Shooting Wrinkles

[mrblue]

So did my first casting last night and did about 50 boolits. Dropped them in a nice jug of ice water. Now I noticed i got many, id say 90 percent of them, where wrinkled. Ive read it's possible cold mold/ low temp. I'll work on that. But Im just so happy to cast my first batch that i want to shoot them. So I want to know can I? Im sure the accurcy might be off due to the bad shape, But Who cares. They are for plinking only.

[Tatume]

Shoot them. You will probably get pretty good accuracy. Like you, I just love those free bullets! Have fun.

[Wal']

If you have a sizer just push them on through, wish I could smooth out my wrinkles just as easy. :)

[docone31]

Mold needs more heat.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

See if they are the right dimensions before you load them up. Go to a yard sale and find an old electric hot plate or skillet. I took an old Sunbeam skillet with lid, and cut the front down even with the bottom of the skillet. I put my mold in there, put the lid on and heat it up to 420 degrees. Try to keep the mold off the area with the heating element underneath. This heats the mold up great and you can cast right away. That skillet makes life a whole lot easier when casting. Welcome to Cast Boolits and have some fun!

[WILCO]

Mold needs more heat.

Yep. Float the mold in the pot for a few seconds. Then cast.

[captaint]

The really bad wrinkles, I throw back. The others, I used to shoot them. They're fine for casual purposes. Shoot them. Mike

[btroj]

It isn't just about learning to cast, it is about learning to load and shoot cast bullets.

Go shoot them. It is part of the learning process.

[Shiloh]

Mold needs more heat.

Yep.

When you said shooting wrinkles, It reminded me of shooting Hostess Twinkies. A fellow shooter got many boxes of outdated Twinkies.
Nothing wrong with them mind you, I don't think they go bad. They made fun and interesting targets.

Shiloh

[JeffinNZ]

If you have a sizer just push them on through, wish I could smooth out my wrinkles just as easy. :)

That's what I was thinking. And the grey hairs.

[Walter Laich]

Is the mold new? If so you need to degrease it. There are stickies in Molds...Maintenance and Design that cover that. Lee-Menting also is a good sticky to read

[williamwaco]

50 is not near enough to bring the mold up to temperature, especially for a new caster.

Check this page to see the process of heating up the mold.

This was a six cavity aluminum mold it probably warmed up faster than your mold.

http://reloadingtips.com/how_to/mold_warmup.htm



.

[jimb16]

Sounds like my wife.....after 40 years of marriage, lots of wrinkles! *LOL*

[reloader28]

Shoot them up and have fun.
I shot some very nasty garbage when I started casting. You know what?? They all shot perfectly fine.
You'll get it figured out. It seems I get pickier every time I cast. Its pityfull, but now if the boolit dont look perfect, I dont keep it. But in reality, they dont shoot any different than an ugly boolit.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I shot'um all until I discovered wrinkles were not normal. When I first started casting there was no one around to ask questions of, so I had to figure it out all by my lonesome. What a wonderful place this site is. I know I have made some really dumb posts on here and most of the time all I get in remarks is, Excusssssse Meeeee!!!!! Just gon't give up though because the guys on here do have the answer.

[Whizzer]

Is the mold new? If so you need to degrease it. There are stickies in Molds...Maintenance and Design that cover that. Lee-Menting also is a good sticky to read

Williamwaco, those first Boolits in the link look exactly like my Lee Boolits, except they never seem to get much better. I've got an old steel Cramer 25A 3-Cavity .358 (flat nose, I think) that is easy to cast with. I'm sorta mystified as to why but when I get them up to "no wrinkles" temp, then the Lee Boolits frost. There seems to be no happy medium for me with the Aluminum molds. Either too hot or too cold.

Dunno.....

[rsrocket1]

Hmmm,
When reading quotes from this thread with mixed contexts, I get some really interesting replies.


A fellow shooter got many boxes of outdated Twinkies.
Nothing wrong with them mind you, I don't think they go bad.

That's what I was thinking. And the grey hairs.

And then:

Sounds like my wife.....after 40 years of marriage, lots of wrinkles! *LOL*

Go shoot them. It is part of the learning process.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Are you going to gas check them? If so, I say melt them down and try again. I can't bear to waste a GC on a bad boolit. Try dropping them on a towel next time so you can see what is going on. I got much better results when I quit water dropping because I could watch the heat progression. I like to cast for at least an hour if I am going to heat the pot and mold up.

[williamwaco]

Williamwaco, those first Boolits in the link look exactly like my Lee Boolits, except they never seem to get much better. I've got an old steel Cramer 25A 3-Cavity .358 (flat nose, I think) that is easy to cast with. I'm sorta mystified as to why but when I get them up to "no wrinkles" temp, then the Lee Boolits frost. There seems to be no happy medium for me with the Aluminum molds. Either too hot or too cold.

Dunno.....

Scrub you mold vigorously with a degreaser like 409 and hot water. If you have access to it, break or carburetor cleaner is also very good.

Then. Fire up your pot.
When the metal is hot. Start casting. Pour as much sprue on the sprue plate as it will hold. A large puddle transfers a large amount of heat to the mold. When it is solid, cut the sprue and dump the bullets. Refill the mold as quickly as possible. Keep the sprue as large as possible. Dump and refill as fast as possible ( SAFELY - DO NOT RUSH ) Don't spend any time inspecting the bullets. When the mold is hot enough that the sprue puddle is still liquid after 4 to 5 seconds the mold will be hot enough and possibly too hot. at this point slow down and inspect the bullets as you drop them. Continue casting slower until the sprue takes two to three seconds to harden.
At this point your bullets should look like bullet 19 or 20 on the page I pointed you to. A little frosting is fine.

If they are still badly wrinkled at this point, you have some foreign substance in the cavity - probably lube of some sort..

[huli]

Thank yall again I had wrinkles in mine I cast with my new NOE 22 55 mold , So this evening I put all mine back in the pot heated the pot to 700 and started casting after about 20 boolits ,Letting them sit for a minute or so before removing I started getting Wrinkle free boolits ,,,:):mrgreen: now if I only had a 225 sizer id be in business( hint , hint))

[Whizzer]

UPDATE: I posted just a few lines up, that I was having trouble with either wrinkles, or frosting.

No more!

The number one thing that has helped is a hot plate for the molds. WOW, what a difference that has made. The hot plate I'm using is the 2 burner GE Hotplate from Walmart that I already had. I turned an empty gallon can of green beans upside down over the burner and it fit nicely as as a makeshift "oven"...all that remained was to make a "cutout" with tinsnips so that 2 molds can sit on the hotplate horizontally. The handles stick out of the opening. The opening might remind you of an IGLOO.

I also cleaned them very well, and coated them with Kroil, which seems counter-intuitive. I read a thread that has passionate arguments FOR and AGAINST the practice. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?55260-Kroil-in-a-boolit-mold

I am casting many, many good boolits now, with few culls. I'd like to try some hard ones sometime, like 22 caliber, just to see if I can.

[MT Gianni]

If they are being sshot out of a 38 or 44 @ 25 yards or less ignore it. If shooting them out of a 6.5x55 or 223 remelt them, esp if targets are over 100 yards.

[Wayne Smith]

WARNING - Massive Thread Drift

I have to laugh every time I read the title of this thread. My first thought was "Why would I want to shoot them, I'm proud of my well earned wrinkles, just like Queen Elizabeth!"