Cast Boolit Weight

[38SPL]

I weighted my first batch of wadcutters from my Lee 458-148-WC mould this morning. I knew the weight would vary depending on the alloy...these are straight wheel weights. I guess I expected them to be lighter than 148 grains (not really sure why) but the average of 40 boolits was 182 grains. Standard deviation was only 0.4 grains so they are very consistent, just much heavier than I expected.

Is this normal, or is there something funky with my wheel weight alloy?

[cbrick]

The spec weight from LEE is based on their alloy and that is probably not WW.

Lyman #2 alloy as an example is 5% antimony and 5% tin with 90% lead. Both tin and antimony weigh a lot less than lead and it's 10% of the alloy. Your WW alloy is probably about 98% lead. With boolits made from both of these alloys in the same mold the WW boolits will obviously weigh more.

34 grains sounds like a lot but I have no what alloy LEE bases their designs on, could be Lyman #2. Could be lino which is 12% antimony and 4% tin. At any rate you can see the difference.

Rick

[runfiverun]

airc they spec 1-10 same as rcbs.
even so i wouldn't think you'd have that much weight gain either or all their molds would throw really heavy.

[MT Gianni]

Can you put up a pic? You may have a different mold than the box says. That is a lot more weight than what I hjave seen in Lees'molds.

[Cherokee]

Seems heavy even if pure lead.

[38SPL]

OK, I'm an idiot.

I'm using a Hornady digital scale and I made sure I calibrated it before weighing the boolits this morning. I wasn't at my reloading bench so I sat the scale on a book on my lap and measured away.

After shooting some pics a few minutes ago, I decided to recalibrate just to be sure, because 182 grains just can't be possible. I sat the scale on a table this time and what do you know...my sample boolit weighs 152 grains now.

There's a really, really good lesson in here somewhere.

FYI, here are some pics of boolit and mold. I have the right one...I just can't weigh it right.

57788

57787

Sorry for the trouble.

[runfiverun]

no trouble,thought you might have your mold mixed up.
or lee was messed up.
a wad cutter that heavy would be a lesson in reloading 401 though.