# Grainage...



## JB Dix (Jan 19, 2009)

Hi all. I've been buying ammo for my guns without much regard for things like the number of grains. I was hoping someone could demystify for me when people write/say "147 grain xyz rounds". 

My guns:
225p6 9mm sig sauer
250 .40 s&w sig sauer
ar15 .556/.223

Thank you all very much.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

The Grain weight you normaly see on ammo boxes is weight of the projectile (bullet) in Grains.

There are 7000 Grains in a pound.

One other Grain Weight you may see or hear about is the weight of the powder charge used in a given cartridge.

Using 9MM rounds as a reference:

115 Grain is the most common light weight used
124 Grain is the most common middle weight used
147 Grain is the most common heavy weight used

Light bullet typicaly travels faster than heavy bullet yielding somewhat comparable energy levels.

They all work for practice and they all work for defence.

As you gain experience you will probably develope a preference but in the beginning it does not matter a great deal.

Edit: Sorry about that Todd, I was just twiddling my thumbs and saw this post. You know the rest. :anim_lol:


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## Todd (Jul 3, 2006)

Grain = bullet weight. IIRC, it's something like 1/7000 of a pound. Heavier bullet will be slower out of the chute than a lighter bullet of the same caliber.

EDIT: Damn! TOF beat me!


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## JB Dix (Jan 19, 2009)

*You guys are great*

You answered my question perfectly. Granted, I could have gone off looking via google or something, I should have. Thanks a lot.

I will look into the relative merits of one over the other, on my own, as my penance...


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## Jason (Nov 17, 2008)

Does price come into account with the different grain rounds?? Is there more than just preference to using different weights?


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

One thing nobody has mentioned:
Heavier bullets will shoot to a different point-of-aim than light bullets will.
If you have non-adjustable sights, the easiest thing to do is to find which bullet weight your pistol is regulated for. Adjusting non-adjustable sights is a pain in the butt.

Cartridges of a similar caliber generally sell for about the same money, unless there's a special-purpose bullet involved, or something similar.


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