Culling

[308Jeff]

As a new caster, JBinMN's poll on when to cull bullets was timely for me. My question is which bullets do I cull?

My OCD side want me to toss anything that doesn't look perfect or nearly perfect, but my more rational side tells me some imperfects will shoot just fine.

Grabbed a few from last weekend that I would toss, but want opinions on what I should really be melting again.

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[JSH]

Culls.
The way I look at it, would you be happy with something like that in a jacketed or store bought cast?
They are just to easy to recycle. Why settle for second best.
Jeff

[retrobass]

I’d powdercoat them a different color and use them to blast steel at 15 yards.

Unless I caught it while casting (unlikely because I don’t like to pause and hurt my cadence), in which case I’d chunk them back in the pot.

[hc18flyer]

I cull out significant flaws in the base or driving bands, but not many for plinking pistol bullets. For hunting load development I am more picky! hc18flyer

[waco]

Those are all definitely rejects in my book.

[brewer12345]

All culls, IMO. I am pickier in rifle and gas check bullet selection, but even for plinking handgun loads your pics all look like remelts to me.

[Beagle333]

Even though I powdercoat, I'd reject those. It doesn't take long to cast more. Fire up the pot tomorrow and cast enough to replace the culls, if you'll miss em.
I reject any with flaws in either the base or the driving bands. If there were a nose wrinkle or void, I would be more apt to let it go. Throw em back.

[308Jeff]

Thanks, all. Rejects and future bullets they shall all be.

[osteodoc08]

I'd reject all those. Looks like melt/mold is a bit cold

[gray wolf]

Culls.
The way I look at it, would you be happy with something like that in a jacketed or store bought cast?

Hard to understand this logic

[dverna]

The vast majority of pistol bullets I use get shot at less than 50 feet. Yet I would reject any that looked like that. But I shoot less than perfect bullets because at 50 feet perfection is not needed.

Rifle bullets for 100 yards or longer are different. They must look perfect or one is wasting powder and time.

[Hannibal]

If you shoot regularly, you already know your capabilities. If you shoot informally, then you need to ask yourself what your goal is.

Casting your bullets is not going to make you shoot better, at least not in the short term.

Long term depends on your capabilities. The absolute best you can hope for is to equal jacketed bullet performance, provided you are not trying to correct for a condition that is out of SAAMI specifications.

So. Are you trying to set a record, save money, or fix a problem?

[R. Dupraz]

Depends on what you are using them for. I shoot a lot of various pistol bullets for just general practice. So really don't get too excited about perfect bullets for this agenda. Serious targets, another matter. The one on the right back in the pot. Other wise run the mold a little hotter to fix the problem and don't worry about it.

[GhostHawk]

I'd shoot all 4 of those.

In Pistol bullets, anything that did not get complete fill, will get culled.
Wrinkles, no, they still shoot. I am not that good. I don't think most people could see a difference between those bullets downrange.

Now if I shell out money for a jacketed bullet, I am paying for it, so I expect perfection.
Cast on the other hand is the low cost alternative. So I don't expect perfection.
Unless I was selling them.

My experience says incomplete fill gets you wild targets. No consistency so shotgun patterns instead of groups.

But a wrinkle? Not enough there to grab air, not when it is only going 20 feet to 25 yards.

Now long range precision rifle is another matter.

There I would sort serious bullets from plinkers. The plinkers will be close enough.


Pistol caliber carbines, etc out to 75 yards I do not believe a single little wrinkle will seriously throw that bullet out of group. I could be wrong but I myself have not seen it.

Rifle over 100 yards, yes, you want to send the very best.

[claude]

Grabbed a few from last weekend that I would toss,

I would toss those as well, and being a new caster myself, have thrown a bunch back in the pot.

I can only speak for myself, but culling hard early in the game seems to have contributed to the speed of my learning curve. I find it hard to settle for "almost", and as most everything I cast is gas checked and lubed I wasn't happy investing my time with seconds.

[lightman]

I would recycle all of those for several reasons. One reason is that I've been casting long enough that I know I can cast better than those. And you can too! Another reason is that I want to remove any doubt about what caused that flyer in my group. If I load perfect bullets then I know that that flyer was me and I can work to correct that problem.

Once you gain some experience you will only see a few bullets like those in your casting session, so you will only recycle a few. I've got a sack of RCBS 45-201's with slightly rounded driving bands that I plan to load and shoot just to see if there is any difference in accuracy. I need to get on with that project, but regardless of the outcome my old will probably require me to recycle the less than perfect bullets!

[Hannibal]

A PID or mold thermometer will help maintain consistency. If all you are after is a hunk of lead to fill the void in your brass, then this thread is of no consideration almost entirely.

Sorry if that is crass, but it's also factual.

[Thumbcocker]

To shoot well you have to know in your bones that the weak link in the gun, ammo, shooter system is you the shooter. If you have made the best ammo you can then all you have to do is focus on being the best shooter you can. Why build in doubt about your ammo?

[mdi]

I believe it's a personal choice. When I'm casting, sometimes I'll reject all but the "perfect" bullets and sometimes I'll shoot "crinkled" bullets. But the ones in the pic I'd prolly reject. I once saw an article by a well known gun writer and black powder cartridge shooter with some pics of his cast bullets. He mentioned some of the bullets he would keep for competition, and some for just shooting. Personally I'd have remelted his "just shooting" bullets...

[DSRichert]

Just wondering how critical are minor flaws in pistol cast bullets

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[Tom W.]

The top left should be better looking after run through the lubrisizer. The others not so much. If you are just going out and shooting cans or metal plates both top ones should be fine. If you want groups less than one inch, well............ Competition or fun, you'll be able to tell which you want to shoot and which need a second chance at filling out better.

[308Jeff]

Most of the bullets I casted came out almost perfect once the mold was properly up to temp. The first two casts I did when straight back into the pot, the ones I posted in the beginning of thread most likely came from the 3rd-5th cast.


Just wondering how critical are minor flaws in pistol cast bullets

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And this is the reason I posted. I probably should have prefaced that I am a terrible pistol shot, and that unless there was something that could lead to problems firing them, I probably wouldn't notice the difference as far as accuracy goes. The Ruger PC4 shoots pretty lousy too, so who knows if I'd see a difference there.

But, there are few enough of them that I don't mind throwing them back into the pot and turning them into something that looks a lot nicer next time. :)

[Aunegl]

My current level of OCD would reject those.

[NoZombies]

For me it depends on my intended purpose and what I'm planning to shoot them in. When I'm sorting bullets for rifles or target revolvers, they've got to be pretty close to perfect to pass muster. When I'm sorting for one of the brass spewers, I'm happy if the base and base band are properly filled out, as nose wrinkles don't effect my results with those. If I'm honest, I'm not sure nose wrinkles would effect my results in the target revolvers or rifles either, but in the subguns and similar, I know for sure that they don't.

[dale2242]

I have been casting for 50 years.
I have always felt that my cast boolits should be as near "perfect" as I can cast them.
I reject all of my cast boolits that are not visually "perfect".
By "perfect" I mean no wrinkles and sharp, well filled out grooves and bases.
I inspect all of them under a magnifying light and cull all that do not appear perfect to my eye.
I do not weigh handgun boolits except when I was shooting silhouettes in International class.
I do weigh all of my rifle boolits and cull any that are not within a few 10ths of their average depending on alloy.
I personally would not shoot the boolits pictured if they were mine.
To each his own.
Cull boolits remelt easily....dale

[308Jeff]

I did end up tossing those along with about 20 others that I wasn't 100% happy with. Thanks for helping a new caster with this, guys. Very grateful for everything I learn on here.

[mdi]

IMO; the most important things to look for in cast bullets is a good square base and good fill out...

[44MAG#1]

The first two photos are not really that bad. When you get good enough that you can tell the difference between near perfect bullets and those in the above said photos, in normal shooting positions not benchrest, then start culling. Unless you can tell the difference then don't sweat the small imperfections.

[reddog81]

I'd probably reject those but i'd be willing to bet that 95% of people (myself included) wouldn't be able to see a difference when shooting.

Like mdi mentioned above my post - the base is the most important. I recycle anything with a deformity around the edge of the base. When casting I pay attention to base fill out and toss any rejects back in.

[Victor N TN]

When I cast, I cull as I hit the mold knocking them out. I have several old towels my wife was going to trash, I have them folded into roughly a foot square and close to 3 inches thick. If a bad bullet falls to the towels, it goes to the side. Then after a few get pushes over they go back in the pot. For me, it's a constant thing. But like stated before, I watch them all the time, after everything gets to temp.

[Soundguy]

Wrinkles and drive band and base fill out issues are automatic culls. Minor cosmetic stuff for plinkers are ok.
Rifle and hunting, only perfect

[gwpercle]

For me to keep them they :

1. Must have a perfect base, no voids or flaws.
2. Well filled out with sharp corners.
3. Only minor defects on sides/driving bands that will be mostly ironed out during sizing.
4. No flaws on nose.

I used to be very picky but some minor flaws on sides seem to not be detrimental to decent accuracy at least with handgun boolits .

Gary

[vrh]

I cull rejects on every step of reloading. Always find some that I missed.

[Victor N TN]

I cull rejects on every step of reloading. Always find some that I missed.

+1 Sneaks up on you like that don't it?