Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Tolerance...

When casting bullets and after you finish casting, what tolerances, blemishes and other things do you look for to tooss them back into the pot? For what caliber are your standards the higest? the lowest?<P>I am fairly new to this and only have 2 moulds for my BP rifle right now. I am very picky, I am very picky because I have the time.

Good question.<P>I know everyone has their own standards, and goals for their projectiles. I haven't been casting long, and here is what has worked for me. <P>In the beginning, I didn't let the molds warm up enough, so had lots of rejects that didn't fill out the mold.<P>Now that I let the mold get up to temp on the furnace as it heats up the lead in the pot, I don't have as many rejects in the beginning. As far as what gets discarded, bullets that have voids in the base, ie bubbles, and bullets that don't have sharp lube and crimp grooves. I think the biggest problem with the beginner is being afraid to crank up the heat. I have no problems with frosty bullets, but when I drop the temp down, my reject rate goes up. <P>The only problem with going a bit too hot is it takes awhile for the mold to cool down, and if you cut the sprues while not cool enough, you'll smear lead on the sprue plate on surface of the mold.

Blammer, I concur with all that 458 Lott said. As to tolerance I am merciless in remelting bullets that don't fill out, especially the bases. I store my castings unsized and unlubed. No sense in letting the lube melt in storage. I weigh rifle bullets on an electronic scale, usually plus or minus one half grain in the case of rifle bullets that weigh between 168 and 250 grains. For postal matches and the Nevada Cast Bullet Shoot I like to select the heaviest bullets in each box of castings and tighten up the weight tolerance a little (heh, heh). I never weigh pistol bullets, if they look good I shoot them. After weighing I size, lube and install gas checks for only as many bullets as I am going to load. Using this procedure I manage to shoot a lot of inch and a half, 100 yd. groups from ordinary hunting rifles and two to two and a half inches from military rifles. Hope this helps, curmudgeon

Blammer, To follow up on my post about tolerance I don't want to give the impression that casting is only for insane perfectionists. I told you how I select my BEST bullets. In the real world there is a lot of use for bullets that are good enough for minute of beercan. Castings that are almost perfect or a little off weight go into the box marked No. 2 and figure prominently in my fun shooting. I can still shoot at the same level of mediocrity with the second grade bullets. curmudgeon

What about seams? My round balls have a seam on them, I can barely feel it with a fingernail...and can't measure it at all with dial calipers....but it's still there. Does this have any effect on performance? They also have kinda' of aa odd srue. It's not exactly flat, but a little higher on one side than the other....should I wait a few seconds longer to cut it?

Rick Lauder-I know what your talking about on the seams, I see mine too, but can't feel or measure them. By the way they shoot fine! As far as the sprue, cut it just as soon as the molten lead on the sprue hardens, that is what I do. Also check your sprue cutter, is it sharp, damange or one correctly, just my suggestions from a novice. I have some odd shaped sprue cuts but they are minor and do not affect my shooting them or accuracy. I just put the sprue up when loading.<P>I read your other posts concerning loading and patch thickness. Your RB's your casting, do you get consistent diameter balls? If you use .017 patch thickness with .490 RB it may be difficult to load after a few shots, due to fouling, but if you can get it seated on the powder it will shoot safely. You just may arrive at your maximum charge sooner, or your accuracy will suffer because you have "killed" the patch before it has a chance to do its work.<BR>Here is a helpful hint: IF you are loading ball and patch and get it half way down or part way down and cannot get it to seat any further. Do this: (it is an old timers trick that works every time!) GET a large amount of spit in your mouth and SPIT down the brl onto the ball and patch, or get some soapy water and put a few drops in, (maybe a teaspoon full) wait a min and finish seating ball, and shoot right away. The soapy water or spit loosens the fouling preventing you from seating the ball. It is a heck of a lot easier to finish seating the load than try to pull it out! I have saved and amazed many new BP shooters with this trick.<BR>By the way have you shot it much lately?