Load by weight or mold?

[spurrit]

Guys, I've wondered, but not done any actual testing to decide, so I think I'll cheat by looking at you old guys' papers:

If, like me, you're using a Keith 454424 mold, do you adjust your charge by bullet weight, or just use the existing loads for that mold? A lot of people claim they get a 250 gr. bullet from that mold. Some claim 260, some, 265, etc.. Mine generally drop about 268. Hence the question.

Whaddya say, grey hairs?

[Shiloh]

My LEE 230 TLTC mold drops a boolit weighing 238 gr. I use the lower charges for the 230 gr. listed weight.

Shiloh

[jack19512]

Deleted

[Bret4207]

Boolit weight. Doing otherwise is foolish. Get up into the larger calibers and a soft lead boolit can be 30+ gr heavier than a hard one. Not a good idea.

[cajun shooter]

A lot of variables to your question. What load are you using? What gun are they fired in? What is the purpose of the load?If you are using a modern steel gun and the middle of the road load then I don't worry when a bullet weighs over a given weight. If I'm loading the max load then I would go by weight. Back when I first started to load in the late 60's early 70's the loading manuals all showed cup for pressure on loads. For those that don't remember it is for copper units pressure. Those loads were much heavier than today's printed material. I remember one load that my loading buddy and I found that was some 5 grains above other manuals for a 357 load using 4756. Well being greenhorns we rushed right out and bought all the stuff to load these bad a-- loads. I can only tell you that I'm happy that I was using a mdl 28 for shooting at that time. If your bullets are much over 15 grains of printed weight then I would use a different load

[44man]

I have never cared what the boolit weighed because each new boolit gets an accuracy workup anyway. I stay with the same alloy all the time too. Very few boolits shoot at the max load anyway, I only have one and it is for the .475 where it groups best at the sticky case stage. I just backed down on the powder charge and accept the small loss in accuracy.
What counts is how a boolit reacts in your gun. Two different boolits of the same weight can act different with one raising pressure while the other can use even more powder.
But to start loading a new boolit from scratch, it is always best to use the boolit weight. I don't worry about a few grains but some molds are out of the ball park.

[fredj338]

The guys are right of course, you work your load up. I think what you are asking is, if the bullet wt. varies from vatch to batch, do you adjust powder charge? Once I settle on an alloy or even approx. alloy, the wt. will vary no more than 5gr up or down. So at tAt point, I don't change powder charge. The stamped mold wt. & bullet wt. can have little in common.

[spurrit]

I guess what I'm asking is, which do I worry about more: case capacity taken up by the seated bullet, or projectile weight?
Also, when do I start worrying about bullets being oversized? With my Keith loads, I just size everything .454, which is slightly oversized, but I want as complete a burn as possible.

BTW, I'm shooting old model Vaqueros, and the load is for long range. (well over 100 yards; I was planning to go to the Elmer Keith memorial shoot this weekend, but will have to wait for next year)

[Larry Gibson]

Didn't vote because the correct answer isn't there. All loads should be worked up to. All manuals recommend this procedure as have all articles and books written on reloading. To arbitrarily pick a load is not only foolish but also can be dangerous.

It's one thing to ask for us to recommend a favorite load but it should always be worked up to or in the case of squib loads; worked down to.

Larry Gibson

[Maven]

What Larry said! And you need other choices in your poll. E.g., what if you use the same mold/CB for cartridges of different capacity in rifles with different strength actions?

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Do your self a favor and check the boolit weight your mold drops, [with the alloy you are using!] . I also like to check the diameter to determine if I need to size or not, for the barrel I'm shooting it in .

I don't get anal about it, just a cursory check and then I'll weigh a few for my own piece of mind, especially if I change alloy.

[mroliver77]

Boolits (and bullets) of different styles can weigh the same but seat much differently in a cartridge giving a substantial difference on powder capacity. For instance an LBT WFN leaves much more room in a loaded case than a boolit of the Keith pedigree. less room takes less powder to make same pressure. This can raise pressures way faster than a few grains of weight. When flirting with max loads either situation can quickly push pressures into the danger zone.
I agree you need more choices in your poll.
Jay

[spurrit]

Sorry, next time, I'll have a poll on what's wrong with the poll.

In this thread, however, let's discuss the question at hand. When you start criticising the question, rather than offering an answer, you come off as an XXXXXXX that doesn't want to admit he doesn't know.

[cbrick]

hhmmm, I was going to post a reply until I read post #13.

To make this short . . . ALL of the people that posted here were correct. Read in particular posts #6 and #9.

Rick

[runfiverun]

i weigh ten of them for an average and work with what i got.
if it weighs 265 then i just start with a load thats close to that weight boolit and or bearing surface.
make a load for it [try a few different ones and refine] and go shoot it.

[runfiverun]

spurrit you got your answer.... from some of the more knowledgeable [older] haha. guy's on here.
if brett, larry,maven, or especially when it comes to revolvers 44 man says so .it's so.

[spurrit]

hhmmm, I was going to post a reply until I read post #13.

To make this short . . . ALL of the XXXXXX that posted here were correct. Read in particular posts #6 and #9.

Rick

I'm happy with the answers, for the most part; it's just the people that have nothing to add, who simply MUST complain about something that bothers me. If you have something to add, great! That's what this is all about. If you don't, DON'T!

BTW, your post, quoted above, is just fine with me; you agree with, and support their point of view. No different than disagreeing and providing counterpoints, IMO.

[jack19512]

When you start criticising the question, rather than offering an answer, you come off as an XXXXXXXX that doesn't want to admit he doesn't know.

It could be me, maybe I'm one of those, but I really take offense to your post and don't think your response was warranted at all. Had I had any idea you would act like this I wouldn't have posted to your thread. I will remedy this however.

[Bret4207]

Sorry, next time, I'll have a poll on what's wrong with the poll.

In this thread, however, let's discuss the question at hand. When you start criticising the question, rather than offering an answer, you come off as an XXXXXXX that doesn't want to admit he doesn't know.

Nice. You're missing the point, you gave limited choices and all they're saying is the complete answer goes beyond those choices. No need to resort to profanity, it just makes things worse.

[spurrit]

I never limited responses to only answering the poll.