Don't tell anyone I have been dipping ..

[Digger]

Been using a lee bottom pour for the last few years , picked up a Lyman P-mag 20 dipper for a price I could not refuse ...and found a RCBS ladle and did a little here and there , nothing serious.
Sunday I wanted to try out a new NOE 311299 ( delivery is amazingly fast with that outfit !)
Already have a NOE 311365 , what purty little things come out of that one is impressive for sure.
This time I got serious and eventually settled into a pattern , Wow ! talk about consistency , ... as I dip , sometimes I also stir with the ladle , found it helps keep the top layer centered.
Picked up speed after a while , settling into a routine , found I could drop boolits almost at the same pace as a bottom pour.
I also got into the habit of cutting the sprue over the pot instead of the pan next to it as the actual sprue size is little more than buttons more or less.
The results speak for them selves with that nice little two cav. NOE .. quality boolits next to some 299's from a lyman mold I have been using to date.
Dipping has proven to me the quality of consistency as you pour compared to a bottom pour changing flow rate as the pot goes lower , pain in the $%@# only half and adding more ingots (prewarmed) but still waiting for temp standard.
Like the bottom P. but slowly converting over to dipping .
Maybe use the bottom for pistol and the dipping for rifle ...
digger

[dromia]

As a rule of thumb for me .45 cal and over dip, under .45 cal bottom pour.

There are exceptions like 200-250 gn .45 boolits bottom pour fine, hollow point and hollow base of any calibre seem to prefer dipping.

Like all things we test and try and use what works for us.

[Janoosh]

+1 on what Dromia has said. I dip .375 (38/55) and up. Bottom pour .358 and under. I'm going to try my 358315 dipped for my 35 Rem next. I use a Lyman ladle.

[detox]

The ladle method adds correct amount of fill pressure for verygood fill. You can also adjust fill pressure by filling ladle with more or less melt. When pouring I shake ladle and mold together while filling.

I also get good results using the bottom pour...just more tricky.

[Janoosh]

So true. I use a dipper for Lee 458/405 hollow point and hollow base and get good fillout with no real problems. I find I'm more contientious when dipping than when I bottom pour.

[Wayne Smith]

And just what are you using .211's in??

[Jack Stanley]

I have one thirty caliber mold that refuses to produce good when using a bottom pour so it gets ladle fed . Another mold sorta depends on the weather or how it feels I guess most of the time bottom pour is fine .

In the forty-five lineup an LBT double cavity that runs three hundred fifty grains accepts bottom pour and a single cavity Lyman that goes over four hundred prefers the ladle . It ain't a sin to use either ladle or bottom pour , what is downright wrong is to continue making bad bullets without trying different things .

Jack

[Mk42gunner]

It ain't a sin to use either ladle or bottom pour , what is downright wrong is to continue making bad bullets without trying different things .

Very good advice there, Jack.

Robert

[dromia]

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

[Digger]

And just what are you using .211's in??

OOPS , my bad .... "3"11's ! .....

[sergeant69]

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

like voting for obama et al???

[Jack Stanley]

like voting for obama et al???

Yep !! that's right !

Jack

[dromia]

like voting for obama et al???

Or just voting!

[Pakprotector]

' cutting the sprue over the pot ', now there is a useful one...that being getting each sprue back into the pot as soon as they're made. I suspect I will continue to leave it sit on the mold until ready to pour( 25 auto mold ), but that ought to cut down on the interruption time created by dropping a pile of big sprues back in to re-melt. Thanks again...
cheers,
Douglas