Bullet quality vs. accuracy

[jazzsax8]

I acquired some 180gr Jacketed Flat Nose bullets with exposed lead bottoms that I do not know the brand of.  Doing some load testing today with the chrony I am getting great velocity using 9.15gr of Longshot with the WLPP and Federal nickel brass.  The standard deviation was only 4.7 so should be great right?  Well the load puts 4 of 5 into 1 3/4"-2" with a fifth flier into 3 1/4" at 25 yards.  This is a pretty consistent result and I am beginning to think they need to be shot at 8" steel at 25 yards.  I have past experience with other bullets like the heavy Rim Rock 225 gr that would do frequent 5 shot groups using 7.5gr Longshot that produced 1 1/4" groups so I know I am capable of semi-good technique.

I did try 5.8gr of Green Dot with these 180gr bullets today and got 980-1020fps with a 20-40 S.D. in two pistols that also would not group well.  Not much velocity gain on this load going from a 5 to 7" barrel.

I'm going to finally open my big box of Montana Gold 200gr complete metal jacket bullets to hopefully bring back some confidence.  Will probably do about 8.2gr Longshot and look up a load using BE-86 for starters.  I have never loaded this brand but there are many good comments about their quality.

[therognp]

Bad bullets mean bad uniformity which means bad groups. But so does nearly any other variable. Bullets can be sorted and many BR competitors do just that. Every conceivable variate from wgt to diameter to bearing length. Anything that affects the concentricity of a load will have a great affect on accuracy. Bigger variance = bigger grouping.
In my case a lot of my groups are affected by eyesight, I can get around 50% astonishing groups with 50% of WTH.
Setting a baseline with a known good bullet such as an XTP or a home cast will give you something to compare.