Cast weight keepers ?

[myg30]

I didnt want to ride on Sailman's thread below " Warmer vs Colder" pertaining to cast weight keepers vs re melts.
Im fairly new to casting, mostly pistol, some rifle. My question of interest is do you keep within a certain weight range ? +/- .5g ? 1g,2g? I know this depends on the weight of boolit to start and the type of shooting your doing. Powder charge varies with boolit weight so what is the limit ? I guess thats my question, how far off do you let it go ?? Some powders are more forgiving than others too!
My main concern is SAFTY, not so much on accuracy at this time.
Mike

[mooman76]

Saftey really isn't a factor here, it's about accuracy. I don't weigh them, I just keep what looks good. Some folks weigh them that want better accuracy but that mostly pertains to rifle. It doesn't affect pistol as much except at longer distances.

[runfiverun]

i once worried about bullet weight in my 223 i sat and sorted bullets out in .1 gr variations.
never could detect a difference in group size between the lot,or a mixed lot.
tried it again with cast later, i like the heavier groups of weighed boolits.
but once again, really not enough difference in group size for me to worry about.
if i were shooting competition, or shooting light [read 50 gr 22 boolits] then i'd weight sort.
even in a 44 by the time it gets out the end of the bbl 5 grs isn't gonna make much difference in a 240 gr boolit, b.t.w. 5 grs is what percentage of 240,,, 2% or so.

[Bret4207]

Same a R5R, I tried segregating. The difference, if any, was too small to detect for the time spent.

[Shiloh]

Proper filled boolits with sharp definition and a complete base are my parameters. I seperate into lots. There is the light, heavy and mid lot. The bulk of the boolits fall into the mid lot.
Then they get culled.

I'm less fussy with pistol boolits.

Shiluh

[theperfessor]

I find my typical variation in weight in well filled out bullets is less (percentage wise) than the typical variation in weight from the manufacturers "listed" weight.

I have many molds that deviate in weight by +/- 3% or more from the listed weight but drop bullets within +/-1% from the average weight. Since I'm shooting my alloy in my gun the safety issue seems to be finding a safe load for the actual weight of the bullet.

If someone is close enough to getting in trouble that a 1% heavier bullet causes problems, then maybe a little rethinking of loading philosophy might be in order.

[10mmShooter]

Mike,

Just to clarify, I shoot and cast pistol bullets only(my disclaimer) not rifle. I cast 10mm/.38/.44. I dont weight all my bullets I'll cast 500-1000 of a given caliber and they must pass a quick visual inspection during casting, If the bases are not fully filled out I pitch back into the pot. I'll randomlly grab 25 from each caliber for weighing for each caliber for quality control. My weight ranges are 202-206g for my 10 and 254-259 for the 44 and 153 to 156 for the .38 as you see my weight range is around 2% variation, which just fine for me, if you must know the standard deviation is typically less that 1 g for my cast bullets.

I do not weigh all my bullets any more, for me its just a waste of time. Such a relatively small <2% variation is more acceptable for my shooting/accuracy. I shoot typically at 50ft NRA B-3 targets. Six rounds in the 10 rings round is fine me in any of the 3 calibers. If I take it out 25yds. I can keep them all in the 9 ring. For my 40 year eyes thats fine, At 25 yrds max range, the small weigth variations are not important to my shooting, my revovlers all out shoot me now, I'm the weak link not the cast bullets.

As for safety, you should always work up your loads from the low end of the powder charge range. Such as a pet load for my 10 is AA#5 the charge range is 6.3 to 7 grs. Always start low and come up looking for signs of excessive pressure such as hard extractions or smashed primers. If you only have a starting charge of 7grains of Green Dot for a 250g 44, you should start at least 10% below the stated charge. As you may note my 44 bullets weight 254+ a few grains of bullet weight will not get you in trouble. BUT a few grains of POWDER will, just start on the low end you will fine, Also remember case overall length is much more important if seat a bullet too deeply you can really ramp up the pressure in the case, always follow the powder manufactuers recommended seating depth, if you go shorter than they recommend you are increasing the pressure in the case.