Quality Control of Rifle Boolits

[centershot]

Good morning! I have adopted a system of QC as follows to help insure that my rifle boolits are the best that I can make them.

First, when casting(I use a ladle), I pour the first cavity then refill the ladle and then pour the second. I've found that it makes a difference in weight uniformity.

Second, after they're cool, I weigh them on my digital scale in lots of 0.5 grain increments. My last batch fell neatly at 176 grains (Lyman 311041) +/- 0.5 grains. The alloy is 3 parts pure to 1 part lino with 2% tin added by weight. There were a number of them that fell above and below that range; they were saved in plastic tubs with their weights marked on labels. Their use will probably be for gallery loads and plinking.

Third, visual inspection. Before I lube, size and apply gaschecks I visually inspect each boolit for visual imperfections. Any that are visually imperfect are added to the plinker category or are remelted.

It is tedious to process boolits in this manner but I know of no other way to insure that only the best boolits are consumed in testing and for hunting.Can anyone add anything that I've overlooked? What steps are you taking in this regard? Also, I'd be interested to know what your scrap rates are, 10%, 25%?

[runfiverun]

I visually sort first, then by weight.

[dragon813gt]

Doing all that work before a visual inspection is wasted time.

[centershot]

I visually sort first, then by weight.

Yes, I did it that way in the past but realized that the "plinkers" were the ones that didn't make weight anyway and I'm not so fussy about visual imperfections on these. Rolling pop cans needn't be an "accuracy" kind of thing! Gross visual imperfections go into the re-melt can.

Run, what percentage is your scrap rate? Do you think my weight tolerance is too tight?

[telebasher]

I have come to favor single cavity moulds for rifle boolits. Much better uniformity and virtually no culls or rejects. I have one Lyman 225462 single cavity that I cast 110 boolits with and 101 weighed 57.4 gr exactly. For my money that's close enough for government work. LOL !