bullet drop material

[semtav]

I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseum, but I'm wondering what other people use to drop their bullets on when casting.
I used to use an old towel, but it was always getting full of lead, burnt etc.
lately just been dropping them on a wood bench, but I'm seeing an occasional dent in the base of bullets doing it that way.
( mostly casting large 45-70 type bullets)

[trapper9260]

Anything cotton that is thick if not I add layers.When it get to burn I just change it . That is what works for me .I use old socks and stack them.

[lightman]

I use an old towel, folded up. Theres no shortage of them at my house and I just replace the one I'm using when it gets burned.

[RU shooter]

Old folded up bath towel been using the same one for over two years .

[Conditor22]

Not sure what you're doing burning a towel and embedding lead in a towel. Guess I've been lucky, I've been using the same cotton bath towel for years.
I cut the sprues on one side of the pot, dump them back in the pot or in a pan then drop the boolits in the towel. Every few months I shake out and wash the towel

[JBinMN]

I do this in several ways. Water dropping regular boolits, I drop mine on a damp old towel or tshirt draped over a 5 gallon bucket & thru a hole in an old towel or old tshirt that has been just dampened with water( It is draped to create like a funnel to the hole in the middle) so it lands in the water with out any splashing to avoid the tinsel fairy effect.

When I am not water dropping, for regular boolits I have a dampened towel or tshirt placed in an old cake pan so that the boolits will drop & hit the slanted towel/tshirt & slide down the towel to where it is flat to keep them from banging into each other. The towel/tshirt is up & over the sides & one end of the pan with a10-12 inch chunk of 4x4, and needs something to weight it down so it doesn't move when the boolits drop, so I roll the towel/tshirt around the 4x4 atime or two and it slopes to the other end of the pan with layers of towel/tshirt are under the towel/tshirt creating the slope & the boolits end up in the far end of the pan on only a couple of layers of dampened cloth.

Lastly, when I am dropping 1 oz & 7/8 ounce slugs, since they are much heavier than my rifle & handgun boolits, I take a small sheet of plywood/OSB, put a couple of layers of corrugated cardboard cut to size for a "cushioned effect more than just the cloth layers, and prop them all on the 4x4 chunk slanting down into the pan & then lay the dampened cloth on that with a couple layers sloping down to a couple of layers in the pan, so they hit the cushioned plywood/OSB, roll down the sheet & end up in the other end of the pan.

I don't know if that explanation(s) can help form a picture in ones mind about what I am doing, but it is how I do it, it works for me, and I tried to explain it best I could, anyway.

I do know that I have not burned any cloth yet since I dampen it.

Anyway, hope that helps a bit.

G"luck! whatever ya decide to do in the future.
:)

[Dave W.]

I drop all mine into a 5 gallon bucket, half full of water, in order to alleviate the dent issue.

[BNE]

Just a couple of old kitchen towels on top of each other works well. Sprues go into a metal tray first.

[country gent]

I use cotton hand towels or "Bar" towels. A stack of 3-5 in a paint roller pan. I just lay them in on top of each other so the edges overlap the pans edges. Then when casting when the top towel gets full or enough in it I pick it up by the 4 corners and set it aside leaving the next ready to use. I cast heavy bullets and don't want dings from them Banging into each other.
Another is to make a small ramp with a denim surface and drop on it allowing the bullets to roll down to the wood surface

[nun2kute]

old cupboard door with a exercise/yoga matt over it and covered with an old flannel sheet stapled underneath to hold it all together.

[bmortell]

got an old leather welding coat for free

[semtav]

Thanks
I might try a scrap piece of leather from local saddlery and see how that works first.
Now that I have a bigger spot to cast, I do put the bullets on one side and the sprue on the other.
For a while my modified table saw wasn't big enough, thats why a lot of hot lead got on the towel.

[44Blam]

I use an old towel. Been using that same towel for years...
It was not long ago that the wife came out because she smelled "something burning". I told her it was just some sawdust I was fluxing my melt with... She didn't believe me so I brought her out and said "is this the smell?" and she said "yes. AND WHY IS MY TURTLE TOWEL OUT HERE?!?"

Ooops...

[retread]

Not sure what you're doing burning a towel and embedding lead in a towel. Guess I've been lucky, I've been using the same cotton bath towel for years.
I cut the sprues on one side of the pot, dump them back in the pot or in a pan then drop the boolits in the towel. Every few months I shake out and wash the towel

My experience also. I have been using the same terry cloth towels for years and have yet to burn them.

[GregLaROCHE]

Now days I always water drop my boolits. I Used to drop them on a towel, but stopped when some of my 140gn x 6.5mm turned out a little distorted. The alloys I use are fine when water dropped. If I want softer, I use pure lead. Don’t make the mistake of taking out culls and throwing them back into the pot before they are dry.

[bmortell]

for me my bullets gets dents when I water drop from landing on each other, even when the water is a foot deep. I need to make something that goes in the bucket to have them roll gently or something

[JBinMN]

for me my bullets gets dents when I water drop from landing on each other, even when the water is a foot deep. I need to make something that goes in the bucket to have them roll gently or something

A bundled up wad of cloth in the bottom of the waterbucket will help. So will a dampened cloth placed across the top hanging down into the bucket with a slight funnel shape to it and a small slit or hole cut in it. The boolits drop out of the mold, hit the cloth on top, roll to the slit in the middle by the weight of the boolits themselves & then drop into the water where they then hit the cloth bundled up in the bottom of the water bucket & disperse whichever way they go, slowing down the drop to the bottom of the bucket or into the bundled up cloth.

The "funnel shape" is not severe, just enough to keep the boolits from doing any "bounce" off the top. If you keep having the cloth across the top sagging deeper into the bucket, then get a bungee that goes around the bucket( or use duct tape) to hold the cloth in place. For me, usually the damp cloth on the outside of the bucket is enough to hold tension on the part of the cloth that is across the bucket, but the heavier the boolits get, the more sag in the cloth with the slit/hole, so sometimes it is just having to put extra grip with a bungee or the like.

It has worked for me & the cloth across the top prevents any splashing of water "out" of the bucket, an d the possibility of a tinsel fairy is reduced.

Try it, it is easy & cheap.

Or do not try, but it is up to you to decide what to do.

[Petrol & Powder]

Thanks
I might try a scrap piece of leather from local saddlery and see how that works first.
Now that I have a bigger spot to cast, I do put the bullets on one side and the sprue on the other.
For a while my modified table saw wasn't big enough, thats why a lot of hot lead got on the towel.

I've been using an old cotton bath towel folded up so it's about 4 layers thick. Works fine.
As for the cut sprues, I have an old cookie sheet for the sprues. I cut the lip off of one corner so the sprues can just be poured back into the pot as needed.
I experimented with the placement of the tray and towel. I'm right handed and ended up placing both the tray and towel on the right side of the pot with the tray in between the pot and the towel.
When I tried placing the tray on one side of the pot and the towel on the other - there's was too much movement. It is more efficient to place both on the same side of the pot.

[gwpercle]

The old folded bath towel placed in a long low tray or cardboard box , has worked for 50 years , cost me nothing , recycles something that would be discarded , when the towel no longer can serve as drop pad then it gets trashed .
Always more of them around at little or no cost...just leave the wife's "fancy guest towels" alone !

Now that I have a Lee Magnum Melter with 20# capacity the sprues are cut over and go into a low metal pan or cardboard box next to the pot .

Right now I have the sprue cutting box to my left , pot in middle and padded towel/boolit box to my right.

After reading some of these posts I might try another set up , cutting down on wasted movement helps .
Gary

[edp2k]

for me my bullets gets dents when I water drop from landing on each other, even when the water is a foot deep. I need to make something that goes in the bucket to have them roll gently or something

I have the same problem.
I was considering using a piece of plywood about 6 or 8" wide and about 12 or 14" long and then attaching at an angle
to a flat base and a support strut to end up making a kind of "ski ramp" and submerging that in my 5 gal pail with ingots on it to hold it down:
side view (crude :)
250397

I would cover it with a piece of towel or better yet a piece of soft foam padding like cut from a yoga mat.

[Slugster]

I use a couple of old bath towels, folded, nothing fancy but gets the job done

[country gent]

Edp2k, make your frame open in the center and the ramp portion from a pants leg from old jeans leaving it sag a little in the middle. A frame from 1X1 pine and the denim cover stapled down will be lighter easier to handle and more useable.

[edp2k]

CG, good idea :)

[kevin c]

Folds of terry cloth towel for padding, a cotton surgical towel on top of a small wooden board with raised sides. This combo is smooth, flat and firm enough that the casts will roll easily for inspection and then can be pushed off the landing zone. When too full the board can be tilted into a pan, with the sides preventing spillage.

[William Yanda]

"a paint roller pan" Now that is brilliant. Thanks Country Gent.

[fredj338]

I use an old terry towel. I only drop the bullets about 3-4" so even a single layer is enough cushion. Haven't burned the towel in like 15y worth of casting?

[NoZombies]

I use a silicone baking sheet with a raised pyramid pattern.

[facetious]

The paint roller pan and a towel is what i used for years. For water dropping float a sponge in the water, drop the boolit on the wet sponge it will cool as the sponge rolls over and drops the boolit to the bottom.

[clum553946]

I put an old towel in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, fill it 1/2 way with water & have at it.

[Mike W1]

Mine drop onto some 1/2" sponge material that my wife covered with denim. Years old and never a burn. My bullet catch boxes have are adjustable for angle and drop into boxes to the rear when they're cool enough. Sprues go into the boxes on the front and when I'm finished casting for the day go back into the pots. I fill the pots with those and enough ingots that when I next cast, once they're up to temp, I just flux with beeswax and I'm in business.

Note the FLAT aluminum floor on the pot. It's shown with the additional riser for my Lee DC's which are not as tall as my Lyman DC's.
Rounded front edge makes sweeping drips into the little boxes below them and easily emptied back into the pot as sessions end.

250483

[15meter]

I use a Goodwill cookie pan with 1" sides. Raise one end about 1-1/2" and line with cardboard. Drop the boolits on the high side and they roll slowly down to the low end. By the time they get to the bottom they're cool enough they don't dent.

I keep a 3" putty knife handy to pile up the semi-cooled boolits and give me more room. I'm done casting before I run out of room for boolits. I don't cast thousands at a time. Hands/back/hip won't take it.


Same piece of cardboard has lasted me for years.