Whats the difference in a 75-grain bullet and a 85-grain bullet? I always thought that was the amount of gun powder, then i read some articles and i began to think it was the weight of the actual bullet? So please explain this to me.
"Grains" are just a unit of weight measurement like "ounces."
There are 437.5 grains per ounce, 7000 grains per pound. Anything can be weighed using grains as the unit of measure, but I guess it would get kind of cumbersome thinking of 7000 grains of cheese, or going to McDonalds and ordering a 1750 grainer
Both bullets and gunpowder can be, and most commonly are, measured in grains.
Therefore, my favorite .38 Special target/practice/plinking load for my .38 Special uses a 158 grain lead flat point bullet, and 3.4 grains of Titegroup gunpowder.
Each bullet weight will a weight of a certain powder that gives best results. It is most likely that you would want to use a different amount of powder for your 75 grain bullets than you would for your 85 grain bullets, but the place to get that kind of info would start with your reloading manuals, and then experimentation with different loads in your particular gun.
Hey, new to the site and just want to put my 2 cents in. If you really want to learn about reloading and what all the terms and definitions mean, I would recomend buying a good reloading book. The good ones break everything down for you and explain things very well. My recomendations would be either a Speer or Nosler manual. Both of which can be found on a good web site (i think) www.midway.com.
Thanks for clarifying. So when you shop for ammo, the only number that is a reference to the amount of power is the velocity, you dont usually know the exact amount of powder.