How picky are you?

[Buckrun]

I have been casting bullets for years. When I use to cast .44 mag. for silhouette shooting. I’d look at each base for a defect. then I’d look all of them over before I added the gas check, sized and lubed. Now I am casting .45’s for short range fast shooting at relative large targets. I am not so picky. I usually cast a few different bullets and drop them into water. I will cast as fast as I can and sort out the bullets when I finish. While sorting I will toss a few that catch my eye as being bad. Then as I size I will cull out some more. I am sure there are some that I would not want to use for bullseye shooting or any long range shooting. But I haven’t really had any problems that I know of shooting a 12” circle at 50 ft. How picky do you get when sorting your cast bullets?

Steve

[JFD]

I'm a hard core inspector for my .45 bullets that are likely to be used at a match. I will admit that I'm a little looser with my .40 bullets since I only use them for practice. If the base has a minor defect, such as cutting the sprue a little too early, I usually keep it.

If I feel the urge to harden bullets, I use a lab oven instead of the water drop method. I can harden them better and if I feel the urge I can also "age" them.

At least for a new caster, water dropping keeps them from seeing all the mistakes they're making. For the experienced caster, water dropping works a lot better.

[tightloop]

Very picky.....I sort them one at a time and discard any that are not perfect..

[Buckrun]

If I feel the urge to harden bullets, I use a lab oven instead of the water drop method. I can harden them better and if I feel the urge I can also "age" them.

At least for a new caster, water dropping keeps them from seeing all the mistakes they're making. For the experienced caster, water dropping works a lot better.

I have some questions.

First you said something about ageing. What does that do?

Second I am a little confused about the water hardning. What do you mean?

Steve

[JFD]

Sorry, when you wrote of dropping bullets into water I assumed you meant you were trying to harden them. Using a fairly decent alloy, if you drop bullets directly from the mould into a bucket of ice water, they will be harder than if you just let them cool naturally on a towel or something.

Newbies love to water drop bullets since they think harder is always better. What actually happens is they cast a bunch of crappy bullets but don't know it, or why, since everything they cast is ends up under water and out of sight.

Hardening in an oven has better penetration IMHO, and allows for a more sudden and controlled quench.

Bullets straight from the mould are not as hard as they are going to get. Although opinions differ, I figure bullets need a month before they are at max hardness. If I put them in my lab oven for 2 hours at 200 degrees, then let them cool on their own (turn power off to the oven), they come out as hard as they are ever going to get.

I quit bothering with hardening unless I'm trying for 2500+ FPS in a rifle, and it has to be a current project for it to be really effective. Artificial hardening is a temporary thing, as the bullets will eventually return to the same hardness they were before heat treating. How long does it take? Who knows, but I'm guessing a couple of years. Some folks keep their bullets in the freezer to slow down the process. Personally speaking, my wife is really cool about my devotion to shooting, but I think she'd draw the line at me keeping bullets in the freezer. So far she hasn't been too thrilled about my "borrowing" the occasional kitchen implement for casting use, so I'm playing it safe from now on.

Proper temperature control for the alloy you're using is the real key to casting. I've got a Fluke thermocouple thermometer with a probe that gives me a continuous temperature readout of the melt right at the spout of my bottom pour melter. This has made a big difference in the quality of my bullets. Right now I'm getting about 10 rejects per 1000 bullets with my .45s that are QC'd religiously, and even the "not so perfect" .40 bullets I use for practice are better than most people's "good" bullets, and this is all about good temperature control.

[Buckrun]

Yes I drop them straight from the mold into a bucket of water. I have been useing wheel weights. I want to start adding some Linotype to the mix. The plan is to get all my wheel weights melted down into ingots. Then put like 8o lbs into a large pot and 20 lb of linotype then make ingots again. I also have some tin I could add. Right now I have 500 lb. of straight wheel weights in ingots and about 700 more to melt. I just have to find time to do it.

I have a theomometer I keep in the Lyman pot as I cast. What temp do you try to keep it at?

Steve

[JFD]

Straight wheel weights are pretty easy to cast with. Figure anywhere from 825 to 900 and you'll never have to waste money on tin to get the mould to fill out. Once you get below 825, you'll start to get a lot of rejects from small defects.

With a lino-heavy alloy, usually 725 - 800 will work just fine.

For my 70/30 Lino/WW alloy, I cast all the way down to 650.

Note that these temps are taken at the spout with a 10" probe on my Fluke thermocouple thermometer.

If you're going to ladle cast, then the temps all change.