Cast Boolit progression from beginning to end

[Ohio Rusty]

I was casting up a few last evening since it was nice outside (rare Ohio Nov. weather), and a great day to have the garage door open and melting lead. One of the booilts I was dropping from the mould was my 150 grain hollowpoints. I have pics of the different rejects, and I realized these are the progression of the boolits from the beginning of the casting session to the end. Boolits were cast from Straight wheelweights.
In the pic from left to right....
First: Lead and or mould still too cold, wrinkles.
Second: Base filled out Ok but lead still a tad too cold as the nose didn't fill. Still shootable for targets though.
Third: Good Boolit .... fillied in, perfect base, nice and shiney. I cast about 70 of these.
Fourth: Base starting to frost, nose still OK, mould starting to get too hot
Fifth: Lead getting hotter and less in pot, mould too hot, bullets frosty and a slight crack starts to form in the nose from the hot lead starting to crystalize when cooling. Nose becoming brittle instead of maleable.
Sixth: Lead low in pot and too hot, mould too hot. Boolits are completely frosted. Lead has crystalized in the mould, causing the boolits to become brittle. The noses of the hollowpoint crack away like glass.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/OhioRusty/CastBoolits.jpg

I thought the progression was interesting and wanted to add be a sharable story of my casting session last night.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[lwknight]

The frosted boolits will be softer because they are cooling slower.

Molds cool the boolits faster when not so hot. casting too hot just heats up your mold faster.

[jnovotny]

what?????

[Shiloh]

looks like a crack in the 4th one also. If mine, I'd put them in the culls and shoot 'em anyway.

Shiloh

[geargnasher]

Interesting progression. Glad someone thought to post pics of the cycle.

Not to be a buzzkill but isn't that alloy a bit brittle for effective hollow points?

I have good luck with 20:1 alloy, Lead&Brass.com Range Scrap (~2% Sb) with 2% tin added, and 50/50 WW Pure lead with 2% tin added (same as L& B alloy). These last 2 can be heat treated to about 15-16 bhn and till expand without the nose disintegrating. The 20: 1 can't be pushed quite as fast.

Gear

[454PB]

To my critical eye, only the fifth boolit is a keeper. The bases are rounded on the first four.

[lwknight]

I smashed a 7% antimony boolit with a hammer till it was about the size of a quarter and the sides did not split. It was very mallable.
I cant guess what it would take to make a boolit that brittle.

[montana_charlie]

To my critical eye, only the fifth boolit is a keeper. The bases are rounded on the first four.
Agreed.
As a matter of fact, the base on Number 3 (the 'good' bullet) is the worst of all of them, on the corner which touches the table top.
CM

[rob45]

I smashed a 7% antimony boolit with a hammer till it was about the size of a quarter and the sides did not split. It was very mallable.
I cant guess what it would take to make a boolit that brittle.

Did that bullet have any tin in it?

[AZ-Stew]

I'll bet you'll find that the cracked noses are caused by not letting the boolit cool long enough in the mould. Your alloy is still hot and soft. Try again, but this time don't be in such a hurry to open the mould and get the boolit out.

Regards,

Stew

[jonk]

For plinking I'd shoot any but the last.

For serious work though I find fault with all of them, unless that 'split' in the 4th is an optical illusion.

Nothing wrong with frosted bullets, you're just opening the mold too soon.

[leftiye]

Sounds (looks I should say) like your mold got hot enough, but that the bottom of the mold was too hot and the hollow points got damaged coming off of the nose pin - not cool enough to hold up, Like AZstew said.

[lwknight]

Yes, The mashed boolit has 2.5 to 3 percent tin. It took some doing to beat it that flat too.

I'm betting on the "taking it out of the mold too fast" theory.

[maxvauderk]

I am just getting in to this primarilyfor my ruger O.A. and the mold just came the other day 220gr rn, double cavity, my question is do experienced folks perfer the single or double cavity molds? Mine is double, did I buy the right thing?

[lwknight]

I was OK with a single till I tried a double.
I thought I liked a double cabity mold, till I got a six banger.. Git er done!!

[MtGun44]

The 'frosted are softer' comment is incorrect.

Bill