Nosler Quality Control Tolerances

[Buster]

In attempting to reload a specific cartridge to a specific rifle, one of the variables that I try to control is bullet seating depth, as I am sure everyone does as well.
But if the sweet spot is say only 5-10 thous spacing from the lands, my concern is to take bullet manufacturing tolerances into account. If for example, the tolerance on a Ballistic Tip from base to ogive (length), is 10 thous, then I may not have any "jump" available and risk higher than desired pressures.
So my question is: Does Nosler publish manufacturing tolerances for their bullets, or where can I find them?
I have looked everywhere I can think and thus far have been unable to find them. Other manufactures, I have found, do publish their manufacturing tolerances, as in the one example below.

GSC bullets are designed to the following standard:
Diameter tolerance: + or - 0.005mm (0.0002").
Length tolerance: + or - 0.10mm (0.004").
Weight is within 0.25% of the stated weight.
Uniformity of ogive curve: - + or - 0.005mm (0.0002").
This is an overall standard that is maintained from batch to batch - not just within a batch.

Thanks for your response.

 

[Rol_P]

First, welcome aboard to a Great Forum... I have never looked for Nosler's published tolerances. Have you tried to call Nosler Customer service with the question? I recently had an issue with new Nosler cases and was treated very well by Nosler Customer service. Good luck and please keep us informed.

 

[jimbires]

welcome to the forum Buster . the way a die works is it will push the longer bullets into the case deeper . your base to ogive should be very close to the same length regardless of the actual bullet length . I feel compressed powder loads and work hardened brass , neck tension , will affect your base to ogive length .

 

[Buster]

Thanks Jim and Rol_P for your posts, and thanks for the welcome.

Rol, I am not concerned at all with bullet overall length (at least in this particular instance). Rather with the dimension from the base of the bullet to the end of the shank (otherwise the start of the ogive). This is the place where the bullet first makes contact with the lands. Otherwise referred to as CBTO (including casing). If I try to create a standard cartridge which is used like a gauge to set up the die, then whatever bullet I use will have a certain dimension. Then say, I want 0.005" of "jump" till the shank hits the lands. However, if the manufacturing tolerance for the bullet (measured from base to end of ogive) is also 0.005" or more, then I have no "jump" available for at least some of the cartridges.
I apologize if I am not making this clear.

I did follow up on your suggestion Jim, to contact customer support on this question. What I was told was the following.
- Nosler Engineering specifications are not public, not published, are proprietary and confidential, and the Customer service technician did not even know what the dimensions or tolerances were on Nosler products.
- He did advise that the AccuBond, Ballistic Tip, and Partition, all use a tangent ogive.
- Nosler recommends a minimum of 0.020" jump on tangent ogive bullets, and recommends best performance somewhere between 0.020"-0.050".
- The exception is the Varmint bullets, which also use a tangent ogive, but have tighter specifications, where a minimum jump of 0.015" is recommended.

Having said all this, I still do not know what the dimensional tolerances are for Nosler products, but given the published specs that I noted on my original post were 0.004" tolerance on overall bullet length, I would approximate about 75% of this, or 0.003" for base to ogive (different for each type and make of bullet). But this is for a small manufacturing operation where quality control is likely more easily achieved than for mass production like Nosler. So I will use a value of 0.010" as an estimated tolerance to be on the safe side or until I get further information from the much more talented, knowledgeable, and experienced crowd here on the forum.

 

[Muldoon]

buster

I understand fully what you're attempting (I think) to do but I believe there's something you're over-looking which is pertinent to your objective! Anyway you 'cut it'.....all of the seating dies I've ever worked with seat the bullet, depth-wise off of the meplat of the bullet rather than off the ogive and herein lies the fly in the ointment! I made .30 caliber match bullets for quite a few years and due to bullet jacket material not being 100% consistent in metallurgy, when a slug of lead is seated into a jacket and the 'cored jacket' is put under pressure to point it up....the OAL of the finished bullet can vary somewhat! It may not be but a few thousands but when attempting to seat all bullets such that you would have the same dimension from the head of the cartridge case up to the ogive would be a real chore! So as you've stated....the only thing that can be done is to strike a happy medium once a tolerance is adjusted for. And unless one is going to single load the round into the chamber, another fly in the ointment is that the COAL has to be fitted to work within the confines of the magazine if using a bolt rifle as I do. If I'm wrong on my statement here....knock me out!

 

[JD338]

Although Nosler manufactures to tight tolerances, well within the industry standards, they do not publish this information. I try to load .015-.020" off the lands however, a couple of my rifles had a lot of free bore so I laod to just under the maximum magazine length and still get exceptional accuracy.

JD338

 

[Guy Miner]

Well, we haven't heard from Buster since April anyway.

 

[Thebear_78]

What I do for my target ammo is seat in a two step process. I use a micrometer seating die.

First I seat the bullet a little long 8-10 thousands, measure with a bullet comparator and dial the difference to get exact base to ogive measurement on all cartridges. Take an extra second but makes accurate ammo.

If you think noslers are bad check Sierra match kings, they still shoot well though


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DrMike]

Well, we haven't heard from Buster since April anyway.

He had his say and then disappeared. More's the pity, as an exchange of views might have been enlightening. It is difficult not to conclude that he either wished to push a particular product or point of view, or he was having difficulties getting a load to work for him.