Can somebody tell me what kind of tolerances the powder charges on factory ammo are held to? I'm very new to handloading and was curious to see how they compare to my reloads.

Herefishy

I've never heard of anyone pulling a bunch of factory ammo to see if there was much variance. I can tell you from chronoing loads from a 44 mag they were very consistant. (within 50 fps of each other) Thats the only factory load I ever did and that was for a friend. He bought the ammo. I havn't put a factory round down range for a lot of years. It's my understanding from friends whom do not reload that factory ammo and especially the high end factory ammo is getting better and better.

I know that when I chrono my handloads I am happy with 50 fps or under. I don't weigh my pistol loads except every tenth to see that my scale has not shifted.

I do this for my varmit loads also as I shoot a bunch of them. I am a little more picky for the big game loads and drop them a little short then trickle to the correct weight. I am happy when thay stay within 25 fps of each other.

I got to say I don't reload to save money, just to shoot more and I am able to taylor loads to an individual guns taste. I been doing this reloading thing for 45 years now and got to say it is a great hobby.

Glad to welcome a new reloader to the shooting fold. There is a wealth of information on this site, read and enjoy.

I am one who has pulled a fairly large # of factory bullets cause I use the cases for wildcats... While it is possible that my "techniques" are suspect, I personally feel that factories probably don't weigh powder charges. They seem to be abt what one would suspect if you "threw" measured charges. Most certainly they were not measured to the point of "cutting" powder granules, that I have seen some people go thru.... Marty

The only charges I've weighted were military ammo (pulling bullets, averaging the powder charge, reducing by 5%, loading hunting bullets or the same weight). Military .308 from the middle 1960's.

Their variation for a 20 round sample was .7gr. From 46.2 to 46.9gr.
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Pulled some Remington .22 Hornet apart several years back. The powder variance was 12%. I'm sure the factory ammo is better now, though.