brethern of the 45-70 cast bullet

[two bit okie]

al righty then, new 45-70 mold supposed to two hole, 350 gr lee. when sorting them out what is the break point for different weights. As in 349 to 351, 348 to 352, and what do you use for back to the pot weight.

these are the biggst I have ever cast, so I am curious.

[45-70 Chevroner]

It depends on what you are going to use them for. With the weights you listed I have no problem keeping them grouped in 1 1/2" at a 100 yds. + or - 3.0grs. with a 350 gr. boolit is fine out to 100 yards. When I shoot long range out to 500 + yards I like to weigh them to with in + or - .3 tenths of a gr.. Keeping your pot at a consistant temp. will help a lot. I like the 500 gr. boolits for the 500 yard buffalo target that we use for the long range cowboy shoot. I shoot a Pedersoli Remington Rolling Block.

[stubshaft]

If your worried segregate them into two separate piles of 348 - 349 and 352 - 352.

[mooman76]

That's only .01% difference. I wouldn't really worry about it.

[mpmarty]

I only weigh powder and that rarely.

[MT Gianni]

1% is a good standard for most rifles which is why those 55 gr 223 diameter bullets are so exacting.

[noylj]

Based on my 45 years of casting and shooting, unless you have a very expensive custom rifle and you are competing at the very highest level, you will not see any difference in accuracy between 5 5-shot groups with totally mixed weights and 5 5-shot groups of 1) the lightest (throwing out the 1-4 that are way too light), 2) the median weight, and 3) the very heaviest weight.
You HAVE to shoot enough groups to actually have a statistically valid data base and one or two groups mean nothing.
However, don't believe me. Run the test yourself and have fun. There are very few, if any, FIXED rules in bullet casting or in what a given gun will prefer.

[HangFireW8]

I've usually found that the heaviest boolits are the result of unintentional beagling, that is, the mold is held apart by some reason (technique, a flake of lead) and the boolit comes out fatter than the rest. If you size conventionally you'll notice these types are harder to size and show more evidence of drive band mutilation.

The lightest of bullets may hold hidden voids (air bubbles), or, on close inspection, insufficient fill (rounded edges, shrunken spots).

Often close inspection and measuring for width will remove the heaviest and lightest examples.

Another issue might be the mold itself- the cavities might not be exactly equal. The easiest way to sort this out is to put a tiny dimple in the ogive or lube groove of one cavity to mark which cavity each boolit comes from. Then, compare the results of each cavity, statistically if necessary.

HF

[btroj]

I don't ever weigh bullets. I almost never shoot farther than 100 yards so I don't think it matters.
If I was shooting for tiny groups or was shooting out to 300 yards or so I would weigh bullets for those applications.
I cast and shoot for fun, weighing a bunch of bullets is tedious. I don't find tedious tasks to be fun.

[jdgabbard]

When I first started loading I weighed everything. Then after some time and experience I figured out that for any application that I would ever use them for, what they dropped at would be good enough. Now if I were shoot heavy stuff, read 400+ grains, I would weigh, but only to make sure I didn't have any voids.

[pls1911]

If you only cast a few at a time, I would weigh to find obvious flyers, that is, the very heavy or the very light. For most applications that's plenty.
When I set up to cast, it's a all day process involving several calibers anf many pounds of lead. I don't usually weigh pistol bullets, except for reference.
As I cast for each rifle caliber, I line bullets up like soldiers in a parade, so I can weigh them in the sequence they were cast.
I still weigh all bullets, as it just seems right, +/- 1/2 grain...yes, 1/2 grain.

This gives me two points of data and several benefits:
1: the plotted data usually provides a nice bell curve of nominal weights for a given alloy, weighted toward the early bullets as molds and alloy get up to operatng temperature.
2: It clearly shows Hiccup variations when I'm distracted or have a delay due to not feeding preheated lead to the pot.
After I'm finished, the largest concentration of segrgated piles bullets are combined into piles +/-1 grain.
In practice, shooting steel or shooting meat pigs, I've never reset a sight for a +/- 1 grain variation for .30/30, .308, .30/06, or .45/70.
Dang lead boolits kill 'em all dead with extreme prejudice and impress the hell out of other folks.

[runfiverun]

i wanna know how you are getting 350 gr boolits from a 350 gr mold..
i sort my 22's into groups within one tenth grain lots.
i throw back all the light ones that fall below the bell curve.
last lot was almost 750 boolits and 8 went back to the pot.
six were light and two were heavy.