A discussion of random numbers at Squidwrench brought those gamma ray detectors to the top of the heap, with the observation I probably needed a few more Darlington transistors:

Sorting two lots of 50 transistors by gain kept me out of trouble for a while:

Those are MPSA14 NPN and MPSA64 PNP transistors, with DC gains ranging from around the spec’s minimum 10 k spec all the way up to well over 100 k.