Gas checks in the pot

[lightman]

I have a little cup on my loading bench for all my ' how did I miss that ' cast boolits to go in . They end up on top of the cold casting pot , I recycle .

Me too. I often find the odd dud laying around at the range and also dropped 22 rimfire. Most of the center fire rounds have a lite firing pin hit, like from a dirty AR or 742. I pull these bullets and also the odd rimfire bullet and these get added to the next large smelt. My few reject cast bullets get added back to my casting pot a few at a time.

[Tom W.]

If I have that situation I'll put them in the pot after I check and make sure that they are dry and throw a wooden match in with them to burn the smoke off. I don't suppose I'll ever be able to not jump a bit when it ignites......

[Tom W.]

If I have that situation I'll put them in the pot after I check and make sure that they are dry and throw a wooden match in with them to burn the smoke off. I don't suppose I'll ever be able to not jump a bit when it ignites....

The gas checks won't hurt anything. If you have enough time to try to reuse them, have a ball. I just put them in my dross pan.

[GregLaROCHE]

You should keep in mind what is happening with the hardness of your alloy. Not knowing what alloy they are and how much you add at one time, could change your final hardness.

[kevin c]

A question for those of you that have put traditionally lubed boolits into the pot: was that a cold pot, so that the lube never went under the surface of molten alloy, or a hot pot with liquid metal? If it was the second, was there any spatter, or did the lube just rise to the surface and then burn?

[sathington]

Kevin, I put them in the pot at casting temperature. There's was no more spatter than when I drop my rejects in. The lube came right to the surface and started smoking and stinking. Pretty painless, but I did stand back after I dropped them in to err more on the side of caution.

And Greg, your point is well taken. At this time in my casting career, I'm just using range scrap. All my bullets are for handguns, they all get powder coated and I'm a terrible shot. I haven't started getting finicky about my alloy yet. Once I improve, I'm sure that will begin. Thanks for your warning.

[kevin c]

Kevin, I put them in the pot at casting temperature. There's was no more spatter than when I drop my rejects in. The lube came right to the surface and started smoking and stinking. Pretty painless, but I did stand back after I dropped them in to err more on the side of caution

Thanks for your observations. I wasn't sure, but had worried that something like a steam explosion could occur. Evidently not in your case - I guess the lube doesn't get hot enough to vaporize under the melt, and won't produce gas from burning without oxygen either.

[Eutectic45]

Annealed checks worked fine in my 30-30. Keep the pot temperature low and remove the check quickly. If they coat with tin they will b unuseable.

[dale2242]

I use unwanted lubed gas checked boolit for fluxing.
The gas checks get thrown away with the dross.
I don`t bother with trying to salvage them...dale