Several gages out there that do the same thing. Nothing against Hornady, as I like their stuff, but sorting ammo by weight or headspace is a waste of time.

 

Its already been done by others and the overall consensus is as already noted a waste of time. That said the primer seems to be the *'biggest culprit' of ammo inaccuracy when all other parts of the accuracy equation are as they should be.

*-there are many culprits possible for poor targets when all is not as it should be such as, but not limited to, the barrel, ammo, and the shooter.
my nutshell 2¢ worth

 

Twenty or so years ago, I spent a year doing gobs of sorting and testing with a Neil Jones gauge. I think it is the easiest to use. Beyond easy, I saw a verrrrry small advantage to rimfire sorting. Frankly, the return on the time invested is not worth it. You would be better off getting good ammo, and then spend that time practicing more and learning to read the wind. Wind doping is arguably the single most significant variable that you can mitigate.


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Thank you, gentlemen for your answers. They were just what I was looking for!

I now think I will save my money and put it into GOOD ammo and not waste my time checking various rounds.

I appreciate your input. Thank you!

Brittman
:t

 

Put a 22 rimfire bullet down into a fired .223 Rem case. Measure the length of the .223 case, insert the rimfire and take the measurement. the diff is the rim thickness. or you can get fancy and zero out the calipers.


I didn't see much difference in rim thickness among ammo of the same manufacturer but did note a difference between manufacturers. Eley tended to be a little thicker. That might explain the generally better accuracy of Eley.

 

I spent a few Sunday afternoons several years ago playing with sorting rim thickness. I made an attachment from brass rod to clamp on a digital caliper and went to work. The only thing I found that it accomplished was reducing the number of fliers slightly and not worth the time spent doing it at all. My little gadget is ratteling around in a drawer somewhere never to be used again.

 

I've done many different experiments to see if sorting by weight or rim thickness did anything to improve precision. Nothing worked and it finally dawned on me that if I was to improve anything it would be to reduce velocity variations. Aftermany more experiments sorting and measuring velocity of each round weighed or measured rim thickness and correlating it to the velocity, I found there is no correlation and if there is it is statistically insignificant.

As pointed out, the primer is a large part of the power in a .22LR and in American priming, priming is very bad. That's why European match ammo is much better because they have a much more uniform priming procedure and it shows in velocity spread in a lot.

 

Decades ago C.E. (Ed) Harris had a very good article in Gun Digest and convinced me to forgo measuring rim thickness. My rig was a lab stand mounted dial indicator and a test fixture; raise the arm on the indicator, drop the cartridge into the fixture and lower the indicator. Quick and slick....havent used it since. Wish I had a shelf to display it on.
A decently rifled and crowned barrel.
A very good match chamber (caveat may be ‘to your ammo of choice’).
And GOOD ammo
Learn how to shoot (LOL, Im still learning )