 yards.

Long story short, here are the results.

Ten military ball bullets over the H-335 went into a 1 ½ inch group.

Better than I expected.

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Ten Sierra 1410 bullets over H-335 went into 1 3/8 inch.

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With the AA-2460, the Ball went into a 2 5/8ths inch group.

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The AA-2460 and the Sierra 1410s went into a nice 1 inch group.

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The Ball over WW-748 went into a ragged 3 ¼ inch group.

Doesn't look like these bullets like 748.

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The WW-748 and the Sierra bullets went into 2 inches.

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Lessons Learned:

  1. It was windy and none of these loads were real tack drivers.
  2. In all three loads the Sierra 1410 bullets shot into a smaller group than the military ball bullets.
  3. If you have all other things equal, better bullets will usually shoot into smaller groups than cheap military ball bullets.
  4. It's fun to shoot stuff.