My first ever boolits. To keep or not to keep, that is my question

[Stopsign32v]

These came from the LEE 515-500F mold. I cleaned it with 91% alcohol and smoked the cavities rather well in an attempt to get the bullet diameter slightly smaller. Once the mold was up to temp I oiled the sprue plate screw and the alignment points on both sides with a Q-tip and 2 cycle synthetic oil.

I had some lead I bought from someone off the forums which is a well known member here and said this lead would be good for anything around 1200fps, which these will not see that fast.

The LEE pot was set to '4', whatever temp that might be. I poured in with the dipper and let sit for 10-15 seconds and then dumped them. Not a single bullet stuck, all dropped free.

This is one example of about 10 I did. Would you change anything? Keep these or melt them again and try something else?

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48337679676_3025ee5dcc_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDrf7h)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48337679406_fabf1bf8d8_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDrf2C)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48337679146_08db7e6587_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDreX9)

[Hossfly]

I think i would lube em or paint em then size for your guns bore and fire them have fun.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Keepers!

[tazman]

Those look good and should be very shootable.
My suggestion is to weigh them and see how consistent they are.

[Stopsign32v]

I'll probably melt them down and turn the heat up like tazman suggested. I don't really have a way to weigh them past "really damn heavy!". I did measure them and they are at .5145-.515

These will be 50-70 black powder loads. I was thinking of the next batch, NOT water quenching them. I also have no way to size them sadly and the bore of my Sharps is .512

[Chill Wills]

You can re-cast them if you just want the exercise.
They will shoot fine for starters. No need to water drop them.

No need to size them IF they will load into the rifle and will likely shoot really well unsized if everything else is good.
Pan lube them with soft lube and push them out of the lube cake into your hand below with a dowel. Load them with a mild load and have fun. You will get better and better with experience.

There are lots of tricks to doing this but just begin by getting out there and doing.:bigsmyl2:

[mdi]

Looks good to me. One question; is the slightly rounded corners cut into the mold or does the mold have sharp corners? (I'm not familiar with that bullet). If the corners need to be sharp/square, add some heat to your mold and melt and see what happens.

I can allow my OCD to work when I'm casting as if the bullets aren't "perfect" to my eye, I'll just remelt them. I like casting and enjoy the practice and don't cast just for fodder...

[Stopsign32v]

More update:

Melted down the bullets and turned the heat from 4 to 7 and got these:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48338321761_efee97c6f6_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDuwYH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48338462852_571cc1a333_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDvfVj)


Turned the heat up to 8 and the lead on the top surface started browning and I got these:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48338322036_6713b4f303_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDux4s)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48338463537_85c93895a0_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDvg88)


My conclusion is to go back to 4 heat setting

[ShooterAZ]

One recommendation is to get a thermometer. It will make a difference to know what temperature you're getting good bullets. Then you can keep records and be able to repeat your results. Consistency is good thing in this hobby.

[Stopsign32v]

One recommendation is to get a thermometer. It will make a difference to know what temperature you're getting good bullets. Then you can keep records and be able to repeat your results. Consistency is good thing in this hobby.

Yes I plan to get one. Does it have to be a casting thermometer or can I pick one up at Walmart?

[ShooterAZ]

It should be a casting thermometer, they're not too terribly expensive. Obviously you don't have to have one, but I would be not without one. It helps you get dialed in the the "sweet spot", temperature wise. All molds seem to have a certain temperature range in which they drop the best boolits. I love it when they just drop out of the mold upon opening it!

[Der Gebirgsjager]

The first try was better. Now they're frosty (too much heat) and have imperfections. If you didn't like the first results, then try a heat setting in the middle between no. 1 and no. 2.

[Stopsign32v]

The first try was better. Now they're frosty (too much heat) and have imperfections. If you didn't like the first results, then try a heat setting in the middle between no. 1 and no. 2.

Yes, even at setting 5 I'm still getting frosting. I'm going to let the MOLD cool down and see if it was that.

[Stopsign32v]

Ok my luck has run out. At this point I'm getting nothing but frosted (maybe not frosted, not as bad as the last pic above but also not as good as the first) castings even at setting 4 and also I'm having trouble with the dipper staying clogged after the first cavity.

Also I was having a few with wrinkles in the nose.

[robg]

First were fine ,slow down your casting speed lower the temp slightly. I'd still shoot the frosty ones.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yup! It's a learning curve, and you're climbing it! A mold that's too hot will frost boolits. A furnace that's too hot will frost boolits. Frosty boolits will still shoot o.k., but if they have imperfections other than the frostiness you can't expect the best results. When I cast I like to use 3 molds at a time. When one starts getting too hot I set it aside and use the next one, and so on, rotating them and ending up with piles of 3 different boolits that are usually for 3 different guns. I water quench mine, and you'll get different opinions about that. Easy to do, just have a bucket full of water between your legs and drop them in straight from the mold. You don't want to get any water into the lead pot, so cast above the table and drop the bullets below the table. At the end of the session pour the boolits out onto a soft cloth, sort through them, and put any bad ones aside to dry and use in the next session. You can lube them with a sizing/lubing machine, which if you get into gas checks will also apply the gas check, or you can use the Lee set-up of a push through sizer and tumble lube them. That's the easy, less expensive way, but the boolits are sort of ugly with the lube dried on them. Works well, though. One last thought -- don't get in a hurry. It's supposed to be fun. :D

[super6]

First were fine ,slow down your casting speed lower the temp slightly. I'd still shoot the frosty ones. Stay at 5 and do not over heat the mold Take a slower cadence. Allow the mold to cool a bit. Take it to 6 if your dipper is not letting go, You gotta keep the dipper hot like the lead!
shake the mold a bit as you pour.:razz:

[Stopsign32v]

I leave the dipper resting in the lead while I cast. That is ok?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yes. I use the dipper method, and the dipper can get no hotter than the lead. The cause of problems will, therefore, be lead that's too hot, not a dipper that's too hot. On the other hand, if you leave the dipper out of the lead between pours, the dipper could theoretically cool the lead- although that's unlikely if your maintaining a steady cadence.

[ShooterAZ]

Slow the cadence a little, and leave the ladle in the melt. Big huge boolits like that retain heat much longer than smaller ones, so slowing it down a tad should help.

[Conditor22]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48337679146_08db7e6587_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDreX9)

They look really good for the first time. Don't be afraid of frosted boolits.

I would suggest getting a PID and thermocouple to work as a thermometer then you can easily convert it into a temperature controller later.

I have little faith in the lead thermometers many are way off.

I would go with the colder setting and add a little tin/pewter to get it to flow better.

It looks like your sprue plate isn't tight to the surface of the mold or you're cutting the sprue to late because you're getting a protrusion (not a flat clean base. the flatter the base the more accurate the boolit will be) there could be a couple of possibilities. the sprue plate screw is loose, there is something between the sprue plate and the top of the mold keeping the sprue plate from sitting flat) (hold the mold up to a light, you shouldn't be able to see light between the sprue plate and the top of the mold.

7 looks good, I would stay between 5 and 6.

The hotter your lead when you pour, the better the fill out will be BUT the boolit will be smaller when it cools and take longer to cool.

All of them a good to coat or lube and shoot :)

[Stopsign32v]

I will try again tonight and let there be a longer cool down between casting. I think my mold got too hot.

[T_McD]

Also whatever you do, don’t inspect the bullets coming out of the mold. The only thing that does is throw off your cadence, making it impossible to know when you have the right speed.

[RED BEAR]

Yes I plan to get one. Does it have to be a casting thermometer or can I pick one up at Walmart?

Yes it needs to be a casting thermometer. When i started i used it a lot but after a while you can kinda get a feel for your mold and pot and can use it a lot less. I dont see anything i wouldn't shoot.

[Chill Wills]

I think the cause of the dipper clogging up may be do to not skimming the top of the melt.
You have plenty of heat.

Don't water drop black powder bullets. They are plenty hard.
Lube with a soft BP lube - don't size. Just push them out of the cake. They very likely are not too large at 0.002 to 0.003" over.

Yes, a thermometer. BUT you don't need one yet if money is tight. You have already established a good number range setting on your pot.
A thermometer can be correct or off but still be valuable because it will read the temp YOU need next time.
Frosted bullets are not bad but you don't need to be that hot. Either slow down OR slightly turn down the pot.

DO NOT screw down the sprue plate screw tight. It will gall. The top plate should just swing and no more. The pressure of holding the dipper to the top of the sprue plate will keep the two very flat surfaces tight together when pouring.

When the sprue puddle becomes solid, take your welding gloved hand - place palm over the sprue plate and push down while twisting. The sprue will cut clean and you will have not worn the registration system (Pins) by banging the mold. They last a lot longer and stay a lot rounder that way.

Loading BP is a subject until itself. Easy but can be somewhat different than casting for smokeless.

[Stopsign32v]

Well here is an example of the finished castings. I still have to lube them and load them so I don't have a lot of time to perfect the way they look.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48340770501_7cba700190_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2gDH5Un)

[super6]

Please let us know how they perform:popcorn:

[Dusty Bannister]

If you are using the Lee pot, which it sounds like you are, as the level of the melt gets lower, the alloy will actually get hotter. Are you keeping the melt at about the same level, or running low level alloy in the pot? If you get a thermometer, you can monitor the temp and add small sprues as you cast to keep the melt level a bit more consistent and not let the alloy temp run away from you. Another alternative would be to add a PID to control the melt temperature.

[kevin c]

Once you dial in on the best pot temp setting for the amount of alloy in it and what cadence it takes to get the best results, you can make a lot of the same bullet with the same alloy and mold any time you want to, until you deplete your stock of raw material.

If you change alloys or change the mold used (even, as I've found, a duplicate mold of the same bullet from the same manufacturer, but especially a bigger or smaller boolit or a change in cavity number or mold material), you'll need to learn what changes will be needed to cast good boolits, but hopefully the learning curve will be a lot shorter.

If you can buy the same alloy reliably, that's great. If not, knowing what its make up is and having the component metals yourself lets you make it as needed.

I tend to use only one alloy (that I keep a large supply of on hand, with more easily made) to make a lot of only one boolit, but if I mixed it up like a lot of us do, I'd probably follow the advice I read here to keep a casting log with pertinent notes the same way I keep a reloading log. That way you can consult your notes to make the desired alloy and know how to cast the selected boolit with the mold you also have notes on.

ETA: with my molds and alloy, I get the best boolits with the fewest rejects when the casts have the light grey matte appearance of your first pics. And I wholeheartedly agree with Dusty on the PID recommendation. No more repeated knob twiddling to tweak the melt temp up and down. The PID does the work, does it better than I can, and let's me keep my cadence and pay better attention to what the other factors that affect boolit quality and production.

[robg]

If your like me and cast quite fast have another mold different caliber fill one allow first one to cool as you fill the second one then cut the sprue and empty the first repeat gives time for mold to cool and you get more boolits in the same time !even got to using three two cavity molds at once.

[Stopsign32v]

Good grief...I just popped open the RCBS 3 die set and realized they didn't include a shell holder.

Now have to wait a day for the shell holder

[RED BEAR]

I think the cause of the dipper clogging up may be do to not skimming the top of the melt.
You have plenty of heat.

Don't water drop black powder bullets. They are plenty hard.
Lube with a soft BP lube - don't size. Just push them out of the cake. They very likely are not too large at 0.002 to 0.003" over.

Yes, a thermometer. BUT you don't need one yet if money is tight. You have already established a good number range setting on your pot.
A thermometer can be correct or off but still be valuable because it will read the temp YOU need next time.
Frosted bullets are not bad but you don't need to be that hot. Either slow down OR slightly turn down the pot.

DO NOT screw down the sprue plate screw tight. It will gall. The top plate should just swing and no more. The pressure of holding the dipper to the top of the sprue plate will keep the two very flat surfaces tight together when pouring.

When the sprue puddle becomes solid, take your welding gloved hand - place palm over the sprue plate and push down while twisting. The sprue will cut clean and you will have not worn the registration system (Pins) by banging the mold. They last a lot longer and stay a lot rounder that way.

Loading BP is a subject until itself. Easy but can be somewhat different than casting for smokeless.

+1 on this. When there is any trash in melt mine will clog to. Getting your alloy good and clean will help and you may also drill the pour hole out a little bigger.
And the spruce advice is good advice I was casting and as I started I thought the spruce was a little loose so I tightened a little. Cast for an hour and only got a handful of good bullets. Then it dawned on my there was a reason it was loose . Loosened it up some and perfect bullets . I will try the hand method for knocking the spruce loose.

[super6]

246278 I am learning to post pics please excuse this post! 44 mag 240 gr, No thermometer.The posts I had read are mostly about die heat and cadence.Tell me If you can make em better. And they are 14 16 bhn!

[Drew P]

I think you’re just showing off. Those are good boolits! Frost is desirable in my house. Because frost means no wrinkles.

[David2011]

Stopsign,

After reading all the posts I don't believe I read anything about fluxing. The little defects/inclusions could be eliminated by fluxing with sawdust. Other than that, they look good.

[Divil]

Those are keepers. I have and continue to cast grubbier looking bullets than those nice looking boolits.

[super6]

I had mentioned "Shaking the die as you pour" earlier in this thread and am a big believer that it helps with fill out. I intend to cobble together a hot plate with vibratory action soon.

[Geezer in NH]

I don't really have a way to weigh them past "really damn heavy!". Seriously you need a good scale IMHO to reload anything

[Texas by God]

Seriously you need a good scale IMHO to reload anythingAbsolutely- a balance beam one. Analog beats digital every time.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[leadhead]

Did you lube the crimp groove by mistake or am I looking at a different style
bullet?
Denny

[JM7.7x58]

Seriously you need a good scale IMHO to reload anything

I don’t know if the original poster has a scale or not. Yes scales are great to have. I own two and want more.

I will say this though. My main powder scale is a lee safety scale. It only goes to 100 grains. I later picked up an older (and beat up) Lyman 500 just so that I could weigh Boolits. Neither of these scales would work for weighing a “500 plus or minus “grain boolit. I don’t load BPC but I have been shooting cap and ball revolvers for over thirty years. I have always measured BP by volume. The OP may not win any long range competition Loading by volume, and not sorting his boolits. But he can most likely get some decent groups at 100 yards, be safe, and have fun.
JM