Are these usable

[dwb0804]

I am new to casting , these are some of my rejects, I am curious though if they are usable just for plinking. Regardless I will just melt them back down, I was just curious to here what people thought
Thanks Will

[462]

Any wrinkly boolits are cause for me to reject them. Others will have different opinions.

Wrinkled bases should surely be rejected.

Wrinkled boolits are caused by a mould that is:
1. Not clean enough.
2. Not hot enough.
3. Both of the above.

[Glock Junkie]

Wrinkles go back in the pot.

[MtGun44]

You'll probably get OK results, but why acccept crummy looking, subpar boolits when it is easy to
remelt and do it right?

Bill

[338RemUltraMag]

^^^This^^^

No need to shoot boolits that arent perfect, dont waste the alloy!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you've ever seen an example of gas cutting on a cast boolit, you'd probably reject any wrinkle on the boolit that starts at the base and runs parallel with the intended trajectory. That wrinkle will surely be a nice place for a gas cutting channel to start. Now if you get wrinkles on the nose that don't seem to in the barring surface of the boolit, you could surely shoot 'em up as pistol plinkers and probably be trouble free.

I attempt to reject ALL visable imperfections.
My 2¢
Jon

[Dean D.]

JonB clearly stated my opinion as well. As others have said though, dropping them back into the pot and pouring more is my preferred method.

[jimb16]

You can use them, but I would use them only for speed drills. You won't get good accuracy out of them and you could get leading caused by gas cutting. Personally, I usually toss them back into the pot.

[BBQJOE]

I thought the same thing with my first batch.
Don't get attached to them until they are just right.

[dwb0804]

They will be going back in the pot for sure, more than any thing I was just curious. Thanks for the replies !
Will

[GSRacer]

Turn your pot temperature up some and throw away the first batches. Once mold heats up and starts to cast good, turn the temperature down some. It takes practice.

[Buzzard II]

Back to the pot.

[WILCO]

Hey Will,

At least you got your feet wet! Back to the pot and practice makes perfect!

[762 shooter]

You can definitely do better, but if that is all you have and want to shoot them, go for it.

Your pistol may not care if they are wrinkled at your preferred distance. You can always re-purpose back to the pot.

After all it's just lead that you melted to make boolits. It's not like you have any deep sentimental feelings for them.

I think I can say with certainty that no PERFECT cast boolit has ever been created.

762

[canyon-ghost]

The most important feature is the bullet base. I'd check the bases of the least wrinkled and then see if I thought it was worth saving a few. I can accept one small wrinkle on the side of the nose or such but, don't go for any major crevices.

[MTtimberline]

Are all of them wrinkled or just the first few casts after starting?

[45 Shooter]

I've just started casting myself (will be a week this saturday). I'd throw them back in the pot if it were me but i'm a perfectionist, I like my boolits to be pretty. I've casted probably 300ish and they've all went back into my smelt pot except for one. Not that they were all bad, alot were good. I'm just trying to perfect my alloy ratios. That one is the one all others will be judged by once I start keeping them, which will be this upcomming weekend.

[Taylor]

If it ain't pretty I don't keep it.Too easy to make another one.

[dwb0804]

Are all of them wrinkled or just the first few casts after starting?

Those were the worst not counting the first 2 fills. But out of about 100 I didnt get any that were perfect. But most were better than those in the picture. I was just trying the molds out that day I had been making buck shot and decided to give those a quick try. I plan to try again next week, when I have more time. I am using 1/2 lyman #2 and 1/2 wheel weights in a lee 20# pot.

[Dale53]

dwb0804;
I pre-heat all of my moulds (aluminum, iron, and brass) before trying to cast. I have a hot plate next to my lead pot for just this purpose. My hotplate has a steel surface (not a Calrod unit). If yours has open coils, put a replacement builders saw blade on it to equalize the heat to the mould.

FWIW
Dale53

[gimling]

I would adjust the temp of the pot, I have the same issue that you do, I myself am new to casting and have been doin a lot of experiments the past few month and this is what I have learned, don't be afraid to dip the corner of your mold into the lead pot. don't be afraid to turn up the temp of the lead if its too hot the bullet will pretty much frange and partially come apart, a little snow look means your plenty hot on your lead temp. Cold cast into a bucket put a towel at bottom of bucket sometimes they land and dent without.

[MT Chambers]

The mold either needs more heatin' or more cleanin'.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Back to the pot.

Like others say, juggle temperatures and speeds and make sure your mold is clean.

You CAN cast good bullets. there's little to be gained by loading 'factory seconds'.

dale in Louisiana

[snuffy]

I'd only load and shoot those if I was shooting in complete privacy. IE, there was NO chance anyone could see them sitting in my ammo box! :kidding:

If you want confirmation that those should be remelted, weigh them. The wide spread of weights should tell you they are definite rejects.

I visually inspect each and every boolit I make. For pistol/revolver ammo, that's as far as the inspection goes. If however, it's rifle boolits, THEN I weigh each completed boolit, lubed and gas checked if it has one. You'd be surprised at how a 165 grain 30 cal can suddenly be 2 grains lite even though it looks perfect ,well okay nothing is "perfect in this world).

[nagantguy]

Back into the pot they go. When molds get hot they will drop better boolits.

[mdi]

I will not hurt your gun to shoot these (except mebbe leading). You'll not have the best accuracy with these bullets. Yes you can shoot them, but don't expect the same results as with good, filled out bullets. But, you never know, they may give you those 1 hole groups! (I've seen pics of one well known writer's bullets/shooters that don't look a lot better than some of yours). You've gotten a lot of good advise above, but yep you can shoot 'em.

One of the great things about casting is it's very easy to correct your mistakes, just drop them back into the pot. If casting were more difficult, I think a lot of guy's standards would drop considerably...

[dwb0804]

I will not hurt your gun to shoot these (except mebbe leading). You'll not have the best accuracy with these bullets. Yes you can shoot them, but don't expect the same results as with good, filled out bullets. But, you never know, they may give you those 1 hole groups! (I've seen pics of one well known writer's bullets/shooters that don't look a lot better than some of yours). You've gotten a lot of good advise above, but yep you can shoot 'em.

One of the great things about casting is it's very easy to correct your mistakes, just drop them back into the pot. If casting were more difficult, I think a lot of guy's standards would drop considerably...

I am enjoying this enough at this point that I could see myself melting down the good ones just to recast if I ever ran short on laed.

[Shiloh]

Wrinkles go back in the pot.


You'll probably get OK results, but why acccept crummy looking, subpar boolits when it is easy to
remelt and do it right?
Bill

These two posts sum up my thoughts on wrinkled boolits.

Shiloh