Cracked bullet

[Friends call me Pac]

What happened?

311299 cast with WW & water quenched. I actually seated the bullet just a little too much so I put it in my inertia puller and gave two slight taps to move it forward just enough to reseat. When I took it out of the puller it looked like this. I am sure with the wealth of knowledge here someone might have some info for me. Out of 21 cartridges this was the only one to do this. All others seem fine. If it helps I cast these about 8 months ago.

134954

[bruce381]

dropped from mold to fast as was still "wet"or soft, i get cracked bands when dropping too fast.

[Bzcraig]

I would try a few more in the puller to try and duplicate.

[Yodogsandman]

I've cracked boolits before just as bruce381 has, dropping them from the mold too soon. I've caught them when they dropped on a folded towel and re-melted them. I do remember finding one, like you, that got past me until loading them up.

[MBTcustom]

Would you mind sharing what alloy you were using to cast these bullets?

[Wayne Smith]

I've had long rifle boolits come out of the water bucket bent like a bananna, too. Same reason, dropping them too soon.

[Blanco]

I drop mine on a towel. After I fill the mold I run the bottom of the mold across the towel like I'm ironing it
for about 10~ 15 seconds. I have found if I do that my boolits turn out much nicer. I think it bleeds the heat off the mold a bit.
I can also cast longer as the mold takes longer to overheat.

[Friends call me Pac]

I've had long rifle boolits come out of the water bucket bent like a bananna, too. Same reason, dropping them too soon.

It's not bent. It is cracked almost in two. Alloy is ww with a little scrap to stretch the mix. Mix is around 3 part ww & 1 part scrap. I have cast several hundred but this is the only one to do this that I have seen. After reading these comments and from what I have found I tend to think it is a dropped to soon issue.

[Elkins45]

This was the result of casting heavy .379 bullets too fast. Your bullet probably had an internal separation that wasn't visible on the surface, but cracked under the extra stress of seating.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm35/elkins_pix/IMG_0732_zps36984943.jpg

[Yodogsandman]

Would you mind sharing what alloy you were using to cast these bullets?

Myself, I was using COWW's + about 2% Sn with long nosed boolits. I was casting either 6.5 Cruise missiles or some other 6.5mm or maybe 314299's. Most recently with a NOE 269-145 after having the mold heated up too much on the hot plate (on high). It took about ten casts before cooling down. The sprue took about 30 seconds to flash over.

I've had similar results with hot, newly smelted ingots of COWW's that I dumped too soon after casting.

[Four-Sixty]

I see this when I have a melt high in antimony, and have it on the hot side. Slowing down, or turning your pot down might cure this.

[MikeBitzenburger]

This was the result of casting heavy .379 bullets too fast. Your bullet probably had an internal separation that wasn't visible on the surface, but cracked under the extra stress of seating.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm35/elkins_pix/IMG_0732_zps36984943.jpg



If you could get them to consistently come out like the third bullet you could engage multiple targets all at the same time. :lol:

[bedbugbilly]

Very interesting post and photos - we can all learn from it!

[Gtek]

What temp are you running your pot at?

[Smoke4320]

I have heard of Pre Fragmented :):)