figuring out cast bullet weight

[odette]

I was weighing bunches of cast bullet getting a total weight like 3.3 lbs from my last cast session. I then count those bullets dividing 23,100 (grains in 3.3 lbs) by the number of bullets to get an average bullet weight. Only scale I have for weighing bulk is a Sunbeam dial kitchen scale and after using it once, I know it is not accurate. Is there a good affordable scale that I can use, one that can give accurate pounds and ounces and can handle at least 3 to 7 pounds.
I am getting close to 2 grain variations in the lot for .44 cal bullets, 247.7 to 249.3. The bullets look a little spotted, but fully formed. I am keeping about a third as good and remelting the rest. My .357 180 gr come out nice shiny and crisp edges.
The .44 is an old RCSB 240 gr Silhouette 2 cavity mold, it was a little rusty. I soaked it in an aviation rust remover and it looks clean.
The .357 is a new this spring N.O.E. 180 gr from an RCBS Silhouette design and 4 cavity.
Anyone have a recommendation on a scale?

[rancher1913]

keep an eye on swapping and selling, lots of good scales come up for sale.

[greenjoytj]

Odette why do you want weigh all the bullets in bulk?
Depending on what the bullets use will be, I weigh each bullet and group them into weight lots.
I keep the groups that are in the centre on my bell curve range which provides the most bullets. The rest get re-melted. With my new RCBS Pro Melt-2 I’m hoping better temperature control will get me more bullets that make the weight cut and fewer oddly supper heavy ones.
The way too light ones are my fault, too much heat or voids inside the bullet.

[lightman]

It sounds like your method could possibly have a lot of error involved. I would weigh each bullet on a powder scale and segregate them by weight. The varation in most of my bullets is a few 10th's.

[OldBearHair]

Would I be correct in saying : Someone mentioned pressure moulding ie; holding the mould up against the nozzle of the pot. I did three of these like that and thought they really looked good. As the bullets were being weighed and sorted into four different groups, three bullets weighed 3 grains more than the rest. I thought OK those are the pressure cast ones. Did not have proof though.
Only way that I weigh a bunch of boolits is to first know the scales aren't perfect. I do weigh a good count of say 50 and weigh them , then weigh the rest of the batch, do the math and then you know the appoximate number of bullets in the batch plus the 50. Good luck Odette and nice to see you .

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

while I am not sure why you need to measure total weight of a casting session, I can say I bought this scale for my homebrewing hobby, weighs up to 11 lbs and is extremely accurate, but not cheap. Measures Grams or Ounces-Pounds. I use it for weighing sugar and such for making Jam and canning and other food processing. It's held up well for the 12 years I've been using it.

https://www.midwestsupplies.com/escali-primo-digital-scale?gdffi=aa92829c2cf847b6a646261bd5b23c06&gdfms=32C4F8BEB1FD4E41A4C20F74B3ACF123&gclid=CjwKCAjwzqPcBRAnEiwAzKRgS8YLOJvxjZEE2DQfPKEj 0ec92s5N3dRFRz6KdySW_RXGcMaXFDTGYhoCPwQQAvD_BwE

[Outpost75]

Be fussy in visual inspection. Keep sharply filled out bullets with clean bases and remelt the rest. Don't waste time weighing. Instead shoot ten or twelve-shot groups off sandbags at 50 yards. If you are unable to shoot a ten-shot, 50 yard handgun group with iron sights, you have concerns other than bullet weight variation.

Once you are able to shoot ten-ring groups on the Standard American Slow Fire Pistol Target, THEN weighing might pay off. Otherwise you are measuring with micrometers while cutting with axes.

[reddog81]

I've got an etekcity scale that goes up to 11 lbs off Amazon for $10. It has worked well the couple of times I've used it, but I'm not sure it'll be helpful weighing individual bullets.

[Oily]

Oh JONB you have 2 hobbies. I cast alot now so the wine making took a back burner. How do you juggle these 2. I have to keep them seperated or I lose quality control on both LOL.

[Dieselhorses]

Odette, are you weighing your bullets to see how many lbs. it takes to cast x amount of bullets? By no means use this method to get an average weight for loading! After I cast a mess of bullets, I weigh each one and find which ones I have the most of that is +/- 1-1.5 grains. I also take the weight of powder coat and gas checks into consideration. Back to the weighing part, I usually just divide number of bullets I want (i.e. 158 grains divided into 7000=44 bullets per lb. of ingots). So if I want 440 bullets I simply use 10 lbs. of ingots.

[sharps4590]

The only time I weighed handgun bullets was when I knew I was going to be shooting them at distance, 200+ yards. I do believe at distances it makes a difference. I weigh all my rifle bullets.

[Hossfly]

Odette, evidently you don’t possess a powder scale, cause if you did you wouldn’t be trying to weigh boolits with that kitchen scale. You can get good digital scales on internet for cheap, I bought 2 for about $10.00 each. Also found old beam RCBS at pawn gun shop for $20. All will do what you want to do. Kitchen scales are good for determining boolit count for so many lbs. I do that all the time, it gets you close, and always throw in a few extra if I’m selling projectiles, but not for determining individual boolit weight.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Oh JONB you have 2 hobbies. I cast alot now so the wine making took a back burner. How do you juggle these 2. I have to keep them seperated or I lose quality control on both LOL.

I have all kinds of hobbies. There is an eb and flo to all of them. The garden takes up most of my time. In retirement, each day seems to bring a new project...I am considering going out to the Rifle range today to collect white Oak Acorns, I guess the MN DNR buys them. I was at the range yesterday, it was breezy and the acorns were falling like it was a hailstorm...btw, while at the range yesterday, I scored a grocery bag of brass...some were in the mud, and that's waiting to be cleaned...a project for another day :roll:

[trapper9260]

I have all kinds of hobbies. There is an eb and flo to all of them. The garden takes up most of my time. In retirement, each day seems to bring a new project...I am considering going out to the Rifle range today to collect white Oak Acorns, I guess the MN DNR buys them. I was at the range yesterday, it was breezy and the acorns were falling like it was a hailstorm...btw, while at the range yesterday, I scored a grocery bag of brass...some were in the mud, and that's waiting to be cleaned...a project for another day :roll:

Those white oak acorns are good to eat like that.They are better then the red oak. You can do others things with them also make flour and I think coffee I am not sure on that.

[Echo]

Be fussy in visual inspection. Keep sharply filled out bullets with clean bases and remelt the rest. Don't waste time weighing. Instead shoot ten or twelve-shot groups off sandbags at 50 yards. If you are unable to shoot a ten-shot, 50 yard handgun group with iron sights, you have concerns other than bullet weight variation.

Once you are able to shoot ten-ring groups on the Standard American Slow Fire Pistol Target, THEN weighing might pay off. Otherwise you are measuring with micrometers while cutting with axes.

Plus One!

[LongRangeAir]

I do use an RCBS scale to weight individual bullets. I first weigh and cull bullets, and then weigh in bulk to be able to get very close to the numbers needed to fill orders for customers. I don't have time too count in lots of 100 for my customers. Takes too long with these tiny .257 bullets for airgun use.

KnifeMaker

[Land Owner]

There are many antique scales, hardware scales, like that shown, cheap, but you have to look for them, and check weight sets (maybe not as cheap), or you can make your own check weights using your beam or digital scale. The sum of the parts equals the whole. Here I have made pewter ingots and weighed each on the hardware scale, relative to the counter weights (blue boxes) that I made from the sum of the parts...one is "edzactly" one pound, the other "edzactly" two pounds, and together they are "edzactly" three pounds. Then the sliding scale of the balance beam is used for intermediate ounces, as it is demarked in "edzactly" 1/4 ounce graduations. When done, I am close, but not exact...who is going to care anyway? It's a hobby and not rocket science.



https://i.postimg.cc/bvGq5ghF/DSCN1872.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/FRd1jmzz/check-weights.jpg

[gundownunder]

I use a 5 pound kitchen scale to weigh bullets into batches of 1000, but I weigh my bullets to within 0.2 of a grain on a digital jewelers scale which I bought on Ebay for $30, it can weigh in grams, ounces, grains,and a couple of other weights.

[squidtamer]

Amazon has a digital scale with grains that gets 4/5 stars for under $20. WAOAW Digital Milligram Scale etc etc. 50gram limit, so like 771 or so grains.
This tells me that there are probably a number of similar products. So 10 seconds on Aliexpress yields 197 hits for 'digial scale grains' under $20. Your mileage will vary with the products. aka: good luck.

I use an RCBS digital I got back when they were _brand_ new. They sent me a new check weight out of the blue after I'd registered saying some of them had bad ones. matched the one I already had though. **** fine customer service.

Before that I had a beam scale I used for 25 years until the bearing in it got something in it and no amount of PB Blaster or Brake Clean would get it moving again :(