Frosty bullets but good fillout

[Soundguy]

i struggled to get a good fillout on some of the bullets i cast. they have a wrinkle in the head. i wouldn't call it a "crack" just a wrinkle. They are nice and mirror finish though. I turned up the heat a bit and got an amazing fill out of the mold but... they are "frosted".

Does a frosted bullet make a diffrence in saftey while shooting them? Because.. if i can get good fill out but have frosted bullets instead of mirror tip finish ones... fine. i'll take it.

Also; i'll take tips on how to get a good fillout WITHOUT having frosted tips. I've tried smoking the molds again, lower heat, higher heat, fluxing the lead (seems to have cloged my bottom pour pot though).

frosty and filled out will usually shoot just fine. if you are getting bad fill out and wrinkles at under frosty temps.. try sweetning with a little tin.

[marek313]

I can cast pretty shiny bullets which look sexy as hell but honestly if you powder coat frosted bullets work better. Its way easier to powder coat frosted bullets since they hold powder better. Smooth surface will only make it harder for powder coat to stick.

Also I dont smoke my molds i only did that once or twice and never saw any benefit. Instead when i get a new Lee mold i slightly polish the cavities and clean and degrease it well. I just did that with my new Lee 401-175-TC for my 10mm and my bullets were dropping so nice i thought I was casting with with an H&G or some other high quality mold.

These are Lee 452-230-TL and I normally shoot for slightly frosted bands but clean and shiny works too.

[Shiloh]

Shoot 'em. They'll be fine.

shiloh

[facetious]

Also I have read that evenly frosted boolits are just the right temp. for water dropping.

[tazman]

I water drop all my pistol boolits directly from the mold.
I know this isn't as consistent as using the oven but it works well enough for me that I don't have issues with accuracy or leading.

[kevin c]

I mostly get really frosted casts from over heating the mold on a hot plate (element glowing red) or by casting too fast with hot alloy (still experimenting with cooling the sprue and/or the mold with a wet towel). The hot ones look undersized to me, though they go back into the pot before I ever measure them.

My impression is that my best looking and most consistent casts (and also with the lowest reject rate) come from a casting cadence that gives me boolits just past the shiney stage but not really that frosty. More a nice even light matte surface.

[RED BEAR]

anything that fills out good is good for me.