All my guns shoot well. The limiting factor is my 80 year old eyes. Sad because I remember when I was shooting high power matches and could see a .30 caliber bullet hole on a 300 yd target. Iron sights were my friend back then. Not so much anymore.
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Weight sorting cast lead balls.
- Thread starter JDBraddy
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I used to weigh bullets and discard anything outside of +/- .5% of average.
I would plot the weights in Excel and there is a definite S curve where weight falls off for cold cast bullets and weight increases for hot ones. There is a relatively straight line in the middle.
Here you can see weights I recorded for the RCBS Hodgdon bullet:
I now try to avoid hollow-base bullets as much as possible, and find the variation of solid bullets is so low that I don't bother. My primary competition bullet is the Moose Wilkinson and it casts very consistently.
I would plot the weights in Excel and there is a definite S curve where weight falls off for cold cast bullets and weight increases for hot ones. There is a relatively straight line in the middle.
Here you can see weights I recorded for the RCBS Hodgdon bullet:
I now try to avoid hollow-base bullets as much as possible, and find the variation of solid bullets is so low that I don't bother. My primary competition bullet is the Moose Wilkinson and it casts very consistently.
OK, I have found a few like that over the years. I started making my own molds about 5 years ago. I found that after cutting I bring the mold up to temp and drop the cherry back in and cut more by hand, that gives me a round bullet. If a mold is cut off center, you will have the bullet stick in one side. I have to be careful to center the cherry.
Lyman uses cherries and when dull, they resharpen and they cut smaller cavities.
Was getting really inconsistent..440 balls, almost egg shaped and several grains underweight for their size. Was actually considering selling the mold and buying another.
Looking at my Lyman dual cavity mold, I noticed buildup of lead and graphite in the cavity and between the halves.
Cleaned it with 0000 steel wool, the first 50 cast after cleaning where excellent, perfectly round measure. 438" to .439" and where 127 - 128gr in weight. I was excited, and thought I had solved the problem.
I tossed the sprue buttons back into the pot, waited about 15min and cast another 50 or so. The second batch was lighter than the first. They measured 001 to .003" smaller and wheigjed 124gr - 126.7 gr. And weren't just falling out of the mold like the first batch. I saw no visible buildup in the mold, it was actually shiny. I hadn't used any graphite spray, now I'm wondering what changed? Temperature of the lead? Temperature of the mold? Did I not hold my tongue just right?
I tossed the second batch back into the pot, and unplugged it and went to bed. Today I am wondering how to go about determining the relavent variable.
Looking at my Lyman dual cavity mold, I noticed buildup of lead and graphite in the cavity and between the halves.
Cleaned it with 0000 steel wool, the first 50 cast after cleaning where excellent, perfectly round measure. 438" to .439" and where 127 - 128gr in weight. I was excited, and thought I had solved the problem.
I tossed the sprue buttons back into the pot, waited about 15min and cast another 50 or so. The second batch was lighter than the first. They measured 001 to .003" smaller and wheigjed 124gr - 126.7 gr. And weren't just falling out of the mold like the first batch. I saw no visible buildup in the mold, it was actually shiny. I hadn't used any graphite spray, now I'm wondering what changed? Temperature of the lead? Temperature of the mold? Did I not hold my tongue just right?
I tossed the second batch back into the pot, and unplugged it and went to bed. Today I am wondering how to go about determining the relavent variable.
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