Weight tolerance for casting bullets

[JHinman]

What is a reasonable tolerance for finished weights of cast bullets?

I'm casting three different bullets, from 170 grain for a .30WCF to 500 grains for a .45-70, all for use in metallic silhouette competition.

If I weigh the cast bullets, what sort of variation between bullets is expected?

I'm a newby at this casting business, so advice will be appreciated.

[44man]

What is a reasonable tolerance for finished weights of cast bullets?

I'm casting three different bullets, from 170 grain for a .30WCF to 500 grains for a .45-70, all for use in metallic silhouette competition.

If I weigh the cast bullets, what sort of variation between bullets is expected?

I'm a newby at this casting business, so advice will be appreciated.

If you ever see me weighing boolits you will know I have lost it!
I depend on my castings only. I might worry about a .22 boolit but I have shot worse groups with sorted boolits then I ever have by not sorting. With those big boolits just make them good to start with.

[Wayne Smith]

The first and most important purpose of weighing boolits is to weed out the light ones that may have a cavity included in them. Second is to segregate the rest into groups with one or two grain weight variation cause they are most likely to group together on a target. You and your rifle, at the range you will shoot, need to determine how much variation you can stand.

[x101airborne]

thank God someone asked before i typed it out. had the same question.

[MKastning]

I very likely spend way too much time worrying about this subject, but I sort to 0.1 grain increments. When finished sorting, I throw back the few on either end of the batch and keep the middle 65 or so. I load them in order from lightest to heaviest in the loading block, then put them in the ammo box in the same order.

When at the bench, I am then working my way through the loads and relatively confident that my bullet weights are within .1 grain from shot to shot.

Does it work any better than a 1 to 2 grain deviation? Probably not, but it is one fewer thing to think about and blame flyers on I guess.

I am way new to this game, and only cast for a 2 groove 1903-A3.

[NSP64]

It depends, For handgun I usually dont weigh, unless it is for long range work( hunting). For rifle, I usually try to keep them within 1.0 gr. one grain is less then 1% of a 120gr boolit. If its a 160 gr boolit then 1.5gr. I will make up a big batch then wieigh and seperate all into groups. then take the ones that are within 1.0gr and use the others for plinking/practice.

[cbrick]

Many years ago I went through that phase, weighed everything, sorted into groups of like weights. Even for my silhouette 200m handgun rounds I haven't weighed them for years now and I have shot more revolver 40x40's than I can remember.

If your casting rate is consistent and your using a properly heated mold with clean alloy your weights shouldn't vary enough to make any difference on the target, even 200m handgun loads.

Do I weigh my bullets? Sure, about 10-15 out of each batch I cast just to make sure the alloy hasn't changed and my casting was correct. Beyond that I have never found any advantage to shooting weighed and sorted bullets over shooting bullets that were inspected for flaws.

Rick

[BABore]

I only weight sort boolits for my 22 Hornet. Otherwise, only to verify alloy or a new design.

It is however a good thing to do when you first start casting. It helps you develope good casting techniques so you can get weight variance down to few tenths of a grain. Once your there, and know what causes what, then no more weighing.

[mpmarty]

I used to weigh boolits but gave it up as a waste of time. If they look good and aren't wrinkled I shoot them. My final inspection is after lubing and the rejects go into a bucket to remelt. They're already fluxed.

[cbrick]

It is however a good thing to do when you first start casting. It helps you develope good casting techniques so you can get weight variance down to few tenths of a grain. Once your there, and know what causes what, then no more weighing.

Hhmmm . . . That is a very good suggestion for a new caster.

Rick

[qajaq59]

If I'm going to work up some loads with them, I might sort out a 100 that are exactly alike and put them aside. Mainly to eliminate any chance of light weight fliers. Otherwise, I don't bother. And if the pot and the mold are at the right temps I don't generally find that many bad ones anyway.

[noylj]

It would determine what group sizes you are getting. If you are shooting 1" or larger at 100 yards, sorting won't do you any good.
If you are shooting less than 1" groups, then it MAY help.
If you are shooting less than 0.5" groups, it will help.
If you are shooting over 200 yards, it will help.

[Mk42gunner]

I will weigh a few of the boolits from the first run of a new mold; just as a check to verify nominal weight.

It is nice to verify the weight of a custom mold, or if that boolit number has been offered in various weights.

For normal usage, I go with a visual inspection while I am sizing.

Robert

[JHinman]

Thanks to each of you! I didn't know if this was something I really needed to worry about.

I am new at this, so probably will weigh some for the time being. As was stated, it is a check on my casting techniques.

For my .30WCF and .45 Colt, these are all used for silhouettes offhand. Small differences may not matter much.

The .45-70 is for BPCR sillouettes, prone at up to 500 meters. I'd like to limit the variables as much as I can, as there are lots of other variables to be thinking about.

[Mk42gunner]

By all means, if it makes you more comfortable; weigh the boolits. I probably would if there was anywhere around here to actually shoot in competitiion.

Robert

[WHITETAIL]

JHinman, Welcome to the forum!
I do not weigh any pistol boolits.
But, I do weigh my 45-70 boolits by 1.0gr. incraments.
So I do this I inspect each and every boolit for fillout and wrinkles.
They get put back in the bucket for the next melt.

[reloader28]

I dont weigh pistol boolits.

I only weigh rifle boolits that are being used to work up a load so I take out the weight variation. After that I usually do it just to get the really light ones out.

I could be wrong about this, but in my shooting, it seems that the neck tension has a WAY bigger effect on cast boolits than weight.

[Von Gruff]

Just an observation on the question but like many I weighed everything when I started casting untill I saw that it had very little effect for my shooting needs. Now I visually inspect as I cast,and again at subsequent stages, as in fitting the GC, lubing and loading. Generally there are few rejects after the GC stage.

A light boolit may have an inclusion and that will have a centrifical destabilisation that causes inaccuracy so concentrate more on good casting tecniche's with clean alloy and full fill out.

Von Gruff.

[Capn Jack]

I weigh my cast boolits to 0 + .5 gr. even though this will sometimes give me a 50% rejection rate and I weigh my powder to + - .1

The general consuses seems to be I'm wasting my time, but if those boolits aren't making one ragged hole, I want to know it's my fault.

Jack

[idahoron]

I am with you Jack. I weigh my paper patch muzzleloader bullets +- .5 grains. For me it is about confidence in my load. When I am hunting I don't want to second guess anything. I might cast 150 bullets or more to get 50 that are perfect. What do I care I have all day to do it. I enjoy trying to make the most perfect bullets I can. This method has worked well on game so far. Ron