Cast bullet uniformity

[jednorris]

I am shooting a 405gr. .45 cal. Valient cast bullet in my .45/70 and I am concerned about them. The bearing surface is fine but the ogive has creases that I wonder might decrease accuracy. The bullets have a weight range of 410.8 to 417.7 but I am weighing and shooting them in groups. I segregated them into .2/10th grain piles but wonder if all cast lubed bullets vary this much and what should be an exceptable range. Give me some input.
Jed

[largom]

Small creases in the boolit ogive may not hurt, depends how bad. Your boolit weight variation is much to large which suggests that your casting pace is not consistent or your alloy/mould temp. is to low. Just my 2 cents worth.

Larry

[jednorris]

Small creases in the boolit ogive may not hurt, depends how bad. Your boolit weight variation is much to large which suggests that your casting pace is not consistent or your alloy/mould temp. is to low. Just my 2 cents worth.

Larry

These are factory cast bullets

[jsizemore]

I am shooting a 405gr. .45 cal. Valient cast bullet in my .45/70 and I am concerned about them. The bearing surface is fine but the ogive has creases that I wonder might decrease accuracy. The bullets have a weight range of 410.8 to 417.7 but I am weighing and shooting them in groups. I segregated them into .2/10th grain piles but wonder if all cast lubed bullets vary this much and what should be an exceptable range. Give me some input.
Jed

This is why we cast our own boolits. Well, most of us anyway.

[MT Chambers]

I only weigh and sort cast bullets that are gonna be used in my more accurate bolt rifles, eg: BPCR rifles and bench guns, most of my leverguns can't tell a weight difference.

[cajun shooter]

I would suggest that you try purchasing your bullets from another company if they have that much of a spread. We have a lot of current day bullet makers that are new and may not be up to standards. Later David

[40-82 hiker]

I am shooting a 405gr. .45 cal. Valient cast bullet in my .45/70 and I am concerned about them. The bearing surface is fine but the ogive has creases that I wonder might decrease accuracy. The bullets have a weight range of 410.8 to 417.7 but I am weighing and shooting them in groups. I segregated them into .2/10th grain piles but wonder if all cast lubed bullets vary this much and what should be an exceptable range. Give me some input.
Jed

You bring up a point I have not considered: weight variation in LUBED boolits. I weigh my boolits to check on myself, but I always weigh them before I size and lube them. Could part of the weight variation you are seeing be due to variations in the amount of lube? Does the lube job look consistent from boolit to boolit? Just asking... Maybe someone already has a possible answer on this question.

The wrinkles are not good. Period. As suggested, try another company. happy7 is a commercial caster. Give him a PM as a suggestion.

[fredj338]

I am shooting a 405gr. .45 cal. Valient cast bullet in my .45/70 and I am concerned about them. The bearing surface is fine but the ogive has creases that I wonder might decrease accuracy. The bullets have a weight range of 410.8 to 417.7 but I am weighing and shooting them in groups. I segregated them into .2/10th grain piles but wonder if all cast lubed bullets vary this much and what should be an exceptable range. Give me some input.
Jed

Bigger bullets will have larger variations, but 7gr seems like a lot. When I do weigh my 350gr 45-70, I toss back any that are +/-2gr, so that is 4gr variation. unless you are shooting long range, the wt or creases shouldn't affect accuracy much.

[tddeangelo]

What is considered normal/acceptable weight range on a run of cast boolits? I just cast some 405gr 457's yesterday and had them run from 405 to 411. These were my very first cast projectiles, so I'm sure I played a big part in that variation.

[Wayne Smith]

Look at percentages. What percentage weight of the boolit is 4gr? Almost well under 10%, which is a useable number unless you are shooting competitively.

More important than the nose is how do the bases look? These steer the boolit. Even major damage to the nose has minimal effect on flight. Look at The Bullet's Flight​. It's been known for over 100 years.

[ascast]

my 2 cents- as an experienced caster for hire, these ranges are not out of line at all. It a small percentage of total weight. 6 -7 grains variation in a 38 wadcutter and I 'd be looking for hole in the mold or something like that. I would like to see the 80-90% of the weights grouped together more around 414-416. There was an excellent post here a couple weeks ago that dealt with this vary topic. The poster graphed out the weights. Very good read. I'll try to find it. Interesting that 2 of you got about the same variation; that's telling.

[tddeangelo]

I actually put weights and diameters for 13 of the best ones from the session into a spreadsheet.

Results for weight:

Average = 408.8gr
Min = 404.8gr
Max = 411.9gr
Spread = 7.1gr
SD = 2.3gr

Results for diameter:
5 @ 0.459
8 @ 0.458

So I guess I get more 458's than I had thought, lol.

This was a Lee 405457F mold (405gr Flat Nose, plain base) with an unknown alloy. I can say the resulting bullets are somewhat soft. The edges deform fairly easily.

[dudel]

How do the bases look? If the bases are sharp and well defined with no voids or nicks, I'd not worry to much about creases on the ogive. As far as the weight variation; 7gr is much more significant in a 115gr 9mm than it is in a 405gr 45/70. I don't cast anything quite that large, so I'm not sure what an acceptable spread would be. What distance are you planning on shooting these at? The further out; the more the difference will affect the shot.

[jednorris]

I bought an additional 500 bullets, then weighed them into groups of 2/10th gr. increments. Of the 25 or so bags, I have one or two bags that have 100 or so all within 2/10ths of a grain. I am planning to load them in seccession from the heaviest to the lightest and figure I will never have any more than a 4/10 th gr. spread.

[lightman]

My cast are much closer than that. My pistol bullets will rival Sierra Match Kings or Bergers. I also smelt my lead in 350-400# batches.

[Litl Red 3991]

Jed, try loading a number (like 20) of the heaviest and the same number of the lightest. Shoot them for accuracy in one sitting and look at what the two groups show you. Shoot the heavies into one target and the lights into another.

Don't change your sights or POA during the shooting. You'll find out at least one thing, maybe more. First off, it ought to be fairly obvious if POI is affected by the bullet weights. Not many people have a clue about that and it's worth knowing. Especially if you happen to shoot buffalo matches here and there. With luck, you'll also see if one or the other is throwing more flyers.

Comparing the two will also give you a clue about the quality of the manufacture as much as any test will since you're looking directly at how consistent the least consistent by weight happen to shoot. If both targets look pretty much the same you've found out the value of sorting by weight for that mfg's products.

Truth is, I didn't tell the whole story. The BEST test would be to makeup 3 sets of reloads. Lightest, heaviest, and the weight from your biggest pile. Only problem with that test is time and concentration. Maybe do it with 10 rounds per weight so you can get it done in one sitting?

[pjames32]

My 480gr 45-70's have about an 8gr. range.
PJ