Water dropping v/s air cooling.

[Trey45]

I sure hope ya'll have a little input for this.
I water drop everything I cast, I only cast for a few calibers though. 40SW, 45ACP, 45 Colt and 357 Mag. My alloy is mostly straight ww, but I will occasionally use a 50/50 ww/pure ratio. My question is as follows:

Is there anything wrong in water dropping everything I cast? The reason I water drop is to ensure I have a decent hardness, but am I going to really need that hardness for the calibers I cast for? Everything is being fired from pistols with the exception of the 40SW which gets fired from pistols as well as a carbine.

It's not like it's a huge time consuming effort to water drop, instead of dropping the boolits onto a towel, I just drop them in a 5 gallon bucket of water. I don;t have a hardness tester, I mostly rely on the old thumbnail test. I have virtually no leading in anything I shoot my boolits out of.

[Jeffery8mm]

I water drop everthing. Mostly cause I hate hot bullets laying around!!! OUCH thats hot, da#@it!!
Jeff

[waksupi]

I water drop everthing. Mostly cause I hate hot bullets laying around!!! OUCH thats hot, da#@it!!
Jeff


Old rule in the blacksmithing shops. If it ain't wet, it's hot!

[leadman]

I water quench everything I cast also. I have had much more consistent results as far as accuracy and no leading problems. Firing multiple guns in the same caliber and different power ranges can be a problem trying to keep non water quenched and water quenched boolits seperated. This applies to guns like the 38 Special 5 shot J frame, 357 magnum in revolvers and lever actions.
Water quenched works best in all so far and not hard to do.

[Shiloh]

It's just as easy to drop them in bucket of water.
Waksupi's post says it all

[1Shirt]

Water drop is convenient, I don't get burned by mistake, and I water drop everything.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[captaint]

Lacking ability/confidence, I still have to look at recently cast slugs to see if they're OK. Once I get decent at this I will drop everything in water.

[Trey45]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. It seems I'm on the right track here, I'll just continue to water drop everything I cast, prevents burns, and promotes a harder boolit than air cooled of same alloy.

[randyrat]

I have one question burning my mind "How long does water dropping last?" One year ,,,,two years,,,,, or more????? I've never tested this.

[jdgabbard]

I have one question burning my mind "How long does water dropping last?" One year ,,,,two years,,,,, or more????? I've never tested this.

I'd like to know this too. I've heard as little as 3-4 months. But I usually stock up and cycle my stock. Shooting the oldest first. But I may not get to shoot what I have in the next 6 months...so gimme some input please.

Btw, I only recently (like last casting session) started water dropping. All my ACWW boolits never leaded at all.

[Trey45]

I wish I had an answer for you, but my boolits don't last long enough for a comprehensive answer. I cast, water drop, age for a few days to a week, then lube and size, then they usually end up somewhere in the backstop of the outdoor range I go to shortly after that.

[454PB]

They start to resoften in about 6 to 8 months, but it is a slow process.

I've mentioned here before that I recently hardness tested some water dropped boolits I cast in 1983 and they are still at 16BHN.

I'd recommend you size them quickly after casting. If you wait too long, they harden up and are tough to push through. I size them the same day they are cast.

[jdgabbard]

Last batch I waited about 4 days. I did notice that they were a little harder to push through... I thought it was because the flash cooling of them caused the crystaline structure to push the diameter out just a bit. Shows what I know...always learning.

[HeavyMetal]

I started water dropping in the early 80's. This was done for two reasons, first for what ever additional hardness I could get and second to have them cold enough to work with as soon as I stopped casting!

This was back in the day when I was shooting IPSC and needed lots of ammo fast. Waiting for the boolits to air cool enough to handle colud be as long as 2 hours in July heat here in SoCal. With water cooling I could have 1000 sized and boxed ready to load in that 2 hours plus have time left over.

Water dropping works for you and I'm a big beliver in the old saying if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[Shiloh]

They start to resoften in about 6 to 8 months, but it is a slow process.

I've mentioned here before that I recently hardness tested some water dropped boolits I cast in 1983 and they are still at 16BHN.

I'd recommend you size them quickly after casting. If you wait too long, they harden up and are tough to push through. I size them the same day they are cast.

I'm glad you posted this. Thanks

16BHN after 26 years still seems pretty darn hard to me. Certainly hard enough for my purposes. What were they when dropped??

I've often wondered. I cast and water drop. I cast for several days, get piles of different boolits, then spend spring, summer, and fall shooting them. I have some boolits from a few years ago, that seem just as hard as when I dropped them. I have no way to test.

I also size and lube as needed. There are posts that say if one sizes and lubes after about 2 weeks, the part that was swaged by the size die will soften. Again, I have no way to tell. They all shoot the same and there is no difference, at least on the targets.

Shiloh

[Nora]

I'm a firm believer in water dropping every thing I cast. Not only do I agree with the thought of not getting burned but also do it for the no leading that I get. To day is a good example. I got a new Lee C press to put on my range box, so of coarse had to try it out. I was shooting C312-185-1R's with 2 coats of LLA threw my M39 to see how fast I could send them with out GC's and not get leading. I stopped at 2200fps. 70 rds and nothing more than an occasional patch of Hoppe's #9 to clear the powder residue out, and check for leading, I still had none at all. It would have been pointless to continue due to the patterns it was printing. The rifle will do sub inch with Match Kings all day long @ 100yrds, and 2 1/2" with properly loaded CB's. But I will draw the line at minute of garbage can lid (still no key holes or fragmented hits) with the current primer situation to continue going faster.

[NuJudge]

It should take a geologic age for them to get back to dead soft. The process of softening should go very slowly, and get slower as it progresses.

CDD

[kbstenberg]

Where can i go to learn how to water drop bullets? I tried word search. nothing
This site is adicting! An i am thankfull to all of you for bring helpfull an tolerant, of all my entry level questions. meny thanks kevin

[dabsond]

I just fill a 5 gallon bucket with tap water, room temp. I have a towel in the bottom to make it softer. Just empty the mold over the bucket. Make sure you hold your mold high enough that no water will splash up on the mold. That could be bad when filling the mold again.

[MT Gianni]

I water dropped early then found I got better results in most pistols and many rifles with air cooled. If you only do one you will never know if another way is better.

[Trey45]

Where can i go to learn how to water drop bullets? I tried word search. nothing
This site is adicting! An i am thankfull to all of you for bring helpfull an tolerant, of all my entry level questions. meny thanks kevin


Like the other guy said, just open your mould right over the 5 gallon bucket of tap water, I have been told by a long time boolit caster that unless you hear that boolit hiss and spit when it hits the water, all you've done is drown a boolit and not hardned it. This means you'll need a fairly regular cadence with your casting to water dropping to ensure the heat is still hot enough to create that hiss and sizzle when it hits water.
Keep your mould high enough that water doesn't reach it when it splashes, and low enough to prevent the boolit froim cooling too much as it falls. It aint hard to do and once you get a good cadence going you can get a decent batch of boolits in no time flat.
Here's what I do, keep in mind I'm new to this casting thing, so if there's a better way and someone knows it, listen to them, not me,
Fill mold, count to 5, or wait till sprue puddle goes from silver to white, knock or push sprue open, hold mould over bucket and quickly inspect boolit bases for roundness and uniformity, open mould handles and either jiggle or lightly tap handle hinge with wooden dowel to drop boolits into water, repeat several hundred more times.
Remove bullets from water and inspect bases and bands, reject the bad ones and place the good ones on a towel to dry. Some will say to lube and size immediately, I lube and size as I need boolits to reload.
And YES! This place is very addicting, especially with all the enablers around here :razz:

[sqlbullet]

I have cast several thousand water dropped bullets. I have about 500 air-cooled on my bench (.401 SWC TL 175 gr) that I intend to test at some point.

If you have issues with leading or accuracy with hard bullets, look first to size (slug that bore) and second to peak pressure. I have issues in 10mm with hard bullets and light loads using blue dot. However, if I duplicate the velocity with Unique (faster powder, higher pressure peak) the same bullets shoot fine.

[sheepdog]

In short water dropping might not always be best because your bullet base will also be harder. This will mean less gas seal as the base has a harder time spreading and possibly more cup pressure. Is it bad? Probably not but do keep in mind theres almost always a trade off.

[roylowell]

Seems like I remember reading that air cooling will result in uneven hardness because the top cools faster in the air than the bottom laying on a pad. Has anybody noticed or had problems with this?

[felix]

True, but also keep in mind that the hardening activity required to the job stops at about 300 degrees or a little less. What counts is the speed of getting from 450 to 300; faster the harder. So, to speed up the reaction for realized use, wait until the boolits are room temp to be absolutely sure, and then put the boolits into the oven at 200 degrees for several hours. Make sure this oven enhancing temp does not approach 300. ... felix

[kbstenberg]

Hello to all brother casters.
How do you drop bullets out of a mold into a water container without some moisture getting on the molds?

[eli]

I suggest you use a old denim pants leg, held open/up by some wire at the top, tacked to your bench and and let the bullets slide down the leg into the bucket.

[waksupi]

Hello to all brother casters.
How do you drop bullets out of a mold into a water container without some moisture getting on the molds?

I get a drop or two on them occassionaly. It evaporates almost immediately. I have poured lead into a cavity with some moisture. It pops a bit, but has never did what I would call explode. I guess lead into water, is better than water, into lead. Kinda like adding lye and water together.

[454PB]

Shiloh:

Those 1983 boolits were cast from WW alloy. I had no tester back then, but I would guess the unquenched boolits were 12 BHN. All the WW alloy I'm using now tests 11 to 12 BHN.