OK to store Boolits after Casting but Before Size & Lube?

[dbarnhart]

WARNING! NEWBIE ALERT!!!

Suppose I cast a bunch of boolits, maybe one or two thousand, store them for a while (months) and then later size and lube them just prior to use. Is that a problem?

[odfairfaxsub]

no, its acutally good in a few cases but never a problem.

pros' when you live in a house with 2 dogs if you have lubed bullets then they will be more likely to attract dog hair !!!!

cons' availability and rush into lubing waiting 1 day size and check then load. more down time before shooting.

i store my rifle bullets dry and always lube and size my pistol bullets then put them in a coffee can wit the lid bc im more app to shoot pistol before mosin

[waksupi]

As long as you don't water quench them, it's fine. If you do quench, you better be sizing them pretty quickly, so you don't break equipment.

[btroj]

I water drop and sometimes don't size for months. I also don't size down a bunch, often only .001. If I am sizing much more than that the Star isn't happy so I use a Lee push thru. The sizing press doesn't mind the stress.

[midnight]

I have never water dropped bullets but I was under the impression that it was only surface hardened and that sizing would destroy that hardness. Am I wrong? I hope I am.

Bob

[odfairfaxsub]

true its surface hardening. from what im told...........they harden a week after water dropping then they loose the hardness a month or two later

[williamwaco]

I cast bullet in thousands. I store them unsized for a year or more because I never know what I will load them in or what size I will use or now days even what lube I will use. Works fine for me.



That said, I have a friend who cast some .452 230 grain Lee round noses and water dropped them.
a week later he hung the first bullet in his push through die and had to use a 4 pound hammer to pound it back out. He asked me to test them for him. They tested 38 on the BNH scale. I asked him what he cast them from and he said "it was some type of type metal"

I am passing this along to let you know that waksupi is not off base.



.

[leadman]

I have tested water quenched boolits a year after sizing and they retained almost the same hardness as a week after casting.
If you have to size more than .001" or so you will want to size those very soon after water quenching.

[woody1]

I'm sizing/lubing boolits cast years ago. If water dropped and I plan on sizing, I do it as soon as they're dry. Regards, Woody

[Linstrum]

What Waksupai says about some alloys getting pretty hard according to how they have been post-treated should be heeded! Usually there are no problems with waiting to size boolits as far as becoming difficult to size, but with some alloys (often created by accident when salvaging and mixing unknown lead-like alloys) you can have some real surprises!

I have been casting since 1964 (that just means I'm old) and I have had a lot of experience with some odd-ball alloys and sizing some REALLY OLD boolits. Once in awhile you get a real surprise, but most of the time you don't. At least I haven't.

rl 1027

[bobthenailer]

I have been useing water dropped wheel weights exclusviley since the 1980s since i first read LBT first book on bullet casting. it has increased my production greatly with no apperent accuracy loss from 800 to 1600 fps in every gun ive used them in.
I do size my bullets in a few hours after casting them thanks to 2- Stars L/S . as far as loosing hardness i have WW water dropped bullets that ive made 10 years ago that are still in the 20+ bhn range .

[ku4hx]

For over forty years I've stored a large portion of my alloy in little boolit shaped ingots. Some of the ones for guns that fell temporarily out of favor have been in those little boolit shaped ingots for over two decades. They worked just fine a couple of months ago.

[runfiverun]

for regular air cooled alloy i do keep large amounts on hand, some sized and lubed and some just stored in 5 and 7 gallon buckets.
yes the buckets are full.
for my waterdopped stuff i keep a smaller amount on hand just because i "have" to stop and size/check them the same or next day.

[1Shirt]

I usually cast and at least size on the same day or within a day or two. For rifle blts w/gc's, I quite often check and size w/lee push thru sizer only as I like the seating in this manner and nose first sizing. I then don't worry about lubeing until I want to spend the time doing it. An extra step, but I have the time, and it works for me.
1Shirt!:coffeecom