Hardness Stabilization Time

[milrifle]

I've been reading about how it takes several days for the hardness of a cast bullet to stabilize. At first, I thought people were talikng about quneched ones, but something I read said even air cooled got harder and need to go at least 10 days and such. One guy said he lets his sit 6 months.

My question is this. When do you size and gas check? Do I need to wait before sizing and gas checking? Or do I size and gas check soon after casting then let them sit?

[John Wayne]

I size the same day as cast, sometimes the next day. I don't gas check so can't answer that.

[nwellons]

I've found that I need to size pretty soon, usually do it the next day, with my air cooled boolits. I waited a week or two once and they were quite hard to size in my Lee die.

[lwknight]

It is definitely easier to size within a few days of casting than to wait.
They will be getting close to stable hardness in 2 weeks but its more like 6 weeks to be cured to where no more appreciable differences occur.

If you get some tough ones , case lube helps a lot.
I used the dillon spray lube. Its just lanolin cut with alcohol.

[largom]

First I don't make Hard boolits for most of my shooting. My alloy is 55% lead with 45% WW and a little tin added. My boolits are air cooled. I have made several hardness tests on my boolits on a weekly basis starting one week after casting. What I found was that the hardness increased every week until the end of the 4th week. I now age all of my boolits 4 weeks before using.
As for sizing and installing gas checks, I once sized and checked some 8mm boolits [long nose] the day after I cast them. The check seating and sizing operation fattened the boolits ogive to the point that they would not chamber. The same boolits aged 4 weeks did not deform. This is my experience, yours may differ.

Larry

[runfiverun]

all the above will be true.
i have sized new boolits only to have then grow a thou bigger as they aged.
if i water drop i like to size as soon as i can if they are gonna be sized down.
a lot of my boolits get barely scuffed by the sizer and just about don't offer enough resistance to seat gas checks.
i have to make notes for several of my molds so i remember to sweeten the alloy or pressure pour to get just enough diameter to avoid this.
or go the other way and soften the alloy to avoid fighting the sizer.

pay attention to the whole process.
from ww's laying on the highway to the muzzle of the gun and things will go 100% better in fit, accuracy, and termnal results.

[milrifle]

Thanks guys!

[Larry Gibson]

Also agree with all the above. I recommend a minimum of 24 hours with WQ bullets before size lube and use with 48 hours being better. I also recommend a minimum of 7 - 10 days, depending on alloy) for air cooled bullets before sizing, lubing and use (longer is better). Also agree that if the bullets are to be sized any appreciable amount then the sooner after casting the sizing the easier with less bullet distortion.

Bottom line is; it depends. Depends on alloy, how much to be sized and whether GC'd or PB'd. Best you do a little testing of your own to find what suits your needs.

Larry Gibson

[popper]

Pretty much agree with Larry, prep is much easier just after casting. I cast 98/2/0/.02% As 2 wks ago, loaded 2 days later and shot, everything was fine. Cast another bunch yesterday, sized an loaded today. Both were HT'd @ 450 and dumped in ice water, sized in the same sizer, the next day. Ran out of yesterday's CBs so I started to use those from before. Split 1 case and the rest(just a few before I quit) looked like guppied 9mm, in a 40SW. Very close to COWW/Pb alloy, grew in size (> .001) and got a LOT harder. I put 1 on a 5# steel weight and hit with a carpenter hammer, like driving a 6-8 penny nail. 80% dia, vs 60% dia. for new ones. Loaded same alloy for my 30 cal rifles and hope to get to test this week. So far my conclusion is that more than 2% Sb and any Sn (fill out was perfect for 165 40SW, RD311 & 308) is a waste for normal use. I have another experiment to add just a smidgeon of Sn for HV rifle but that's next month. Then I'll try reducing Sb to ~ 1% for 40SW. I test with near max and min loads.

[tmattox]

Can I "oven hard" 45-70 casts amd store them for a period of time before I resize and lube them ?

[runfiverun]

you can.
however if you size/check them then harden and want to lube later you'll just use the same sizer to just add lube.
oven hardening will make a good even batch of boolits.
but they will [or can be] very hard and sizing them down can be very difficult.