Be honest: Do you check for rejects?

[jonk]

Honestly I don't. I will discard the first few until the mould is up to temp, thereafter everything gets loaded without so much as a look unless I'm loading for a match. Even a wrinkle or a not-quite-filled-out base will shoot fine for plinking.

[dubber123]

I cast until the bases are nice and sharp, and any with noticeable defects on the base are dumped back in the pot. I give them a quick once over while lubing too. I feel I catch most of the bad ones this way. I have never weighed for consistancy. I did one batch, and when I saw less variance than some factory jacketeds, I gave up on that. A serious competitor I'm not, so I can be a little less strict on the QC.

[FWAddit]

You're right, jonk, the less-than-perfect bullets shoot fine for plinking. But I cast for hunting as well as plinking, so I do inspect everything. Perfect boolits go in one container, ones with slight defects in another, and ones with flaws not quite bad enough for me to remelt them immediately go in another.

I use the seconds for preliminary load work-up because they will start leading or slumping at the same pressure as any, so why start shooting the good ones before I really need them? If any are left over, I use them for plinking.

I keep the ones in the third container for fire-lapping, since the only thing that matters here is a decent bearing surface for embedding the abrasives into. There never are very many, and they may sit there for years. This summer I fire-lapped a new .30-06 barrel and used up more than half of the culls that had accumulated over the past three years.

[standles]

I cast until the mould warms and then I look at the base of each as I drop it out of the mould. I look for obvious defects and remelt as I cast along. Once the batch is cooled (next day) I hand look at each one and discard rounded bands/incompete fills/ etc. etc. into a remelt pile. When I go to lube they get one more quick look before lubing.


Of course I am anal and have ocd as well :mrgreen:


Steven

[Char-Gar]

I do a visual inspection to every bullet, and wrinkle, nonfilled out bases and the like, go into a box to be remelted. If I am serious about things, I will scale the bullets. Yep...I am honest!

Sorry boys, I am not a plinker! The one well aimed shot is all that counts and for that a fellow needs good bullets. When I shoot a centerfire rifle, each shot is fired like the blue chips are on the table.

The good ole 22 lr. make a fine plinking round and charcoal briquetts make fine "reactive" targets.

[mooman76]

I check but I don't go through and handle each boolit to see if it is perfect either. I pay closer attention to the first few. Then after they start dropping good(sometimes from the first one) I just kind of give them a glance as I drop them and any bad ones get thrown right back into the pot. Once done I will look them over and move them around so I can check the undersides too. I also look them over as I size/lube and when I load and will pull out any bad ones then also if one or two happened to sneek through!

[felix]

Any more I verify each boolit by scale, and also by eye appearance for roundness for those which pass through the scale test. If the boolit has rounded bands on one side, it had better have the same rounded bands on the opposite side. Not many with an obvious default make it through the scale test, however, but those that do typically shoot within the "group" when the range is less than 150 yards. The size of the "group" depends on the target destined for that gun. Targets are beer cans for guns with open sights; shotgun shells (or smaller) for the scoped guns. Expected accuracy is 50-75 percent hit; if 76-100 percent, the distance is increased, or smaller targets or moving targets selected. ... felix

[Blammer]

I check each and every bullet right after it drops from the mould, then again after they are cooled, then as I weigh each one I check again for defects. If the wt is off either high or low from the mean. Back it goes. I am brutal about checking them. I sort them into groups by wt.

EX I have lee 358-158-rf mould. My boxes are labeled 359, 360, 361, 362, 363 grains as this is what they are wt at if any are above or below those numbers back they go. I'll only load and shoot one wt group at a time, and it says so on the load data.

I shoot for groups ALL the time, or I am hunting with them. The bottom and top end wts probably will get used for "plinking" as there are fewer of them for good load development.

Even the "sample" bullets some members here have sent me get the same treatment.

so yea, I'm pretty anal about it, but then I really don't want to have any excuse for missing that Buck at 100 yds either! lol

[Blammer]

I like these kinds of results!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Targets/175gr3crimp.jpg

[jack19512]

"Be honest: Do you check for rejects? "








Yes

[Bass Ackward]

"Be honest: Do you check for rejects? "


Me too, I always check ..... I just don't find any.

Bullets are just like people. Some are good .... and some leave something to be desired. They were all created and deserve a chance to fulfil their purpose. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

So the RPM monster gets me once in awhile. :grin:

[trickyasafox]

once the mold is up to temp, unless i get a bad fill, no i really just look at the bases before i drop them in the bucket of H20.

I'm probably more casual than most. I'm still at the point where i am far and away the limiting factor in ability with handguns- when i get to the point that i feel this is no longer the case, i'll probably start being more careful

[montana_charlie]

I am brutal about checking them. I sort them into groups by wt.
Me, too.

[BruceB]

Since I joined the high-tech crowd with a digital scale back in the mid-90s, I have learned that my VISUAL inspection finds more culls than does weighing each and every bullet. Therefore it's only on very rare occasions that I will weigh all the bullets in a batch.

A later addition to my gear has INCREASED the number of rejections. Where I used to claim a reject rate of as low as two or three percent, I have now increased that rate to about five percent, because I added one of those magnifying-lens lamps to the bench. This lamp has greatly increased my ability to detect problems on a particular bullet.

I toss back any flawed bullet which I see while casting, mostly due to poorly-formed bases, and then inspect each bullet under the lamp-and-lens while lube-sizing them. I rigorously eliminate bullets with ANY detectable flaw, and I can't be bothered to try segregating "so-so" bullets from "good" ones.

The main reason for rejecting ALL the flawed ones is that my volume of production gives me a lot of perfectly acceptable bullets in very short order, and there's just no need to push the envelope into accepting poor quality. An hour's casting with a two-cavity mould can easily give me 500 bullets, and why bother keeping the 25 or so bummers (5%) when there are so many good ones???

[Freightman]

Lets see I trim my brass to proper length, turn my necks, yes I melt the rejects, why go to all the other trouble and shoot a reject?

[VTDW]

YES!! I check just before the GC and lube operation on each boolit.

Dave

[pumpguy]

I check them as I pull them out of the 5 gallon bucket of water I dropped them into. I also check for bad fills, wrinkles, etc. as I am pulling them out of the LLA. I do not weigh them or mic them. On the days I am shooting well, I can put 5 .357s into a group you can lay a quarter on at 25 yards offhand. That's good enough for me. If I want a hobby that requires me to be perfect to the point of frustration, I will take up golf.

[38 Super Auto]

I shoot action pistol, and I end up putting a lot of Pb downrange - sometimes on the target. My bullets are born, grown up, and outta the house before I get to know them.

I usually don't have any defects after the mold heats up.

BTW, something I use to heat my mold up faster - after the last pour, I cut the sprue and leave the last six bullets in the mold.

On my next casting session, I place the mold on the top of my pot while the alloy melts. I usually only need 2-3 casting cycles to get perfect fill. YMMV :coffee:
;
;

[mtgrs737]

You bet I check, that's half the fun! Turning out a boolit that is superior to the factory stuff is half the fun! What matters is how picky you are, and that depends on what you are going to do with the boolit. I get pleasure out of a job well done. To each his own.

[madcaster]

I do try to do a visual inspection,for voids and wrinkles,but I have yet to weigh any...

[9.3X62AL]

I don't scale-check, but give a rough look-see for gross culls when the boolits drop from the blocks or get stored in coffee cans--then a close inspection as they get ready for sizing/lubing.

[HORNET]

Visual inspection while casting with visible defects going back in the pot. Then it depends on the type of boolit. Muzzleloader stuff usually just gets another, better, visual check then goes into the storage box if good. Pistola sometimes gets just another visual check, but match stuff may get a fast check weight sort (like +/- 2 marks on the scale beside the scale pointer - usually about +/- 1/2 gr). I don't shoot them one-hand things good enough to need more [smilie=1:. Rifle stuff gets weight sorted after determining the average with the criteria depending on the intended purpose. General sort is same as pistola for the heavier slugs, +/- 1 mark for lighter stuff and for rough load development. Serious stuff gets a high/low split weigh from there which gets me to about +/- 0.1 gr. Note that it's just as important to cull out anything unusually heavy as it is the light ones.:roll:

[jonk]

Well to further elaborate- I've found that even bullets with half the front cut off still shoot ok (I did the experiment with a sharp knife) so I don't bother. But again, for matches or hunting, yes, I make sure whatever is loaded is perfect.

[Larry Gibson]

Once the mould is up to temp and casting I will do a quick visual inspection while casting when using single or double cavity molds. With 6 cavity I just go at it. I also do another visual when sizing/lubing looking for square bas and proper fill out. I do this especially if Im putting a GC on the bullet. I will occasionaly weigh bullets but not so much any more.

With plinking bullets cast for pistols/rvolvers cast in 6 cavity moulds I only reject if there is a serious defect.

Larry Gibson

[dale2242]

Yes, do check and reject. I toss out the obvious rejects while casting. They get a closer look while lube and sizing. More rejects. Most of my shooting with cast bullets is plinking with hand guns. I plink a lot. Not much weighing now. Used weigh all my bullets when I shot IHMSA International class revolver. Why shoot junk? Casting is fun for me, not a chore.

[John Boy]

Casting bullets for long range shooting - every bullet dropped is inspected before the end of the casting session, except sharp bases which are culled immediately.

For the in your face shooting distance bullets - most any one gets loaded

[Ohio Rusty]

Once I get things up to temp, I try to run as many bullets as I can. later, after they cool, I'll inspect them. Ones that are really bad and the sprue cut off's go into bags for remelting. If some have imperfections, I load and shoot those myself as they are just pleasure-plinkers being shot at close range into the dirt. The good bullets free of imperfections and with good bases are save for selling, trading, giving away or reloading.
Ohio Rusty

[bhp9]

You must check not only in the casting process but also before you size any bullet. I check each and every one and reject the ones that are not perfect. This is mandatory for extreme accuracy. On the other hand if you are just using your bullets for blasting then shooting the less than perfect ones is ok too. It all depends on your expectations in regards to what accuracy you want or need.

[Billwnr]

Mostly I shoot in the CBA matches so my bullets get inspected about 5 times before I'm done with them. First inspection is for flat, filled out bases as I drop them from the mould. I try to cast a year's worth of bullets before the next inspection for visual defects over the rest of the bullet. Then the rest of the inspections happen during the gas check seating, lubing and bumping of the bullet.

Here's the surprising part. I reject very few because of weight. I weigh all the bullets as one big lot. I only throw away some of the lighter ones that don't fit into the "bell curve" of the weighed bullets. Rest get put in numbered boxes of 100 in order of lightest to heaviest.

I had a learning curve problem as last winter was the first time I did the "cast for the whole year" thing and had to learn what temp to set the mould for, what ladle was best and so on. I think my overall rejection rate was around 50%. I had a bunch of rejectable bullets first starting out as I didn't have the mould hot enough and had problems with creases and various sharp edges that didn't fill out well.

For my handguns I only ask that they look reasonably good. My 59 yo eyes aren't good enough with open sights where creases in the bullets hurt me. Uniform crimps on the revolver cases are worth more than creased bullets.

[DonH]

[QUOTE=BruceB;245587]Since I joined the high-tech crowd with a digital scale back in the mid-90s, I have learned that my VISUAL inspection finds more culls than does weighing each and every bullet. Therefore it's only on very rare occasions that I will weigh all the bullets in a batch.QUOTE]


I do VISUAL and WEIGHT inspection of every rifle bullet - pistol bullets are inspected visually only. The last batch of bullets I inspected (.315 x 195gr) held one which had perfectly formed base and grooves and was 4-4.5 grains light. This bullet came from the middle of the run, not at the beginning. It CAN happen. Usually doesn't but it can.

[Ricochet]

I cast until the mould warms and then I look at the base of each as I drop it out of the mould. I look for obvious defects and remelt as I cast along. Once the batch is cooled (next day) I hand look at each one and discard rounded bands/incompete fills/ etc. etc. into a remelt pile. When I go to lube they get one more quick look before lubing.
Pretty much what I do. Mainly I look for a nice, sharp base, and no pronounced seams or fins indicating the mould wasn't closed fully. (Various sorts of debris often cause problems with that.)

[Sundogg1911]

I do a visual inspection after casting. I do some random weight checks, and another visual after sizing. They are also checked again when boxed (usually by my Wife or Daughter) I know that most rejects shoot well, but I give a lot of boolits away, and sell and trade others, so I like 'em to look as good as possible. It only takes an average of 12 second to drop the rejects back in the master caster pot and drop 2 more. (Yes....I actually timed it) :-)

[Shiloh]

I look 'em over while casting and lubing. I am particularly interested in how the base looks.
I'm not too concerned with cosmetic flaws they still shoot well. I do separate them by casting pot
lot though, at least until I weigh several and compare with the previous pot.

So in a word do I check for flaws? Yes.

Shiloh :castmine:

[Namerifrats]

I drop all mine straight from the mold into a bucket of water. After I'm done, I take the bucket and dump the water. Then lay out all the bullets on a towel for a few hours to completely dry. Thats when I inspect all of mine. Frosted is ok. I pick out ones with poor lube grooves, wrinkles, dents, etc. And they go in the pot next time I cast. The good ones are put in a plastic container on their bases ready for lubing.

[snuffy]

On whether they're for rifles or handguns. Then again on which handgun. For the 44 SBH, it's capable of fine accuracy with good boolits. The 45, 40, 357 sig, all will shoot well with some visual defects and weight variances.

Rifle, on the other hand, I want no visible defects, and weigh each boolit after it's lubed. If that results in a rejection rate of 50%, then so be it. Of course if it's very visible after dropping from the mold, it goes right back in the melt.

Shooting imperfect boolits is wasting a primer, powder charge and some of the case life. I doubt it ages a rifle much, since cast boolits don't damage a bore or throat as much as those J-word bullets do.

[KCSO]

After the bullets are cool I visualy inspect for defects and throw the rejects back into the pot. When I seat gas checks and size i inspect again and get any I might have missed for some reason. After I size and lube I weigh all the bullets I will tagret shoot with and sort by weight.