So, I took the plunge and now have a question

[ilike2hunt]

Hey all,
Well, Ive been hanging around, reading and learning about casting and decided to take the plunge and start casting from wheel weights with the hopes that free bullets will mean more pistol shooting (9mm now and will add 45acp later). So anyway, I casted my first batch the other day and now that they are all lubed and sized I weighed them.......my question is how much of a weight spread would you consider acceptable casting from WW? My current pile I have ready to load has a spread of about 2-2.5gr after I culled the lightest and heaviest which were way out in left field weight wise, which I will just accept as user error/learning to use the new goods. FWIW, I am using a Lee 6 cavity 356-125-2R which seems to be producing mostly 129-131gr bullets with my WW alloy, but have seen from 127.3 (assuming air pocket formed) to 134(1 of 200 casts). The average for those I plan on loading is 130.04gr.

Question #2: Anyone have a load they like with this bullet and TrueBlue or Unique?

[peerlesscowboy]

I would consider a 2 grain spread quite acceptable for everyday usin' pistol bullets. The light culls might'a been caused by air voids, dirt contamination or incomplete mould fill-out. Hard to say what caused the one heavy cull? Maybe the mould blocks weren't closed completely?

[onondaga]

I use +- 1 whole grain for match ammo. Many other factors are much more important than exact bullet weight for accuracy.

You have good weight consistency.

Gary

[quilbilly]

My favorite load in my single shot 9mm TC carbine is 4.6 gr of Unique but that might be a little light for a semi auto. When I had a P38 a few years back, I loaded it with about 7.5-8 gr of AA-7 if memory serves and it shot very well.

[geargnasher]

Let the target tell you! If you don't like your groups, perhaps you can tighten up the QC a bit, but I'll wager your weight spread is still below the accuracy potential of the gun. You might have to shoot them in a match gun from a ransom rest at 50 yards to tell much difference between perfect boolits and ones with a little weight spread.

Now at 2400 fps and 200 yards, you bet it makes a difference!

Gear

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Yep, as already indicated, shoot em!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other then those which are clearly bad because of improper mold fill out etc., and unless you are into match level shooting, shoot em ALL.

Now when I get to making hunting loads for the handgun, I pay a bit more attention to quality. But even then, the "rejects" can go for practice or "banger" loads.

Now for shooting with a scope at 100 - 200yds or more, it might be a different story, but 2 - 2 1/2 grain spread will not produce a detectable difference at hand gun ranges for most of us. The load/gun will still shoot better then we can.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Shiloh]

I used to cull the deformed boolits, even the ones that weren't to bad. Now, if it has a good nose and base, it gets lubed loaded and fired. This is with pistol boolits. I am more particular about rifle boolits.

I was culling and remelting boolits that turned out to shoot fine with just slight imperfections.

Shiloh

[captaint]

I recently came across some Lee 200 gr. 45ACP boolits that I cast long ago. In fact, they were the first ones I ever cast. I thought they looked pretty good then. Man, they were a little UGLY!!! But, you know what?? They shot pretty well. enjoy Mike

[ilike2hunt]

Thanks for the input. I was more questioning my casting skill than accuracy potential out of these bullets. I am hoping the gun will shoot these cast bullets well, as so far the only load it has done what I would consider good with is a hefty charge of power pistol under 115gr hornady hp-xtp. FWIW the gun is a ruger p95 which I have found to have a weird quirk, the faster I shoot it, the better it groups with factory ammo anyway. If I can decide on a load, I might get some of these loaded up tonight yet. LOL, enough rambling for now.