How do you get your boolits all shiny like that?

[HenryC460]

Most pictures I see, the boolits have some variation on what I generally see on what I cast. Kind of dull gray eggshell finish to dull frosty (kinda sparkly frosty up close). Then there's those boolits that look all smooth and shiny and metallic. Polished looking. Do you tumble them in your brass tumbler to get them that way? Do you cast them out of pure tin? What makes them so shiny like that?

[btroj]

I don't. Mine are pretty much always lightly frosted, pretty much a dull finish all the time.

[GRUMPA]

Mine are ALWAYS dull, to do one of those show and tell things I just assemble them and use a rag and just kinda half twist (back and forth) the assembled cartridge and BINGO. Takes all of 5sec each, when I do that to my 310gr 44's I get a lot of stares.

[shooter93]

Don't let them kid you....shiney bullets are from photoshop......lol.

[462]

If you are asking about the pictures that show one or two such boolits, they were probably polished with a cloth.

I cast with alloys that vary from 50/50 wheel weights/lead to straight wheel weights with added tin and don't get any that are other than dull to lightly frosted..

[Pat I.]

"Then there's those boolits that look all smooth and shiny and metallic."

Linotype

[Az Rick]

I think shiny bullets come from cool moulds. My first ones are always shiny. If you take a dull bullet and twist it in some 0000 steel wool it will shine. Run it through a sizer it will make the driving bands shine even more. Makes a great photograph

[mac1911]

Im new to reloading here are what my bullets look like
Alloy is 50% wheel wheights 50% lead(sheathing) nothing else added
Lee 4-20 bottom pour Lee bullet mold
lead is poored at a touch over 650' by my lyman thermo stuck in the pot.
My pot wont run below 650' I think the thermo is a bit off ???

they stay this shinny until I lube them

[plainsman456]

When I get them loaded I use a scott blue towel to clean any lube off.
It doesn't take much tin added to the melt to make them shine from the get go.

[gray wolf]

lino and just the right temp, them a swipe with a towel.
But they don't shoot no better.

[Baja_Traveler]

Nearly all my casting sessions result in lightly frosted boolits.

But, I did borrow one spitzer mold for my 45-70, and all the test boolits came out bright and shiny. This was with the same 30-1 alloy I use in all my other black powder casting.

[grullaguy]

I find if my lead or mold is not quite up in temp, I get shiny bullets. Often later in the casting session as the pot gets empty the bullets get duller looking.
I am just casting with a steel pot on a gas range, so the temperature regulation for casting depends on my watching the liquid lead to see how it behaves...or misbehaves.

[mooman76]

The dull ones shoot just as good. If you cast near pure lead it is easier to get shinny boolits. You have to cast at just the right temp to get them. Too cool and they don't fill out right, too hot and they frost. To me it just isn't worth the headaches. You have allot more that go back in the pot if you you want shinny ones.

[treadhead1952]

Fresh out of the molds they look like this for me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/treadhead1952/EmCB_033_01.jpg

As the get older they oxidize and get the old gray look that you see on the commercial stuff.

[trk]

...
Do you cast them out of pure tin? What makes them so shiny like that?


Most normal folks don't cast them from pure tin.

I have cast a bunch from tin.

They are bright and shiney years after casting.

They are also as hard as copper jacketed bullets - Rockwell "B" scale at 42-43.

They cast well into a COLD mould, take forever to cool if the mould is hot.

[cbrick]

How do you get your boolits all shiny like that?

Like that what?

Rick

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

frosty bullets come from a mold that is too hot. They are quite good to load and shoot and some say, if tumble lubed, hold more lube and so may be more accurate. The frost does not hurt a thing other than esthetics (they just dont look as good as you want )

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[63 Shiloh]

Nothing wrong with frosty looking boolits.

If you want some 'bling' to your boolits, add Tin, a very expensive way to get a shiny boolit!


Mike

[geargnasher]

What RICK said:goodpost:

Seriously, though, it is very possible to get shiny boolits from straight wheel weight metal, and it has to do with mould temperature. There is a very narrow range between shiny, wrinkled boolits that drop from a mould that's too cold, and the beginning of the light, satin, "frost" stage. I find it to be a narrow window that produces more culls than if I pick up the casting pace to get the mould hot enough for light frost.

"Frost" is a product of antimony in the alloy and how it affects the crystalline structure of the boolit's surface based upon cavity surface temperature of the mould. If antimony or the intrermetallic Sb/Sn (tin and antimony combined) are on the primary phase of crystallization then it's possible for "frost" to form. Those guys using less antimony, like those who've posted already and who are using alloys like wheel weights diluted with pure lead, will naturally have shinier boolits at any given mould temperature than those using alloy with more antimony in it.

Linotype makes shiny boolits because the alloy is eutectic, and the fact that the lead, tin, and antimony all freeze at the same time doesn't give any surface crystalization a chance to form. There is no "primary" or "secondary" phases of crystalization because all three metals in the proportion of true Linotype ARE ON THE SAME PHASE, meaning turns solid at the same temperature, at the same moment. Notice how most lead alloys have a "mush" or "slush" phase as they cool or melt? Crystal trees called dentrites cause this, as one of the constituents of the alloy freeze solid before the rest, leaving floating solid structures scattered throughout the alloy that the still-liquid metals surround, capturing them in formation when the rest of the metals finally freeze. These captured crystals form the dull surface of "frosty" boolits most likely because that's where they are attracted in a hot mould, possibly due to surface tension.

Gear

[mongo]

I have only been casting for a year and I tumble lube with 45/45/10. To me, If my boolits look shiney, The mold is wayyy to cold. I think they look pretty when they look like they were galvinized..lol

[XWrench3]

the only "shiney boolits" i cast are linotype alloy boolits for rifles. w.w. or soft lead boolits that i cast are a rather dull finish to them as well, with the exception of the first few out of a cold mold, that do not fill out properly.

[Wayne Smith]

Thank you Gear. For some of us its really helpful to know why something happens as well as how to make it happen.

[rbertalotto]

I've only been casting for a few months. My boolits ALWAYS came out frosty no matter what I did. During a casting session I'd have a few all nice and shiny, but I had no idea why.

I built a PID (read about it here www.rvbprecision.com) to maintain lead temperature and I use a BBQ thermometer with the probe inserted into the mold to monitor my mold temperature.

I was running my lead too hot at times and my molds were MUCH too hot and I had no way to know this.

With a little bit of modern technology, my boolits now come out of the molds in perfect shinydom.

I don't care what anyone says, Shiny bullets are the mark of a Master Caster....And 8 out of ten dentists say they are much more accurate......:kidding:

[Ziptar]

Most normal folks don't cast them from pure tin.

I have cast a bunch from tin.

They are bright and shiney years after casting.

They are also as hard as copper jacketed bullets - Rockwell "B" scale at 42-43.

They cast well into a COLD mould, take forever to cool if the mould is hot.

Thank You!!!

I've got a bunch of nickel plated cases I've been wanting to use to make some home made snap caps out of. I want the bullets to hold up under repeated use and handling snd I want to use bullets cast from my molds instead of factory jacketed.

I just read you post and my brain said DUH!!!!! There's your answer!!!

Might be expensive to use pure tin for shoot'n bullets but, for a couple dozen cast snap caps pure tin sounds perfect!

[Char-Gar]

Why do Movie Stars look better than the women you know in real life? They are MADE to look like that.

[snuffy]

Shiny like these?;

http://photos.imageevent.com/jptowns/cannont2ifolder/websize/IMG_0291.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/jptowns/cannont2ifolder/websize/IMG_0292.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/jptowns/cannont2ifolder/websize/IMG_0289.JPG

Gear is right on! The alloy has to have quite a bit of tin available and the mold temp has a very narrow window. I DON'T know what the mold temp was. The only measurement I can make is one of the leasers avail. from harbor freight. That only works on black surfaces, which would give me the sprue plat but not the mold temp.

Alloy was 17 pounds of good lino, and 3# pure lead. Those molds are the lee 310 FP and the Lee 440 for the 500 S&W. If I let them get a bit too cool, they started showing poor fill-out and a few wrinkles. A bit too hot, frosting started. I was casting with both at the same time, allowing one to cool with boolits and sprue intact, while pouring the other one. Bottom pour lee pro 20. If I saw the beginning of frostville, I had a wet sponge to sinc some heat form the mold.

Those boolits shot very well, and looked nice doing it. I feel certain I could duplicate it anytime I wanted to. But a lightly frosted boolit shoots just as well, and a quick wipe with a mineral spirit soaked rag,(to get the loobe off), will shin 'em right up!:grin:

[looseprojectile]

make shiny boolits but I don't have the patience so I mostly make frosty ones.

This thread is so like the pros and cons of slow powders versus fast powders.
Falls into the do what you like with your boolits category.
It ain't home made ammo but custom loaded ammo. Make them the way you want em. The nearer you get to pure lead the easier it is to get shiny boolits.
Geargnasher said it very eloquently.
It is time consuming to keep the mould cool enough to make shiny boolits.
When trying to cast shiny boolits I get a lot of rejects with poor fillout and bases that are not sharp. Frosty boolits are not even suspected to have poor fillout.

Add a lot of linotype or tin to get boolits that look like the Lone Rangers boolits.
For most of my handgun boolits I use 50/50 pure and wheel weights.

Frosty they are!!!!

Life is good

[W.R.Buchanan]

Here's a pic of three bullets cast from strait wheel weights.

Bullets on L & R are cast from the same Mihec Mould, the one on the right was rubbed with a paper napkin from Mc Donalds for about 10 seconds.

The one in the middle is "as cast" from a Magma mould. It is nearly as shiney as the Mihec boolit on the right but has not been touched, and it has sat on my desk for 8 months now since it was made.

Sometimes some moulds make better looking boolits. Casting temp has something to do with it but really most of it appears to be in the mould it self, and don't ask me why.

That Magma boolit was the very first one to drop from that new mould.

also if you rub them to polish they will get dull faster than if you leave them untouched.

My .02

Randy

[fredj338]

If you want pretty shiney bullets for pics, use a high tin alloy.

[GLL]

Pure silver works well ! ;) ;)

Jerry

http://www.fototime.com/62995ABCC45B26E/standard.jpg

[littlejack]

You have a lot of Werewolves in your area, do ya?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I think some of what the OP could be noticing is in the image.

A high quality mold will make a smoother boolit.
also More tin in the alloy will make a smoother boolit yet.

I think a digital camera with flash will make a smoother
boolit look more shiney in the image than in real life,
as long as the boolit isn't TOO frosty.

Or maybe it's just my camera...or my eyes ???
Jon

[GRUMPA]

Yeah I wondered about that too, and if he can sell them at .10ea I 'll put in an order for some.

[Bob Krack]

Snuffy,

Those look almost too purty to shoot!

Bob

[W.R.Buchanan]

I do have Werewolves in my neighborhood, And they are driving me nuts.

I would love to have a few of those Silver Boolits.

PM me!

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

I wonder if you could kill Werewolves with Boolits made from Silver bearing solder? Like they use on copper water piping now days?

I mean if you had alot of Werewolves like they do on TrueBlood then I think you'd need to start looking for an economical solution, and if Silver bearing solder has enough silver in it to do the job,,,, What the hey?

Randy

[Ziptar]

Pure silver works well ! ;) ;)

Jerry




At current spot a single 255 grain .452 RNFP would run me ~$21.00. :shock:

Them werewolves is getting expensive!!!

[colt 357]

I get shiny boolits after the tinsel fairy arrives but you have to ask for some tinsel fairy dust then just add a couple of pinches to the pot that is the only way to get shiny boolits. sorry i couldn't resist that one LOL

[Humbo]

All my boolits come out shiny. I cast rather cool, at ~650 degrees and below, and add 25% lino to my ww's. BHN is right at 14, exactly where I want it.

http://home.online.no/~kjel-phu/bilder/IMG_4282.JPG

[Charlie Two Tracks]

WW with 2% Tin makes some shiny boolits for me. I also have a mix of 7 parts WW and 1 part Foundry Type and it really makes some good looking boolits. I am more concerned about proper fill out than if it is shiny or not. I want my boolits to shoot good, if they look nice great, if they don't the berm they hit really doesn't care.

[Lizard333]

When I first started casting, all of eight months ago mind you, I used to think that purty boolits meant better boolits. Guys like Gear have made me realize that a lightly frosted or ugly boolit that has nice clean sharp bands shoots just as well as those purty boolits. Besides, if I had I pile of boolits that looked as nice as some of those I have seen, I don't know if I would shoot them!!

[Shiloh]

Add lino type to your melt if you want shiny. Or cast with lino. A waste of lino IMHO.
Mine are a sort of matte shiny. Don't care about shiny, I want them to perform.

SHiloh