Weight Variation...

[sargeny1]

Hi All...Fired up my Lee Pot today to cast some 429421 Hollow Points From an ANCIENT Lyman Ideal mold..this is what I got.....627 boolits....weight from 222gr to 225 grains...Alloy is foundry certified Lyman #2.....Used the bottom pour spout on the Lee Pot...

64 weighed in at 222gr...232 weigh at 223 grains...265 weigh in at 224 grains and 66 weigh in at 225 grains....

Acceptable variation....??? Good enough for hunting..?? Good enough for target shooting..??? What say ye learned gentleman..???
Thanks..
Pete

[rufracer]

do you have any factory pistol bullets laying around? If so, compare their weights. Youll probably be suprised how much they vary. Id just use what you got. They prob. wont win any long range competitions, but unless your a pro, you prob wont be able to tell the difference. Just my 1 1/2 cents.

[grumpy one]

The weight variation you got sounds about typical for many casters. If you are going to shoot those bullets from a pistol, I think you'll find weight variation is not an issue. From a rifle, many casters segregate them into weight classes - each with a total spread of about half a grain. The main issue is that the lightest ones may contain small voids, which could affect their long range performance. Aside from that, though, it is good practice to shoot any group with consistent ammunition.

I used to suffer about the same amount of weight variation you do, but I seem to have found a way to reduce it by at least a factor of five. What I do now, is keep the mould hot so all bullets are completely frosted. I reject all the bullets cast while warming up the mould to that temperature, even though most of them appear perfect. I have two reasons for rejecting them: one is that I know they will be under-weight, and the other is that I know they will be a lot harder than the ones cast with a really hot mould. However most shooters don't really worry about either factor, and there is no evidence I'm aware of that it makes a measurable distance except at long rifle-range.

[sargeny1]

Dear grumpy one..Thank you for your help and reply..I can't seem to get my Lee Pot hot enough to get frosted bullets..I turn it up all the way and I have tried casting faster...???? What I end up doing is rejecting the light and heavy ones...
Thanks..
Pete

[grumpy one]

You don't need hot metal in the pot to get frosted bullets, you just need to get the mould really hot by casting fast. So far I've found the best way is to keep the pot at 575 *F, and dab the bottom of the mould onto a wet rag while waiting for each pour to solidify. In other words, if you cast fast enough, the problem is too much heat, not too little.

I should also mention that I'm quite slow compared with the full Bruce B system for casting quickly. The main reason for the speed (for me anyway) isn't to get a big pile of bullets quickly, it's to get consistent results. You can look up Bruce's detailed instructions by searching for the thread. The trickiest part is waiting just the right amount of time before cutting the sprues, which is always done with a gloved hand, not a block of wood, after the metal has solidified but before it has hardened. If you cut the sprue while one phase of the alloy is still molten you get lead smears, and if you wait just a couple of seconds after solidification it's too hard to cut by hand pressure. With a bit of practice it just goes smoothly, and the result is a big pile of frosted bullets in very little time, with hardly any variation in weight or hardness.

While you're practising there is no harm in having the metal hotter in the pot - say 700*F. When you get the speed working for you, you drop the pot temperature to save solidification time. A hotter pot just means waiting longer before you can cut the sprues, which is pure wasted time. I found (for my speed and cadence) I can just barely cast at 550*F, and then I don't need to dab the mould onto the wet rag after each pour - it solidifies at 525*F, and that is reached in just about the time it takes me to pull the mould out from under the spout and get my gaze properly focused on the lead puddles as they solidify. However I prefer to use 575*F pot temperature, because then I can control the exact speed by how long I hold the mould against the wet rag after each pour. At 550*F there is no slack in the system at all - and therefore no real way to control it from pour to pour. However that is for my alloy and my technique. YMMV.