New guy with a question

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poorman216

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Hello I just bought a new firearm and the guy threw in 2 boxes of freedom munitions reloaded 45 acp 200 gr round nose. I have never shot any reloads before so when I got them home I looked them over they look ok. I got my wife's kitchen scale out and weighed each one her scale only has ounces and grams out of the 100 rounds I found 41 rounds weigh 18 grams and 59 weigh 19 grams. I think they are supposed to be weighed in grains but this scale does'nt have that option. My question is are these safe to shoot with the 1 gram difference. Thanks in advance for any help or info I appreciate it.

Poorman216
 
Ok thanks for the info I don't think I will take a chance with this stuff I don't want to ruin my guns. Thanks again for your time.
 
As mentioned, you can't tell by weighing if there's an issue with it or not.

There's too much variance in brass weight and bullet weight that you'd never be able to tell.


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Very much doubt you have anything to worry about.
1 gram isn't a whole lot. Equals 1/32 of an ounce. That's .035 of an ounce. As in, 35/1,000ths of an ounce.
437.5 grains to an ounce.
 
As already pointed out; kitchen scales won't help.

I've weighed bullets before and indeed the variation I got from one lot (+/- 2gn) would obscure a double charge of some powders.

However, another way to look at it is that reloaded ammo is going through the same process as factory ammo, except that the brass has already been fired at least once. It is still probably a fairly automated set-up: not some guy on a single stage ramming away day and night, so perhaps it is not the gamble it is perceived to be. I'm guess the same rules, licences and standards apply to both.

Maybe others can chime in the the usual M.O. of commercial reloading outfits.
 
Freedom Arms is a pretty well known manufacturer, not really the same as some of the amateur hour Bubba Special ammo you can pick up at gun shows.

Consider the rounding in the display of the scale you used. 17.500001 and 18.4999999 grams are both going to display as 18 grams and 18.5000001 to 19.4999999 are going to display as 19 grams. The variation between rounds could be miniscule or enormous - your instrumentation doesn't really tell you.
 
Thanks for all of the info I might just go tomorrow after work and buy a reloading scale and pull on of each apart and weigh the powder. I have been thinking about getting into reloading any way so when I do I will already have a scale on hand. Thanks again for everyone's responses.

Poorman216
 
Go out and shoot them and stop all the "over thinking" nonsense. Would you feel better if the box had a different label affixed to it?
 
From heaviest to the lightest you have 15.43 grains difference if your kitchen scales are correct. If I weight in Grams I am using Ohus Industrial/lab scales.

Weighing the loaded rounds without knowing the weight of the components before you start is a waste of time. The 15.43 grains difference is scary if all the components weight match.

F. Guffey
 
OP,a kitchen scale is not the right tool to measure ammunition or component
weight and one gram is a lot when it comes to powder charges or even bullets.
Having said that trying out a new pistol with someone else's reloads is not the best practice,you have confidence that's reliable ammo? go ahead and shoot it.
 
As has been said, Freedom Munitions is a reputable source for reloaded ammo. Their quality and safety standards are probably up to new factory ammo specs. I would shoot them without any qualms.
 
If the scale is only reading whole grams, the difference between 18 and 19 may be bit error or a rounding error reflecting a much smaller actual difference. For example, a round weighed at 18.49 grams by the scale will display 18 and one weighing 18.50 grams will round up to display as 19 grams, even though the actual difference was only 0.01 grams.

As others said, weighing is not a reliable way to discern the difference between cartridges unless you have a higher resolution scale and know all the brass was from the same tooling and what its weight tolerance was and that the bullets all weighed the same to start, which, with lead, is often not exactly the case.
 
Go out and shoot 'em.

Then pick up the empty brass and weigh them. I'll bet you'll find the same variance in empty brass weight that you saw in loaded cartridge weight.
 
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