Water Cooled vs Air Cooled

[robertbank]

I cast a lot of .45acp and 9MM bullets. Lately I have been water cooling both. I would like to hear from those casters who either cast one or the other and their experiences using either method for cooling.

Stay Safe,

[David R]

I don't see any reason to water quench 45s. They might even shoot better air cooled. Would you do a test and let us know? I think the same for 9 silly Milly Meter.

no offense intended :)

David

[MTWeatherman]

I cast a lot of .45acp and 9MM bullets. Lately I have been water cooling both. I would like to hear from those casters who either cast one or the other and their experiences using either method for cooling.

Stay Safe,

I've never had any luck getting decent accuracy or lead-free shooting out of a 9mm without quenching. Actually, I oven treat the bullets for best performance. Fast twist (1 in 10) of most 9mms requires too much shear strength for an air cooled WW alloy over full performance loads. The 1 in 16 twist of the .45 is more friendly to air cooled bullets.

[mroliver77]

I pretty much water drop all of my boolits these days. I adjust the alloy to keep low pressure boolits from getting too hard. Even boolits that dont benefit from water dropping(no antimony or no arsenic) I water drop as boolits cool fast and I do not have to stop to adjust the pile of boolits on the towel. I have my lead pot at 12:00, my pan with wet cloth @ 10:30(to cool sprues) and my quench bucket @ 9:00. WW and pure lead 50/50 will still harden when quenched and works good for .38 &.45 ACP for me.I have shot straight quenched WW in the 1911 with boolit sized to fit throat and got no leading. As the weatherman says the 9mm needs the harder boolits. Jay

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
After shooting air cooled ww for about 30 yrs. ,I'm moving to water quenched as I like the results better. Especally in my rifles.

[BruceB]

I use water-dropped boolits for all my 9mm and .45 ACPs, simply because I THINK they probably have less tendency to grab minor roughnesses in the gun on their trips through the magazine, up the feed ramp, and into the chamber. Also, some of the .45 ACP barrels I've seen have very shallow grooves and I like the idea of harder boolits in such cases. I have no proof whatever for this attitude, but it does "feel" right to me. (I am NOT a liberal and do not over-use the term "feel"!)

In our .38 Special S&W M52-1 target autoloaders, I use air-cooled WW and it works very nicely. All my revolver bullets are also aircooled.

The vast majority of my rifle boolits are water-dropped, these days. While some bullets will work well in aircooled WW, at least for initial trials I water-drop just about everything except .45-70s.

[Willbird]

I'll just let you know right up front I aint right Bruce, that way you don't go to feelin me if we meet some time, that would not be fun for either of us :-)


feelings.....................whoaaaaaaaaaaa...feel ings :-)



Bill

[Piglead]

HI,
After shooting air cooled ww for about 30 yrs. ,I'm moving to water quenched as I like the results better. Especally in my rifles.

I've been casting for more years than I care to remember & I must admit this water quenching idea! Is new to me! Just a quick question ? How often do you change the water or to be more presise how hot does the water have, be before it no longer has effect on the tempering?

Dave

[waksupi]

Dave, I start out with a five gallon bucket of cold water. I usually stop after twenty pounds of bullets, and the water is still cold. Don't worry about the temperature too much.

[Piglead]

Dave, I start out with a five gallon bucket of cold water. I usually stop after twenty pounds of bullets, and the water is still cold. Don't worry about the temperature too much.

Cheers
for that Over here ther aren't many casting any more which is more the pity! I have been trying to convert as many shooters over as possibe but as we live in a throw away society .Where every thing seems to be base on time & the apparent lack of ! Nodody seems to be interested about near full control of what their shooting!
Dave

[robertbank]

Since posting this thread I have been water quenching all but my hollow point boolits. I have no leading problems. As far as 9MM is concerned I never have had any leading problems in any of my nines as long as you watch your velocity. 4.7 gr of Unique under 124 gr lead cast boolits has never leaded a 9mm gun (Trojan, Norinco, HiPower, CZ85). That said I tried 5 gr Unique under the same boolit and WOW, did Ihave leading. Lesson to learn here. Find a good load stick to it.....LOL

Stay Safe

[barnaclebill]

I use water-dropped boolits for all my 9mm and .45 ACPs, simply because I THINK they probably have less tendency to grab minor roughnesses in the gun on their trips through the magazine, up the feed ramp, and into the chamber. Also, some of the .45 ACP barrels I've seen have very shallow grooves and I like the idea of harder boolits in such cases. I have no proof whatever for this attitude, but it does "feel" right to me. (I am NOT a liberal and do not over-use the term "feel"!)

In our .38 Special S&W M52-1 target autoloaders, I use air-cooled WW and it works very nicely. All my revolver bullets are also aircooled.

The vast majority of my rifle boolits are water-dropped, these days. While some bullets will work well in aircooled WW, at least for initial trials I water-drop just about everything except .45-70s.
Why not the 45-70s? That is what I am presently water drop casting. I am new to this but my bullets are forming much better with a higher temp and water drop from the mold....??? Just curious.

BB

[Bass Ackward]

Water dropped is always an open ended discussion. It implies a certain hardness that is different in each of our minds. But the problem is that the hardness would be different for all of us for all of the variables. And because it is a snapshot in time. I have dropped with variables and recieved between 14 and 36 BHN on my tester.

I could say that I both love and hate water dropping for the same cartridge and bullet design. They perform better for me about a year later when then soften back and stabilize, not right after the quench. Most WW stabilizes around 17 - 20 BHN after a year no matter how hard it got.

It's not the method, it's the hardness. And we need to find out what that hardness is that works for us so we can reproduce and monitor it until it isn't.