Weighing Cast Bullets

[Judan_454]

How many for you guys weigh and segregate your bullets? I weigh my cast bullets and segregate them by weight ,plus or minus 1/2 grain. Just wondering if I am wasting my time.

[canyon-ghost]

No, it counts in accuracy. I do it all the time. You'll find the lightweights have air voids in them.

[fredj338]

Yes, you are likely wasting your time. A 1/2gr variation in a bullet that size means nothing accuracy wise. I only sort plinking bullets by the quality of the base. I do weigh my hunting bullets & rifle bullets, but they are shot at further distnaces & even then, a 1% variation will show no accuracy diff.

[bobthenailer]

Imo i have weight segrated my bullets before but gave up on it as i used the odd weight bullets for pratice and still hit the same amount of targets . and i dont think a 1/2 gr would make much differnce unless you are shooting benchrest rifle matches . haveing said that after casting untold thousands of bullet for competive handgun matches , 40 years of casting experince and my own system of casting i know when ive made a bad bullet before ive opened the mould , Venting of the mould is a major consern for elimating voids in cast bullets. , theres a small list of thing i do to make match grade cast bullets that doesent really take that much extra time do .

[HARRYMPOPE]

Imo i have weight segrated my bullets before but gave up on it as i used the odd weight bullets for pratice and still hit the same amount of targets . and i dont think a 1/2 gr would make much differnce unless you are shooting benchrest rifle matches . haveing said that after casting untold thousands of bullet for competive handgun matches , 40 years of casting experince and my own system of casting i know when ive made a bad bullet before ive opened the mould , Venting of the mould is a major consern for elimating voids in cast bullets. , theres a small list of thing i do to make match grade cast bullets that doesent really take that much extra time do .

my experiance exactly.Well said.

george

[bcp477]

I don't cast my own.....I buy them. Nevertheless, I do weigh approx. 20 % of each batch I get in. This is both to establish a general trend (by that I mean to be reasonably sure that the alloy is the same for each batch.....and thus the avg. weight pretty close to the previous batch). Of course, I go through them and cull out boolits with obvious voids and defects.

All of my rifle boolits are paper-patched.....and I do check some of them, after patching, sizing, etc., just for consistency.... probably 10 - 15 %. Unless there are any wild variations (and I've never had any), they all go in the same bin after that.

As to segregating by weight for accuracy purposes....I USED TO do this to within 1/2 grain, just like the OP. I stopped when I couldn't correlate any accuracy differences. I am with the others on this - as long as the weights don't vary alot (say perhaps 5 grains or more across a run of boolits), weighing and segregating is mostly a waste of time. It certainly is of no value to group them by a very small wt. variance, 1/2 grain - 1 grain......anything like that.

[leadman]

I weigh to plus or minus 1/2 grain. I ran some tests and found it did make a difference. If you are only shooting 50 yards or so you probably won't notice a difference, but in the revolvers at 100 yards I can tell the difference. The rifles It makes more difference at 200 yards or more.

[stubshaft]

Depends on your definition of accuracy. For most informal paper punching and plinking 1/2gror even 10% is fine. Of course this is dependent on caliber and overall weight. I usually weigh my 22 cal boolits to within 1/10th of a grain. Some calibers I don't even weigh at all like 45LC if I get a flyer, oh well my fault for not weighing them.

[reloader28]

I dont weigh any pistol boolits. I figure even 2 or 3 gr in a boolit coming from a handgun aint goin to be noticeable at all.

Most of my rifle boolits are pretty consistant, but get weighed into 1/2gr groups. I do it mainly to elimanate one more variable.

[cbrick]

One of the things causing weight variation is variation in mold temp while casting.

I pre-heat my molds to a good casting temp and even so the first pours of a casting session will normally be the lightest. The first several pours automatically go in the sprue pile.

I shoot long range revolver (200 meters) and gave up weighing bullets several years ago as a waste of time. I do weigh 8-10 from each casting session as an alloy & consistency check but weigh them all and seperate them? Nope.

Practice your casting rythm and you'll go a long way to keeping weight variation to a minimum. My revolver bullet cast at 188 gr plus or minus 0.5 gr and with all of the scoped from the bench testing I have done this little weight variation doesn't make enough difference to warrant the time to weigh them all and segregate them. The bullets from the widest weight spread shoot to the same 200m group as the segregated bullets.

Rick

[montana_charlie]

I did a casting session yesterday. It had been quite a while since the last one.
As soon as the sprue is cut, you can tell if the base is imperfect in any way. Any that are not right go straight back in the pot while they are still hot ... as do the sprues.

I was getting a lot of bad bases in the beginning, and it took longer than usual to get in the groove. That time waster resulted in me only casting 75 bullets to inspect and weigh.

The lightweight plinkers turned out to be five that weighed between 547.2 and 547.8 grains.
And, there was a group of four that were visually imperfect.

The others ranged from 548.0 to 549.2 grains, and were separated into groups that differed by .2 grains. The two largest groupings were 548.6 and 548.8 grains with about twelve each.

I will only keep a group that contains at least five bullets. Those weighing 548.0 numbered only four, so they got relegated to the plinker box.

These will be paper patched and shot at paper targets from my Sharps rifle. The tighter the group, the more satisfaction I get from the experience.
Shooting is a skill, as is bullet casting. As I see it, getting as close to prefection as possible is satisfying, no matter which skill you are practicing at the moment.

CM

[Mavrick]

I'm with Cbrick. Check each casting session to keep track of alloy-consistency.
Have fun,
Gene

[Old Caster]

Once you have confidence in what you are doing, don't worry about weight but obvious defects, and normally, you will know when it happens, because your position or cadence somehow got changed. When I shot BPCR I did weigh my bullets and load in groups because groups of 15 or so were shot at the same distance and a resighting always came at the next distance and it is most certainly correct that a slight change in temperature will make the bullets weigh different. When ladle casting a 430 grain bullet in a single cavity mold out of a Waage pot, which is excellent at keeping temperatures correct, it was amazing how consistant the bullets were but I was shooting a single shot rifle at 550 yards.

[Frank]

How about this? A larger diameter bullet with a void can weigh the same as a smaller diameter bullet, but it will have an imbalance and fly crooked. The larger diameter bullet with no void weighs more than the smaller bullet, but both are balanced and they fly the same. Balance is more important than weight.

[Jal5]

I can add to this discussion from a range trip over the weekend. Working up loads for 270 Win using my Handirifle. Lyman 280473 mold supposed to drop a 130 gr boolit, but mine ranged from 125-131 gr using range scrap witha little tin added. Boolits were all sized to .280, gas checked, lubed. This was from my first trial at making rifle boolits, lots of variation in weight, etc. I segregated them into 1 gr batches, 125-126, 127-128, etc. and shot them over 14.9 of Unique. 5 shot groups all at 50 yds. The only batch that was worth repeating was the last one, 130-131gr- as far as accuracy, don't have the targets with me right now but IIRC 3 were touching with a 4th within 1.5" plus a called flyer. The other batches all were similar sized groups around 4".

I need to make some more and watch the temps a little closer to see if I can improve the boolit weights. This was a mold that had a problem with finning too, but by the end of the session I had that worked out OK.

so for this rifle and this mold, wgt. variances do make a real difference.
Joe

[watkibe]

The only weighing I do is to sort 41 from 44 boolits when I have cast both during a session and water-dropped both into the same bucket of water.

[midnight]

I weigh every bullet I cast. I line them up by 0.1gr. Then I decide the weight range I will accept and throw the rest back in the pot. I can usually get +/- 0.2gr on pistol bullets and
=/-1.0 gr on 45-70 bullets. I get =/- 3.0gr on 965gr 50BMG bullets. Weighing bullets evaluates your casting technique. You can test the variables in your technique. Occasionally I will line the bullets up in the order cast. You can learn some interesting things from that. Lowering the head pressure does have an effect with a bottom pour pot. That's one of the reasons I really want the group buy discussion about a PID controlled, insulated, 40lb bottom pour pot to result in a group buy. I'll be first in line.

Bob

[largom]

I weigh everything! Wasting my time? Maybe, but it's my time. I truly enjoy reloading, I make each loaded round as perfect as I possibly can. I weigh my boolits, I weigh my cases, I weigh each powder charge. Does it make a difference? I don't know, but at my age I need all of the help I can get.

I segregate my weighted boolits and cases into groups that are + or - 1/10 grain. I do not keep any groups that contain less that 10 items. I have never truly tested the different groups to see if there is any effect on accuracy. I just like to do things this way.

Larry

[noylj]

If you are shooting a handgun at less than about 35 yards, you are wasting your time.
I tried this several times and in all cases the groups from mixed weight shot a bit better than any of the segregated weights. I had also thought the heaviest might be the most accurate and the lightest would be the least accurate, and in both cases the sets from the light outlier bullets were a bit more accurate than the sets with the heavy outlier bullets.
This, to me, means that there is no effect at 25 yards.
I should think that even out to 100 yds with a rifle would show no effect unless you were shooting a very accurate rifle and load.

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

Just a little different slant on bullet weighing here;

If I really want to make my best bullets I bring my electronic powder scale out to the casting shed and weigh as I cast ~ each bullet is weighed before I line it up with the production of the day - or toss it back into the pot.

This was first done in my attempt to get bullets all the same (nearly) without hauling them inside for checking.

But! With the equipment in place I soon saw that I had the ability to check my own performance consistency in various ways - which is as least as important as checking bullet weights.

This is because the scale will tell you what is happening with your tool's heat, the level of your heat source and consequently the alloy temperature and most of all your casting cadence and technique itself.

In short, if you want to REALLY tell how your production is affected by these variables take a scale to your casting location and check your run as it progresses.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

[colt 357]

My shooting isn't that good yet to waste time segregating. But I do weigh each boolit for quality. I do plus or minus one grain from average weight of that pour. Make sure there is no super light or heavy boolits. My shooting is getting better though I knocked the orange dot out my my target this weekend in 50 rounds. Thats a first for me. Casting is paying off now....

[Lizard333]

For my pistols that I shoot "plinker" rounds through, I don't weigh. Rifle for more than 100 yards, I do +- a grain and shoot the most consistant group. Helps to weed out any voids. Most of my shooting is not that accurate that the boolit is the deciding factor. I am usally the bigger varible, not the boolit. :groner:

[dverna]

Weighing pistol bullets is a waste of time for the vast majority of shooters and/or applications. This assumes you have good casting technique.

I weigh bullets for rifle use. I use a lot fewer so the time needed is not a huge factor. I feel better about getting accuracy at longer ranges but have never done the testing to prove it.

Don

[TXGunNut]

Since I'm a relative newbie @ casting I think weighing rifle boolits is a good diagnostic tool for me. Have felt like it was a waste of time after a good casting session because I have no culls. Other than hunting boolits I don't bother much with weighing pistol boolits. I'll do it for initial sessions to establish a baseline but most of my culls never leave the casting bench.
Has anybody else weighed off-the-shelf j-word bullets? Percentage-wise they have more variation than my rifle boolits, betting you will find (or have found) the same thing. Last box of 165gr 30-06 bullets had an extreme spread of just under 2 grains. My last batch of rifle boolits also had an extreme spread of just under 2 grains...for a 405 grain boolit!

:castmine:

[vrh]

I weigh both cast bullets for my 30-06 and my 243 rifles. I put all bullets weighing the same grain into separate piles (example.. one pile weighing 178 gr and the other pile weighing 179 gr.) . Then I go back and weigh each bullet in the pile to a tenth of a grain. I decide which bullets that I will keep from each pile. The ones that I don't pick are usually put back into the pot. That gets me intp a 1/2 grain difference in the selected bullets.

[vzerone]

When sometimes you have a really good target group except for a flyer or two, they get all kinds of blames. Most often it's not casting good bullets. Just weighting bullets isn't good enough. Think about it, you have all these bullets with weight variances, but you actually don't see anything wrong about them. Yet they don't all weigh the same. Besides bad casting differences between the cavities in multiple cavity moulds is the culprit, but when it's not it's the casting. I learned how to cast good bullets and I don't have to weigh them. Gone are the fliers.

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

I'll stand on what I said in post #20.

I'm a long range cast bullet shooter - our closest target is 350 yards and we work on out to 1000 ~ bullet performance is critical.

Still how do you check for all the factors? Sure, weigh them is one, measure them, pet them, stroke them -- all that. I maintain that since the variations begin at the casting bench start there! Weigh each bullet as cast, figure out what is the most consistent technique and stick with it - then and only then work on efficiency to increase production as seems needed.

- Forrest

[Hickory]

I am basically a plinker, so I do not weigh boolits.
However, I do weigh them when I'm target shooting, sometimes for hunting.

[KenH]

Gentlemen;

I'll stand on what I said in post #20.

I'm a long range cast bullet shooter - our closest target is 350 yards and we work on out to 1000 ~ bullet performance is critical.- Forrest

Forrest, when you're shooting cast bullets at the 350 yd range - just how much would ±1 grain on your 45-70 bullets open up a group? Wait, you didn't say the caliber - what are you shooting and weight of bullet?

[FAsmus]

Ken H:

I shoot lots of calibers way out there. In the beginning it was a 40/65, moving to 45/70, to 444 Marlin, and for the purpose-built 1000 a 50/90.

Now, for ease and convenience I shoot 30'06 and 7x57 as well..

All of these with the heaviest bullets that I can either stand the recoil (50/90) or will stabilize in the rifling twist(40/65). Big to small, the 50 690gr, the 45 530gr, the 44 480gr, the 40 370gr, the 30 shoots best with RCBS 200gr Silhouette, the 7mm RCBS 168gr "SP".

I learned by means of the scale and the heavy stuff. Making the 50's and 45's +/- 1 grain for general shooting. For a match I'd select +/- 0.5 gr for the record shooting. The lighter bullets were easier to cast consistently and after a year or so I figured I could dispense with the weighing as they were cast since runs were showing satisfactorily small variations and shooting was ruled more by conditions and the lowest Standard Deviation you can manage than group size anyway.

In ways this is a 'head' game: Being confident in your components such that things 'feel' better on the firing line.

One thing I'm convinced of is that casting as well as you can requires practice and concentration - but once learned you can count on excellent results.

Good evening, Forrest

[Walter Laich]

Depends on your definition of accuracy. For most informal paper punching and plinking 1/2gror even 10% is fine. Of course this is dependent on caliber and overall weight. I usually weigh my 22 cal boolits to within 1/10th of a grain. Some calibers I don't even weigh at all like 45LC if I get a flyer, oh well my fault for not weighing them.

+1 since I'm shooting at cowboy sized targets 12 x 12" targets at 5-7 yards I don't worry about this. long range is an entirely different story.

[FAsmus]

Walter;

I've done the Cowboy shooting too.

You're right-on! Who cares at 7 yards in rapid fire?

- FAsmus

[Tom W.]

I shoot my 9mm pistols 98% of the time. Every now and then I'll weigh a boolit when I'm sizing them just to see how much different they are from the listed weight. The defective boolits go back into the pot, or if I just don't like the way it looks it's going to get another chance, but shooting @25 yards or less doesn't warrant fretting about tiny deviations in weight. My .44 RemMag usually is a bit heavier than what the mold advertises , but not enough to worry with. We're going to see how it shoots steel at 100 yards the 2nd Saturday of the month with the 310 gr.cast Lee boolits. I haven't fired it that far in years. But weigh boolits to .5 grain difference? No thanks....

[Arkansas Paul]

If it makes you feel better and doesn't take away from your enjoyment of the hobby, it is not a waste of your time.

Personally, I only cast for pistol boolits, so I don't weight them. The one exception is when I get a new mold. I weigh a few the first casting to see what my alloy is dropping them at. If I change alloys (very uncommon), I'll do it again.

That's it for me though.

If something is working for you, don't let someone else saying that it is a waste of time make you change how you do it.

Happy loading and shooting.

[beagle]

Okay, now for a story on my experience with weighing. One winter I cast over 2,000 RCBS 22-55-SPs for my .223 Number 1, Keplinger set trigger and 6-24X Weaver. I had an RCBS e-scale for weighing. I labeled 100 round .22 plastic boxes in .1 grain increments. Over several weeks, I separated those suckers into lots of .1 grain. I ended up with a bunch of "lighties" and a bunch of "heavies that I placed into containers kind of like "others" with a .3 grain spread. I figured to use these as fouling shots in my .223. I selected the mid-range weights as my most potentially accurate bullets and loaded them using a set of RCBS Competition dies. They shot just a bit better than my average unweighed lots. Surprising to me, the light and heavy lots shot almost as well as my "good" stuff. As a matter of interest, I plotted the numbers of various weights and got an almost perfect "Bell curve".

The experiment was worth it to me but also proved to me that there was no magic or reason for weighing. Cast your bullets, be ruthless in culling any defects and you'll get probably as good results as you will by weighing.

Your results may differ from mine./beagle