Long term storage of cast bullets

[corvette8n]

I plan on storing some .30 cal in ammo cans(unsized unlubed)
Will they harden or soften after say 20 years.

[Ricochet]

Probably.

[Treeman]

I agree completely with Ricochet.

[Jack Stanley]

If I remember right , alloys with a lot of tin in them tend to soften up a bit . I don't know the rate that is does so though .

Jack

[Ricochet]

Antimony containing alloys can go both ways, depending on things like heat treatment or lack thereof. And they can harden for a while, then soften again. Hard to know what your particular boolits will do over a particular time span, other than by experiment. Most likely they'll finally end up somewhere near the hardness of fully annealed metal, given enough time. That might be a long time.

[Bass Ackward]

Long term storage of a cast bullet? Is there such a thing? Why in the world would you want to do that unless you are running some type of experiment?

I can see long term storage of lead, but once the loving care has been added to transform it, that bullet is crying to do it's thing. And you want to cage it up.

[Taylor]

I cast .30 cal last winter, I still have a few of those left,and yesterday I thought I would take a look,just out of curiousty. And they were still holding at 20BHN, the mix is Lyman #2,ww and bar solder.I decided then that I would cast some new one's and keep good track of them and see what happen's. Say check them once a month. Give me something else to do.

[Lloyd Smale]

how much do you shoot. I proably shoot 500 rounds a week in the winter and well over a 1000 in the summer. I cast and size all winter to have bullet for the summer. I cast probably 3 times a week on average in the winter and at least once a week in the summer because loading time then cuts into my casting time. I keep more bullets (sized and lubed) then most bullets sellers do. I sure dont want to have to fire the casting pot up cast bullet size bullets and load rounds every day to keep up to my shooting. I like to at least start every summer with most of my brass loaded and ready to go then with the added loading in the summer to suppliment it it will take me till the snow comes again to start all over. I sure dont have time to dote over how I place every bullet in a box or to weight every bullet to sort them because the very by a grain or two. Cast size load and shoot to free up brass to cast size load and shoot. I cast bullets for one reason to shoot I load for one reason to shoot. My bullets arent in a beauty contest there made to SHOOT.
Long term storage of a cast bullet? Is there such a thing? Why in the world would you want to do that unless you are running some type of experiment?

I can see long term storage of lead, but once the loving care has been added to transform it, that bullet is crying to do it's thing. And you want to cage it up.

[Freightman]

They need to be shot! the smell of lube when shot is a pleasing aroma. Someone needs to bottle it and use it for shaving loation "OLD LEAD" give the girlie smell inventers a run for their money.
Better name would be L&L Lead and Lube.

[Bass Ackward]

I cast bullets for one reason to shoot I load for one reason to shoot. My bullets arent in a beauty contest there made to SHOOT.


Lloyd,

I mold all winter in anticipation of a years quota. But those that might meet the term bulk stay in feed sacks with old bed sheets for padding . I don't consider 1 year to be long term storage. That's simply practicality. If another person might consider that long term, then the point should be that you don't have to do anything special to store.

I don't lube and size like you do. Because I may get another gun throughout the coarse of the year and odds are, it would need something different than how I had my bullets prepared. I have some of that problem now. Since this Redhawk was taylored, it now needs a .432 bullet to prevent gas cutting. So the .4295s that it preferred before the tayloring are lubed and sized already are flux material. Fortunately, that is a small quantity. Probably only a 20# pot full. I was shooting the gun up until the Smith called for it so these are left over.

Unless you are sizing to multiple diameters, I really don't know how you can possibly get away with your system. Then you have HT or softening options that can't be performed on lubed stuff. It clearly wouldn't work for me. I have six 44 Mags that all need / prefer something different. I was hoping this Redhawk WOULD prefer .432 bullets now so I can get up a rifle / pistol combo. Both my 1894 and my 92 can utilize .432 well. So I will probably be selling some 44s now that this is working out.

But it would for ever drive me nuts having a massive source of bullets and then having to stop and mold something else because it wasn't what I needed. Unless you lube at maximum diameter and then push through to what ever smaller size you need and always shoot the same hardness. But that is still another step and why not lube at the same time. These are just my thoughts so you could understand my point of view since you asked. This goes a long way towards explaining why hard works so well for you. Hard are much more tolerant of loading imperfections. Soft tends to be very gun specific. But when all the smoke finally clears, I still get superior results with softer mixes once it is found what that specific gun likes.

That's why there are so many recipes for apple pie. :grin:

And while I mold all winter, I do shoot year round. Never slows down. Nothing loaded ever sits long. Saturday it was -1 with about a 20 MPH wind and the Red was barking at 9AM. I had to go in and get warm every hundred rounds, just to let the tears clear out of my eyes and let the grease in the action thaw. When it gets down to about - 30, I have to degrease my guns so that they will fire reliably. :grin: