Water quenching

[bigjake]

Unless you want soft lead boolits, why wouldnt someone water quench their hot boolits? I find it way easier, faster, less heat when casting in summer, and less chance of deforming the hot soft boolits against the towel or other boolits

[Moonie]

But haven't you answered your own question by saying "Unless you want soft lead boolits" Not all loads require very hard boolits. Low pressure loads will usually work better with softer (not necessarily dead soft) boolits.

That said, I do both WDWW and ACWW for different applications.

[Three44s]

One of the big attributes with casting your own is to "have it your way".

Like Moonie says ............ sometimes you want softer boolits ..........

In fact, there is much trouble to be had by having hard boolits when the task really calls for softy's.

Same with lube ..........

Three 44s

[sqlbullet]

As others have said, harder does not equate to better. Even for my 30-06 I want ACWW in a hunting bullet, or for paper patch.

I generally do water drop any bullet that I intend to harden, but even this has disadvantages. Air cooled bullets I can inspect as I cast them. Any that are not properly filled out go right back into the pot. Water dropped bullets must be added to a cold pot lest the tinsel fair visit.

[462]

Air cooled boolits work for almost all my handgun and rifle shooting applications. Alloys consist of 50/50 clip-on/stick-on weights, two-to-one clip-on/stick-on, and straight clip-on. My Blackhawk's favorite full-house .357 Magnum load uses boolits cast of the 50/50 alloy and allowed to air cool..

[NordicG3K]

I've always dropped my boolits from the mold into a 5 gallon bucket of water, but they've all been solids. I've just put my name on the list for a couple of molds here and I decided to try some hollowpoint designs. I would think air cooled bullets would expand better, but this is new for me so I figured I'd ask the experts.

[white eagle]

wq for me is just another step .....and one I tend to avoid

[Swede44mag]

I have tried the water quench method but I had problems with the boolits corroding.
I do not have a lead hardness tester so I can't tell how hard they are.
I believe the type of boolit lube has as much to do with leading in the barrel as hardness of the boolit.

[Recluse]

Water-quenching is a tool. I use it when it's appropriate for what I'm wanting to do/accomplish.

:coffee:

[MikeACP]

Not to highjack someone's thread. I am reading Lyman's cast manual. They barely touch on water quenching. Is there some rule of thumb for ww lead?

[onondaga]

I don't water quench anymore. I got a Lee Hardness tester several years ago and found too much variation in hardness of bullets that were drop quenched while casting. The cause of the variation in my experience is related to the differences in time from the pour to the water drop. Some bullets don't come right out of the mold. Variations in mold temperature and pot temperature cause noticeable differences in the time for sprue solidification. These differences certainly effect the bullet temperature before it hits the water and hardness numbers wander in my tests.

So. I changed my game. My alloy is Wheel-weight:Linotype, 7:3, and bullets just dropped onto a dry towel test BHN 14 after 7 days. I can oven treat them 350 F. for one hour on a cookie sheet and dump them into a bucket of ice water to get 22 BHN after 7 days. This covers the 2 bullet hardnesses I use. The oven heat treated bullets are very consistent in hardness.

Gary

[fredj338]

Unless you want soft lead boolits, why wouldnt someone water quench their hot boolits? I find it way easier, faster, less heat when casting in summer, and less chance of deforming the hot soft boolits against the towel or other boolits

I cast both ways & just don't see the "ease" of water quenching. Plus as noted, not all loads respond well to the harder bullets that result. If you are getting deforemd bullets from dropping onto a towel, something is certainly wrong.

[waksupi]

I have tried the water quench method but I had problems with the boolits corroding.
I do not have a lead hardness tester so I can't tell how hard they are.
I believe the type of boolit lube has as much to do with leading in the barrel as hardness of the boolit.

If your boolits are corroding, add a few drops of dish soap to your quench water.

[btroj]

I water drop out of convienance. I just don't like a pile of hot billets next to me.
It comes down to what you prefer. I prefer water dropping, others don't. It is that simple.

[MtGun44]

PITA, extra work fuss and hassle, and I do not find any benefit from harder
boolits. AC WWts does everything I need in pistols, and so far in moderate
loads in rifles. I imagine that I will want to have harder alloy in rifles for hotter
loads at some point. So far at 1750 fps or so, AC WWts is fine in rifles for
me.

Bill

[1Shirt]

Have good luck w/harder blts, and find it convenient to water drop. Exception to that would be seldom. Can't think of any off the top of the head.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[bigjake]

Have good luck w/harder blts, and find it convenient to water drop. Exception to that would be seldom. Can't think of any off the top of the head.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

I'm with you 1shirt, when I tried dropping on a dry towel, the first dozen boolits were no problem but when there are more on the towel, i started hitting the other boolits with the boolits i was dropping and i dont like trying to move the hot pile out of the way, at least when i dropped them in cold water they are hard as a rock by the time they hit bottom

[warf73]

Water dropping makes things faster and easer for me 90% of the time. The other 10% I AC because it easer for me. lol its all about me when I cast boolits.

[Lead Fred]

I have tried the water quench method but I had problems with the boolits corroding.


All I do is ice water dropped 45-70. The ones I did last year, look like they were made last week.

When they go into the lube cycle, they end up spending a 1/2 hour in the oven at 200 degrees. So they get the full monty