so how long

[white eagle]

do you wait after you cast your boolits before you load and shoot?
Does it make a difference really in waiting after you cast and when you use your pride and joy for the range or the hunting woods?
I am interested in what you all have to say
personally I believe that it does affect the outcome of the boolits accuracy and huntability..[smilie=s:

[MT Gianni]

I try to cast in 2013 for what I will shoot in 2014. I am not always successful but that is my aim.

[Case Stuffer]

A very worthwhile read

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Chapter_3_alloySelectionMetallurgy.ht m

[TXGunNut]

My boolits seldom make it from mould to berm in less than 2 weeks. Seems that's agreeable with the boolits as well.

[btroj]

I cast when I have time. No real set time frame between casting and shooting/hunting.

Generally I cast a large batch well before hunting season. That is to allow me to use the same batch for work up, sight in, and hunting. Generally that means the bullets I hunt with are a month or two old. Sometimes even older.

It CAN make a difference but is depends on what alloy and if I am expecting expansion or not. For a 30-30 I might care more than I would from a flat nosed 45-70.

[reloader28]

I let them set at least a week if I'm trying out a new mold.
For everything else, I cast in the winter for what I'll need for the rest of the year.

[RugerFan]

I'll have some of my commonly used hunting boolits cast up in bulk well ahead of time. In a pinch, I try to wait at least two weeks before loading and leading to the range or field.

[enoch59]

Really ? I will sometimes cast one day and finish off with gas checks and lube and then load the next day and then shoot the following day. I've never had any complaints from my rifles or the paper that I ventilate. I keep finding new loads to try and changing to new guns. I've only been doing this for several years so I'm still an infant in my maturity. I have put up three to four hundred bullets and then loaded them and then sold the rifle that I shot them with and gone DANG, NOW WHAT ?. So, I have little nooks and crannies where I'll have a bunch of ammo just sitting in cans waiting for ? I know, for me to buy another gun to match the ammo.
Yes, that's it.

[mold maker]

I'm still accumulating lead, molds, and boolits, even though I'm shooting less. That means the boolits can be years old or last weeks cast, in a new mold. The alloy seems to determine how long the boolit needs to age, but my needs come first.
At my age, I do it all according to weather, and that means doing nothing but reading above 88 degrees. Wearing muffs or casting gear is out. A cool drink and a gun rag in the AC is it. However I smelt/cast all Winter, and cooler Summer mornings.
With these aged eyes, My guns can't really tell the difference, in the age of the boolit.