Acceptable cast bullet weight variation.

[porthos]

i have a piece of paper that that 28 ; 30 cal bullets; that the bullets vary from 189.8 to 190.2 i cast with a ladle. this is pretty much what i expect with my casting. never weighted a pistol bullet.

[BLAHUT]

I suspect yours is not a mold or lead problem if you are getting 4" clusters. Using the same mold, that is nearly the same load (19 gr), same primer, and same boolit I use in my 308 for sub MOA groups at 100 yds but my 30/30 doesn't like it at all. My 30/30 prefers a lower MV (around 1600) with a powders like Unique, 5744, or RE-7 which give me 1-1/2" groups or sometimes less using a Skinner sight plus handheld with a rest. Of course my 73 year old eyes have to be fresh in the morning when I can actually see the center of the target. I would try a load of 19 gr of either RE-7 or 5744, and possibly even a Unique that would get you to around 15-1600 fps mv. Just so you know, besides rifles, I have a T/C Contender 10" barrel in 30/30 and it likes even faster powders.

With old eyes try a double peep, aperture in the front, aperture in the back, you are not looking at the center of the target you are using the outside of the bull, when sighted in, the center of the sight will still put bullets where you are looking...

[charlie b]

Yep, the best open sight shooting I can do these days is a rear peep and globe front with a 'donut' insert. Size of front sight is chosen based on size of bull.

[braddock]

Thanks for the interest and responses, I sure appreciate them.
With regard to the accuracy of my shooting, as far as I'm concerned it's good enough.
On my best days in the past I could shoot sub 1" groups off a rest (who can't) with my 308 and 223 but standing or prone is a whole different ball game and as long as I can connect with the vitals when necessary I'm happy.
I have a red dot for running game but astigmatism wrecks it a bit.

[W.R.Buchanan]

For whatever you'd want to do with that boolit the weight variation is of absolutely NO consequence. ! I have shot hundreds of that same boolit in my .30-06's over the last 40+ years. I also have 309-190 GC and it was my Second Boolit Mold. Lee.429-240 was my first. I never weight sorted any of them

For shooting Cowboy Silhouette, or Plinking or just shooting Ground Squirrels you are good to go. Just load and Shoot, don't worry, just shoot!

Randy

[charlie b]

Agree. Back when I 'plinked' and hunted I never weighed the bullets. Just checked the drive bands for good fill out.

Even now days, if I take the lightest and heaviest from a batch and shoot, the load will be close to 2moa.

[porthos]

for those of you that are against useing a ladle; why not give it a try and see if you get a more consistent weight. sure would save the time you waste weighting. oh, also, when i ladle cast, i hold the ladle around a quarter inch away.

[charlie b]

Heck, I'd still weigh them just to make sure they were all the same weight. Doesn't take more than a couple extra seconds while doing a close inspection. I inspect one and place it on the scale. Pick up the second, and inspect, then swap them on the scale. Easy peasy. Digital scales make it a simple process.

[huntinlever]

Heck, I'd still weigh them just to make sure they were all the same weight. Doesn't take more than a couple extra seconds while doing a close inspection. I inspect one and place it on the scale. Pick up the second, and inspect, then swap them on the scale. Easy peasy. Digital scales make it a simple process.

That's exactly what I do.

[justindad]

Assuming you have a quality mold and the cavities give similar weights… for pistol boolits: 0.5% is very easy to get as long as you have sharp corners everywhere. For long, skinny rifle boolits: ask someone else.
*
If a visual inspection was not good enough for a need I had, then I would be looking at a single cavity mold.

[405grain]

I used to ladle cast, but now I use bottom pours. I think that ladle casting might have an advantage in producing bullets with less weight variation over the length of the casting session, but I prefer bottom pour furnaces for other reasons. (mostly for the rapidity with which I can cast with them) The reason that I think that the ladles might give more uniform weight is because there's no change in head pressure over the casting session. When a bottom pour furnace is full there's a lot of weight in liquid lead squirting out the spout, but when 3/4 or more of the pot has been cast there's not as much pressure pushing the pour out of the pot. The difference has to be pretty small, but it could be one of the many things that contribute to weight variances from one bullet to the next. Other things like not getting a good fill out, inclusions, or differences in the sprue plate cut would be much bigger factors. All in all, I expect a "range" of weight from the bullets in any casting session.

Now, if these are pistol bullets, I only inspect for obvious defects, and never weigh them. I'm a pretty good pistol shot, but nowhere near good enough that something like this would make a difference. On rifle bullets the weight variation is determined by the use that I intend to use the bullets for. If they are plinking or practice loads the weight doesn't matter that much. If they are target or hunting loads it does. For target bullets I separate the batch by weight. Whatever the average weight is (+/- 0.2 grains), these are going to be my accuracy bullets. All the other bullets, both on the heavy end as well as the light end, and going to get used for shooting practice.

When I sight in a rifle I use the most accurate bullets that I've made. But once the rifle is sighted in, unless I'm trying for bragging rights target accuracy, it's time to get up off the bench and practice for real life situations. I take those bullets that were too light or heavy and use them for offhand practice. The way I see it, there aren't any benchrests out in the woods. But if you do a lot of offhand shooting you'll soon become surprisingly proficient at it. When I first started out I would have trouble getting a good pattern at 50 yards. I would wobble like I was trying to shoot while standing on top of a rocking chair. But, after a few months I got better, and was able to hit things like a 200 yard steel ram virtually every single time. If I could learn to do this, anybody can! Moral of the story: those bullets that are too light or too heavy, don't throw them back in the pot. Instead, (so long as they don't have any obvious defects) use them for practice rounds. At the bare minimum, once you get good at this, your shooting buddies that never get up from the bench will see you making hits off hand and will think that you're the most amazing shot they've ever seen. (Just don't tell them that they could do it too if they just practiced.)

[Jim22]

For what it's worth I subscribe to the one percent club. Dropping 100 grain .32 boolits I separate into piles of 100 to 100.9, 101 to 101.9, etc. With 200 grainers it's a two grain acceptance. 200 to 201.9, etc. If I do this I get decent groups. If I don't the groups open a lot. In doing this I find that 90% of the boolits are in two rows. Like 100 to 100.9 and 101 to 101.9. Those are kept separate and the rest, both lighter and heavier go back in the pot. These results are with COWW mix. If I add a little tin I might reduce the rejection rate but 90% success is good enough for me.

Jim