Patrick L
02-02-2008, 11:45 AM
Well its that time of year again. My bullet casting falls into sort of a set routine based on the fact that I cast primarily for Highpower rifle, which we shoot from April to October.
I generally do all of my casting in about four or five sessions, starting in Nov/Dec and finishing up about now. I always run the SAECO 301, a 4 hole .30 caliber, and one of my other molds to be able to alternate. The other mold could be any of my "recreational" molds, like a .45 or .38 pistol mold, my .30 carbine bullet, etc. The point of the whole excercise is to end up with about 700-800 SAECOs for the Highpower season, and to amass the others for whenever.
Anyhow, now I've hit stage 2 which is weight segregating. I do this only to my SAECO match bullets. I really don't think its necessary for casual shooting, but for the matches its one less thing to doubt. I think the late great Jim Clark said "If you think it helps, it does help" or something to that extent. Also, this year only I weighed out all of my old 31141s that I cast 8-10 years ago. This I just did because I try a few new loads, so just for the hell of it I did it.
Here's my setup for sorting.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Sorting%20and%20Sizing/GunStuff030.jpg
I use my electronic scale (the only thing I use the electronic scale for by the way) and I have partitioned off some 1 lb chocolate boxes to sort into. The black numbers on the face are for the SAECOs, the red were for the 31141s. I select the range where most of the bullets fall, usually a 1 1/2 grain spread. These are the "match bullets." Anything lighter within a grain is for practice, and anything really light, as well as obvious defects go into the cull box. In this picture, the two groups to the left of the candy boxes are 194 and 194.1, the box in the left foreground with the standing bullets are all in the 193 range, and in the extreme left front are any really light ones as well as obvious flaws (the cull box.) I also usually get a few really heavies (they're the small cluster standing to the far right of the candy box.) I'll mark them and also burn them up in offhand practice.
I have quite a selection of Sharpies , so each weight gets a colored nose to help keep them separate. I'll generally put three consecutive weights into a "lot." In other words Lot 1A might be 196.1, 196.2, & 196.3 grains. During a match, I know my bullets are close enough in weight not to matter. I will try to make sure I have 20 of the same weight just for the prone slow fire. Since all the rest is position shooting and rapid fire, I know the fliers are not the bullets fault!
After lubesizing, I store the bullets in CCI .22lr 100 pack boxes. Each box holds 80 bullets. These are the 31141s I mentioned. You can see the colored noses. Actually, these have not been sized yet, but I needed to free up the sorting boxes. Typically I just set up the sizer where the scale is and as I gascheck and size, I pack them into the boxes.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Sorting%20and%20Sizing/GunStuff031.jpg
The 31141s fit so perfecly you can use the slide tops. With the SAECOs I have to tape the tops on like a lid. Lubesized bullets stored this way will last for years as long as its in a cool place.
I'm not saying this is the only way or even the best, but it has worked for me for many years.
I generally do all of my casting in about four or five sessions, starting in Nov/Dec and finishing up about now. I always run the SAECO 301, a 4 hole .30 caliber, and one of my other molds to be able to alternate. The other mold could be any of my "recreational" molds, like a .45 or .38 pistol mold, my .30 carbine bullet, etc. The point of the whole excercise is to end up with about 700-800 SAECOs for the Highpower season, and to amass the others for whenever.
Anyhow, now I've hit stage 2 which is weight segregating. I do this only to my SAECO match bullets. I really don't think its necessary for casual shooting, but for the matches its one less thing to doubt. I think the late great Jim Clark said "If you think it helps, it does help" or something to that extent. Also, this year only I weighed out all of my old 31141s that I cast 8-10 years ago. This I just did because I try a few new loads, so just for the hell of it I did it.
Here's my setup for sorting.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Sorting%20and%20Sizing/GunStuff030.jpg
I use my electronic scale (the only thing I use the electronic scale for by the way) and I have partitioned off some 1 lb chocolate boxes to sort into. The black numbers on the face are for the SAECOs, the red were for the 31141s. I select the range where most of the bullets fall, usually a 1 1/2 grain spread. These are the "match bullets." Anything lighter within a grain is for practice, and anything really light, as well as obvious defects go into the cull box. In this picture, the two groups to the left of the candy boxes are 194 and 194.1, the box in the left foreground with the standing bullets are all in the 193 range, and in the extreme left front are any really light ones as well as obvious flaws (the cull box.) I also usually get a few really heavies (they're the small cluster standing to the far right of the candy box.) I'll mark them and also burn them up in offhand practice.
I have quite a selection of Sharpies , so each weight gets a colored nose to help keep them separate. I'll generally put three consecutive weights into a "lot." In other words Lot 1A might be 196.1, 196.2, & 196.3 grains. During a match, I know my bullets are close enough in weight not to matter. I will try to make sure I have 20 of the same weight just for the prone slow fire. Since all the rest is position shooting and rapid fire, I know the fliers are not the bullets fault!
After lubesizing, I store the bullets in CCI .22lr 100 pack boxes. Each box holds 80 bullets. These are the 31141s I mentioned. You can see the colored noses. Actually, these have not been sized yet, but I needed to free up the sorting boxes. Typically I just set up the sizer where the scale is and as I gascheck and size, I pack them into the boxes.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Sorting%20and%20Sizing/GunStuff031.jpg
The 31141s fit so perfecly you can use the slide tops. With the SAECOs I have to tape the tops on like a lid. Lubesized bullets stored this way will last for years as long as its in a cool place.
I'm not saying this is the only way or even the best, but it has worked for me for many years.