7 Days for booits to harden

[161]

I've read that it takes 7 days after casting for boolits to completely harden. Do water dropped need that long or are they ready to shoot???

[williamwaco]

Water, no water, doesn't matter.

If you can pick them up in your bare hands, they are ready to lube - then load.

I have frequently loaded them an hour after dropping from the mold.

[jdgabbard]

While I usually wait until later. I have been known to size the same, or a day after casting...

[blackthorn]

Bullets that are just dropped from the mould will harden appreciably over the following two weeks (or so). Water dropped bullets do the same thing, just not as much ratio, time wise, as the quenching speeds hardening up. Either way they can be loaded as soon as they are cool enough to handle, but they will be more prone to being damaged in the seating process.

[161]

Can they be shot right away without leading??

[runfiverun]

can be but they are soft.
i give my air cooled a couple of weeks to settle out.
nothing worse than working loads around 6 bhn boolits then using 15 bhn later except doing it the other way around.
i let my water dropped boolits hang out for 6 or more months on average.
i might size/check/lube before that but i let things just chill before shooting.

[prs]

Lead, antimony, tin, arsenic alloy; quench hardened, would age soften over time. Correct?

prs

[Wolfer]

Maybe I'm wrong, happens a lot. I feel if you quench some and air cool some in six months they will test about the same.
I believe williamwaco has done some testing in this area.

[cwheel]

I'm almost done loading a moderate run of 45 ACP. ( 9000 or so ) I've been casting the lee 90352 225rn in a 6 banger. After a day of casting, would do a day of sizing. ( lyman #45 ) and another day of loading in the dillon 550. Wouldn't the boolits age and harden in a loaded round just as well as it would not loaded ?? What would be the difference aging in a loaded round sealed in a sealed 50cal ammo can ?? Fired a few of the eary production rounds, and so far, seams to be no problems, work great in several 1911's and a S&W. ( 6 gr Unique ) My mixed lead for casting includes 4X nickel burn out babbit as a hardening agent. Higher temps required to keep the mix fluxed seams to be the only difference. This aging thing has me wondering if I might have loaded the cast boolits to soon ??
Chris

[Wolfer]

They age whether their in a box or a cartridge. I shot a lot soon after casting but the ones I didn't shoot were harder later so it's best to work up loads with boolits at least a few days old.
I tend to dump my sized and lubed boolits into the same container with my old boolits and some in the bottom are possibly several years old.
Betcha they shoot just fine though.

[runfiverun]

if you air cool some and water drop some in 6 monthe the air cooled will be bout 11 and the water dropped will be more like 18.

the issue is along the way from boolit to boolit they will vary and each boolit will bounce up and down along the way.
a water dropped boolit will take longer than i have checked them, to lose it's hardness [it will eventually go back to the origional ally's bhn]
in 20-30 years or sumthin maybe.
they age harden, then even out, then maintain,then slowly drop off hardness.
much like cement it gets harder for about 90 years,equalizes, then softens up over another hundred or so years.

[DLCTEX]

I have some WD boolits that I cast 6 years ago that are still very hard. I don't test them and no longer WD for 90% of my shooting.

[Pat I.]

i let my water dropped boolits hang out for 6 or more months on average.

You're a patient man. I load and shoot em the next day.

[runfiverun]

i just batch process enough that they have plenty of time to hang out.
i'll pick and prod at a mold over 5-6 casting sessions untill i have 40-50 lbs of them cast up.[or spend a saturday/sunday with one mold and cast for 6-7 hrs straight]
i'd bet many of my boolits have sat there for 2-3 years before i even sized them then another year or so before being shot.
i just went through and size/lubed 5-5&7 gallon buckets of various boolits and still have a couple of thousand to finish off another 2 partial buckets.
those will be there for 5-6 years waiting for me to shoot them.

[cbrick]

Maybe I'm wrong, happens a lot. I feel if you quench some and air cool some in six months they will test about the same.

I did an accidental BHN age softening test experiment a few years back. Cleaning out the cabinet under the loading bench I discovered a box of RCBS 35 200, box all properly labeled with date, alloy, pre-heat treat BHN of 12 and heat treat aged BHN of 30. They were exactly 10 years old so I figured they would be putty by now, they were still 26 BHN. Yep, they age softened alright but very little in 10 years.

How fast your boolits will age harden is linked to the percentage of antimony in the alloy. A 5% Sb alloy will reach it's final hardness quicker than a 2% Sb alloy. How fast your hardened boolits will age soften depends to some extrent on the percentage of tin. A higher tin content will age soften the boolits somewhat quicker.

While these changes in lead alloys do occur and we can measure them whether the changes are important to shooters depends on what your shooting.

Rick

[41 mag fan]

i let my water dropped boolits hang out for 6 or more months on average.



Oh man the ever inquiring mind NEEDS to know...do you let your boolits hang out at the bar, brothel, where?
Or do you tie them up and hang them like we used to do the beer tabs in the early 80's and make curtains out of them?? :popcorn:

[runfiverun]

well what usually happens is i make them and put them somewhere then forget about them.
not sure where they go between when i make them and when i find them again.
just today i found two different batches of the same boolit i had made and boxed one on top of the other.
i thought they were some 41's waiting to be checked and lubed,aaaand no they were 30-150-fngc's.
the 41's were done sitting behind some 44's on the shelf.
good thing i label stuff....

[Shiloh]

I can dig a fingernail into newly cast, water dropped boolits. A week later I really have to dig in to scrape with my nail.

Shiloh

[Pat I.]

Try the fingernail test the next day.

[reloader28]

If I'm going to shoot them the next day I'll water drop them. That will put them at about the same hardness as air cooled but only for a day or 2. After that they get to hard.
If I'm not going to shoot for a week or so I'll just air cool and in 7-10 days they're ready to go.
If I already have a load to use and just want to load them up, I've sized and loaded the next day, but they are still on the soft side. 2 days is better.

None of my water dropped or heat treated have softened up yet after 5 years.

[fecmech]

You can speed up the air cooled hardening by placing them somewhere very warm(over 100 deg) or you can slow the hardening process of the water dropped (for sizing purposes) by placing them in a freezer. The hardening process is somewhat temperature dependent.

[1Shirt]

My experiance is close to that of Run's, and it is over a period in excess of 50 years.
1Shirt!