THis right here is what I do as well. Plus size after not before, waste of time at least for every boolit I have done.
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Welcome to the club :)
I second the suggestion to not water drop. Not needed with PC. I size before and after with most of my molds cause they are a bit oversize for PC. Easier on my arm :)
I use silicone baking sheets instead of foil or paper. They last a long time and I have found you can even scrape off old PC 'globs'. Mine have more than 100 cycles on them so far.
2 reasons not to water drop from the mold if you are going to be Pc'ing, 1. You will temper them, so water dropping from the mold is a waste of time but water dropping after PC will harden them 2. Putting them on a cloth towel instead keeps them from any contamination that you might get from water dropping and waiting for them to dry.
I PC the same day or next then size when I get time.
I forgot to add, I do quench after powder coating to get my hardness.. I left that major part out, my bad.
I’m a big advocate of PC, but you can push boolits pretty fast with LLA and gas checks. I tumble lube, let dry, then size while putting on the gas check and then tumble again. I stand up my PC boolits and got tired of my skinny boolits falling over.
Dont be fooled here. Choosing to quench is COMPLETELY DEPENDANT upon the hardnes that you want.
Quenching AFTER coat simply KEEPS that (closer then air cool) hardness. This is tested and factual no assumptions.
Now NOT quenching after bake will give you a softer overall result. Conversely you can harden a alloy with much longer baking times and a quench. But a relatively (shortish 20min) does a NICE JOB SOFTENING a bullet! (If air cooled after)
As a rule I rarely quench out if the mold. (Water drop) as I prefer to mix the alloy I need.
Again as a rule I quench out of bake to retain that hardness. BUT handgun HP, always get a AIR COOL as harder ore brittle is farthest thing I want.
So know the factual reasons to quench or not.
Dont trust me, im just a guy on the internet. DO THIS AND TEST FOR YOURSELF! I DID!
CW
Are Bo bullets different than other cast bullets or is the the title meant to confuse old guys into wondering why someone would cast and powder coat "body odor"? :kidding:
But seriously, some times the use of abbreviations and/or acronyms only create confusion. Says an old retired Air Traffic Controller who spent 35 years immersed in the world of acronyms. Quiz question: what does the acronym RADAR stand for?