Somebody Please Explain Their Reasons For Water Dropping

[Foto Joe]

I shoot pretty much only low pressure rounds, 45 Colt, 45ACP, occasionally 44 SPC and 38 SPC. Currently I cast using only COWW. For what reason would I want to or not want to water drop my boolits?

Does water dropping have any effect on size, i.e. do they shrink measurably when quenched in water?

I'm assuming that water dropping does have effect on hardness but how much on COWW cast boolits?

[gimling]

Have you had any issues to date with your cast bullets?? Water dropping basicly hypercools the lead causing it to be harder, personally I water drop my bullets because most of the scrap I come across is almost pure lead, BHN of 5-7 after water dropping in ice water I get 10.5-13 BHN, does nothing to their size. I shot about 30-40 rounds I made for my 40 SW which is higher pressure round, and had no issues. COWW I think is already in the neighborhood of 14BHN if you get them to hard then they wont mushroom like you would want them to IMO.

[runfiverun]

about 50% harder.

if you got a whole pile of lead and wanted to use it up, but had nothing but those ww's you could mix them and then water drop them to make up the hardness you need, and have the malleability of the alloy too.

[RoyEllis]

Go to the bottom of the page, there's a link to "Cast Bullet Notes, LASC.US" it will take you to more information than I can even think of to type & will give you info on boolit alloys, hardness, and alot of why's & wherefor's it would take weeks to type out in this thread. Get you a tall glass of sweet tea, you'll be reading for quite a while.
Short answer though, for what you're loading right now you don't need to water drop & unless you're really pushing them boolits fast (for those cartridges) you can use 50/50 WW & pure lead with a little added tin and be well served.

[Foto Joe]

I'll add one more little query into this just for grins. What purpose would annealing serve?

[runfiverun]

annealing makes lead softer.
however you can't make it softer than the original alloy.
you can make it harder, then draw it back to a lower bhn, but not lower than the original alloy.

[williamwaco]

I have shot a zillion bullets cast from clip on wheel weights in revolvers and pistols.

I tried water cooling just to see and I can see no advantage to it.

It does harden the bullets, but clip on wheel weights are already plenty hard.

[btroj]

I do it to get a harder bullet from a lower Sb alloy. It gives me hard, tough bullets. It also keeps me from having a pile of hot bullets sitting next to me.

It is just what I do.

Water dropping isn't for everyone but then again, neither is casting. It isn't right, isn't wrong, it just is.

[357maximum]

You have no need to waterdrop with the cart/cals you listed.

I waterdrop so that I can toughen and get good accuracy using more mallable alloys (50/50 ww/pure) for HUNTING purposes for the most part. I also waterdrop special +copper alloys for boolits I intend to treat just like them copper wrapped thingies in rifles at 50-60 k-psi+.

[MtGun44]

+1 on William's post. Tried it, found no benefit, quit. Full power mag loads
with air cooled wwts works fine for all my pistol needs.

Bill

[Boyscout]

One alloy two different BHN's is why I do it. I like to feed my semi-auto something a little harder than COWW. I can turn 15 BHN into 22 BHN by dropping it in water right out of the tap and I don't drop direct as I pick up, check and drop. It slows my pace down and keeps my molds from overheating.

[Any Cal.]

I water drop because it is faster. You don't have to keep pushing bullets over on a towel, or carefully open the handles, just open the handles over the bucket and cast some more! That is using 3-6 cav aluminum molds, and turning the heat down as the mold heats up.

With 6-8" water in a bucket you can drop the hot boolits in from waist high with no deformation. Why would you mess with air cooling boolits?

[RobS]

I do it to get a harder bullet from a lower Sb alloy. It gives me hard, tough bullets. It also keeps me from having a pile of hot bullets sitting next to me.

It is just what I do.

Water dropping isn't for everyone but then again, neither is casting. It isn't right, isn't wrong, it just is.

+1.........

[mdi]

I water drop because it is faster. You don't have to keep pushing bullets over on a towel, or carefully open the handles, just open the handles over the bucket and cast some more! That is using 3-6 cav aluminum molds, and turning the heat down as the mold heats up.

With 6-8" water in a bucket you can drop the hot boolits in from waist high with no deformation. Why would you mess with air cooling boolits?

HeHe...My reasons are exactly the opposite. I drop my bullets from the mold directly on a folded up towel. When they are cool (about 1/2 hr. later) they are ready for the next step. With water dropping I'd have to bring a bucket of water into the room, drop from waist height (or rig up some sort of stand for the bucket) dry the bullets before the next operation and get rid of "lead poisoned water" (JK). For me, more hassle than it's worth as I've never needed any WW alloy to be harder than stock for my boolits, standard and magnum...

[MtGun44]

+1 on mdi!

Bill

[zidave]

I water drop to harden my range scrap lead.
I am also uncomfortable having a big pile of hot boolits next to me. I usually don't lube my boolits right after casting so there's plenty of time for them to dry.

[BAGTIC]

I water drop but use a lot more than 6-8 inches of water. I tie a piece of heavy cloth that has a slit in it across the top of the Pail. When I drop the bullet hits the cloth which slows it down and then slides through the opening into the water. That way every bullet has the same drop height into the water and the cloth prevents any splash back.

[jimb16]

I see absolutely no reason to water drop my pistol boolits;HOWEVER, rifle boolits are a different matter.

[Changeling]

+1.........

+2 (When the correct elements are in the lead mixture).

[montana_charlie]

I water drop my bullets because most of the scrap I come across is almost pure lead, BHN of 5-7 after water dropping in ice water I get 10.5-13 BHN, does nothing to their size.

That certainly is not 'pure lead'.