Bottom pour vs ladle

[Hick]

I bottom pour because its easy and I never learned to use a ladle well. I like that with bottom pour I can let a little slag accumulate on the surface and still get nice clean alloy out of the bottom.

[cjensen]

Less than and equal to 400 grain, I bottom pour. Greater than 400 grain, I ladle.

[toallmy]

I bottom pore with a lee 4/20 pot most of the time mostly handgun boolits , but sometimes I feel like dipping a few .

[stubshaft]

I gave up creating lee drip sculptures years ago. Went to ladle pouring and never looked back. I usually open the sprue holes in my molds to allow faster pouring too.

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree. MAYBE and I mean MAYBE a ladle might work better for a beginning caster for larger bullets but I can make them out of any alloy you can throw at me that have weight variations just as good with a bottom pour as I can a ladle. Most variations in bullet weight come from maintaining mold temp and rhythm, not from how the lead is put in the mold. Id no sooner go back to ladel casting as I would single stage loading of pistol ammo.

110% bottom pour here. Fast. Accurate. Repeatable. Easy. I have 2 bottom-side ladles and never use them anymore. Tried them several years ago and just did not like the slow plodding rhythm and very low boolit output - compared to 5-6 banger modern molds.

If you are still using old style 1-2 cav molds, a ladle may be OK. But I like to make MANY hundreds of boolits in one session.......FAST....and get it over with. I have more important things to do than slaving over a hot lead pot hand poring 1-2 boolits at a time.

Angle of mold while bottom pouriing it critical. Experiment to find what works best for your technique.

But do what best fits your needs. I know what fits mine!

Banger

[RED BEAR]

I've always used a ladle not becouse it is nessarly better but never owned a bottom pour pot. might try one at some point.

[Mike W1]

Just had to adapt this little goodie to the thread. Hope it works!

[DBrown]

My results are consistent as well. Usually if there is a variance it is because of something I did. Let the molds get too hot, too cold, dirty etc
I shootCowboy Action so accuracy is not quite as critical as production.

[aws1963]

Done both. Prefer the bottom pour over ladle. But then again I am not pouring precision projectiles either.

[gpidaho]

My bullets turn out much better bottom pouring. Too many rejects using a ladle Gp

[BrassMagnet]

I agree. MAYBE and I mean MAYBE a ladle might work better for a beginning caster for larger bullets but I can make them out of any alloy you can throw at me that have weight variations just as good with a bottom pour as I can a ladle. Most variations in bullet weight come from maintaining mold temp and rhythm, not from how the lead is put in the mold. Id no sooner go back to ladel casting as I would single stage loading of pistol ammo.

When I started casting 550 grain BPCS boolits with a Hoch nose pour mould, I started out with really poor quality boolits. So I went to experimenting with various techniques. I found pressure filling to work best. So I held the sprue in contact with the pour spout and then after I was sure the mould was full I pulled it away to form a generous sprue. I settled on a 5 count to be sure the mould was filled.

I would vote you can cast awesome boolits with a ladle or a bottom pour mould.

Very heavy, very light, or very complex designs will require more experimentation to find the best techniques. Normal weight pistol boolits in the usual designs are usually very forgiving of technique. Boolits with many square lube grooves are generally very demanding.

[one-eyed fat man]

Keep two pots. A small Lee bottom pour filled with wheelweights for blasting bullets. A large Lee furnace with 30:1 for dipping the big black powder cartridge bullets.