Work Softening and Sizing

[rays308]

I cast some 30 cal bullets the other night. They were water dropped. I wasn't able to size them until 24hrs later.[smilie=b:

I read that waiting too long can work soften the bullets, and that sizing should be done right away.

I'm wondering how much difference it really makes from time Cast to when they are Sized?

If I size right away, I'm raking off or pushing around the outermost layer of the bearing surface anyway so, it will never reach full hardnes. The bullet isn't going to be consistantly hard from the outside to the core at any time.

Is the bearing surface that I should be concerned with or the the fact that the lead should not be so soft as to strip in the rifling like a screw turned too hard?

If its just the sides of the grooves need to be hard, do I really care when they are sized?

Ray

[RobS]

I've seen only 1-2 BHN sofening after the boolit aged (a few days) and then sized. Usually 1 BHN or less is lost if sizing is done an hour to two after cast. The big thing is the ease in sizing directly after casting if you happen to be sizing them down more than .002.

[runfiverun]

since the majority of the outside of your boolit is gonne be riding down the bbl walls anyways.
and the part thats being dug into by the rifling is about .003 deep, does it matter much if your outside is 2bhn softer?
it's still harder than the base alloy.

i'd just find a consistent way of doing it, and make up loads for doing it that way, and not worry about it.

[Trapaddict]

Something I do on occasion especially with WW alloy is to size my bullets immediately (well, at least wait 'til they cool :grin:) Then I pop them in the oven on a cookie sheet for the heat treating. Usually just pistol bullets. Rifle bullets are too hard to get to stand up on the sheet. After heat treated, I lube them using a .001 larger sizing die than used to size them to prevent work softening of the exterior skin. It adds one extra step to an already tedious process but eems to work well.work

Jeff