another newbie question...boolit storage

[quiknot]

i see alot of you store your boolits, lubed and on there base in small containers...i have been just water dropping them to cool then dropping them into a large plastic tub after they are dried of course.....making 452-240-TC for 45LC

is this the wrong way to do it...i lube them with ALox before i actually make the finished cartridge.

thanks for the advice

[BruceB]

quiknot: ".....I have been just water dropping them to cool then dropping them into a large plastic tub after they are dried of course.....making 452-240-TC for 45LC. Is this the wrong way to do it?"

Well sir, if that's the "wrong way to do it", then an awful lot of us are doing it "the wrong way". I usually cast a lot more bullets than can be used immediately, and sized/lubed bullets are much more difficult to keep clean in storage, so I too use plastic containers to keep the freshly-cast bullets ready and handy....and clean.

Don't forget that if we NEED the hardness of water-dropped bullets, the hardness will eventually return to just about the original hardness of the alloy BEFORE it was quenched. Therefore, if hardness is needed, load and shoot them fairly soon after casting.

For my part, I usually don't bother with quenching handgun bullets, except for the autoloaders, where I believe the feeding is "POSSIBLY" improved with hard bullets. If I don't use them for a year or two, I don't worry about it...just load 'em up whenever and shoot when I can. I do water-drop my rifle bullets, except for a few special-purpose ones. Again, if they sit for a while, I don't worry much about losing hardness.

[felix]

Yep, I do what Bruce does, but with all boolits. Reason? Just to get them off of the bench while casting. ... felix