Do you water quench your boolits?

[Walter Laich]

pistol no

my cowboy rifles no

30-30 rifle that I cast for a fellow shooter--yes. Put a few ice cubes in the container figuring it can't hurt.

[Shiloh]

Yes.

If it is wet, it isn't hot.

Shiloh

[easymoney]

Yep. I only cast for pistols but they are all water quenched right out of the mold into a 5 gallon bucket of water. I started water quenching from the beginning and everything has always worked so why change now?

[supv26]

Yes for everything

[mrblue]

Yes, I let them just drop straight into a jar and will let them sit a while, a couple days before i do anything with them

[Kull]

I've just starting casting, pistol only so far, and no I don't water quench.

[burr7870]

I quench everything. I can use cheaper alloy and make it do what I need. I use less of my WW alloy this way and still get good bullets for both pistol & rifle. Plus its easier for me to just drop them in water.

[kartooo]

always
coffee can, shop rag with hole in center held on by rubber band

[ihmsakiwi]

Do yall water quench your boolits and if so why?

Yes for everything. Its less hassle just dropping them into a bucket at my feet. I have a old t-shirt that I float in the water and occasionally I need to push it under and / or roll it over to unload caught boolits.
I used to air-dry but lack of counter top means the water bucket is more practical.

[quack1]

No, if I need a harder bullet I use a toaster oven to heat then quench a whole tray at once. I figure there is more uniformity of hardness that way.

[winelover]

Never. I strive for the softest alloy with minimal or no leading. My boolets are cast for hunting.

Winelover

[BruceB]

No, if I need a harder bullet I use a toaster oven to heat then quench a whole tray at once.

Quack 1 raises a very important point, whether he intended to do so or not..

Whenever we have ALREADY_CAST a supply of bullets in a heat-treatable alloy, we have the makings for batches of different-hardness bullets as needed.

It's always possible to take, for instance, wheelweight bullets which are water-dropped, and SOFTEN them by re-heating and allowing them to aircool.

Conversely, air-cooled WW bullets can be hardened by re-heating and water-dropping them after the fact. The same applies to older WW bullets which may have softened over a period of time..... re-heat and re-harden.

As a result of the above facts, I do water-drop my mostly-WW bullets in the happy knowledge that as long as I have the bullets on hand, their hardness is variable as I choose. This is also a very good reason for NOT lubing and sizing them until they are actually needed.

[captaint]

So far, mostly pistol boolits, no. Not saying I won't try it. I will, one of these days, just to
see if it matters. Going to be casting some 30-30 boolits soon, they're gas checked, so I probably won't get them wet, either. Mike

[Char-Gar]

No, I do not water quench my bullets.

[Aunegl]

yes, 5 gallon homer bucket and 4 gallons of water.

[ku4hx]

Nope, not any more. Not since I "inherited" and old toaster oven and re-learned how to use it to harder what I want hardened.

[rintinglen]

Never. I either shoot my boolits air-cooled, or heat-treat them in the oven. Last thing I need is something else under foot while casting. I prefer to size my boolits, then heat-treat them, as per Dennis Marshall's suggestions, if I want them hard. For most pistol ammo, I cast, wait a day, size, and then tumble lube, load and shoot.

[BubbaJon]

I like that.

Me too! On my shopping list...

[gunoil]

ok, after a year of towel, i tried the water.. Think i like it.

[hickfu]

It depends on the fps they will be shot at and whether they are flat base or gas check.
A flat base boolit I shoot at 1400fps gets air cooled, any of my gas checked boolits get water quenched.
I did just buy a convection oven from a thrift store for $20.00 so I will try the heat treating route to see how that goes.


Doc