Freshly poured boolits question

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I know that there is generally hardening that takes place in the first week or two after they are poured. My question is, do I need to wait that long before I size the boolits? How about before I load my rounds? Thanks!

[btroj]

Try things and see what happens.

I cast, size, load, and shoot as time allows. I don't worry over it much.

At times it can matter but in general terms it doesn't. Why sweat over details that don't matter?

[RobS]

If there is antimony in the alloy then yes the boolits will age harden over time. Generally speaking in a week to two weeks time the boolits will be near their full hardness (air cooled). You can size the boolits down but I would be cautious as to case swage on the boolits in the reloading process should you load the boolits too soon as they may not be hard enough to resist the pressures associated from the brass case upon seating. Some calibers are more apt to case swage due to the nature of the case such as the 9mm and 40 S&W (short tough little cases). These two particular rounds are also two of the higher pressure rounds yielding more issues of leading, keyholing, inaccuracy etc. than other lower pressure rounds where the brass case doesn't squeeze down on the boolits i.e. 45 ACP, 38 Special, 45 Colt

[mdi]

Dunno about time constraints for loading as my casting methods are to cast a bunch and when I get a chance to load them, I will. I have read about aged bullets and what alloy, what time hardens them xx number of BHN units, but for my shooting, BHN is less important than fit, lube, and charge. I normally use an alloy between 10 BHN and 17 BHN, but I make sure they are properly sized for the gun they are going to be shot in. I cast up a couple hundred at a time, of a particular caliber/type bullet, and put them in a container and dip into them when I am loading. I guess you can say I age all my cast bullets from 1 week to 18 months...

Some casters here like to know the exact BHN of their bullets over a period of time and I'm sure they will have more, constructive answers to your question. ;)

[RobS]

There is also a possibility to speed age the boolits (wheel weight alloy or similar with antimony) too if you are short on time. I do this from time to time and it's nothing more than putting your boolits in an oven at 190-200 degrees for 2 or so hours and then leaving them in there to cool. This makes them age-harden faster and within 24-48 days they are where they would have been 1 to 2 weeks later by letting them age on their own.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

This is range scrap (mostly cast), so I'm assuming there is antimony in it.

From what I can gather, it's fine to size them right away. But maybe wait a bit on the loading into cases? BTW, these are 45acp.

Thanks!

[RobS]

Yep.........that's what I would do.

[lwknight]

Unless you have a pretty powerful leverage press, sizing soon is a lot less work than waiting till they harden.

[Tatume]

There are advantages each way, and you need to know your own requirements. Bullets that are sized the same day as cast will not "spring back" as much as bullets that are allowed to age harden for a week. Less effort is required to size bullets the same day as they are cast. These things may or may not mean anything to you. At one time my only sizing die for 45 pistol bullets was 0.451". My Freedom Arms shoots best with bullets that are slightly larger than 0.451". If allowed to sit a week before sizing I got good accuracy. If sized the same day as cast accuracy was not as good. Now I have a 0.452" die, and if I want to use bullets the same day as cast, I size 0.452". If they have aged, I can use either die with satisfactory results.

[prs]

Generally speaking, lead/tin/antimony alloy is gonna be harder than just lead/tin alloy from the get-go. It may "improve" a bit with modest aging, but we are not talking about Bourbon here. If you need it to be really hard right away for high pressure loads or such, just add a trace or arsenic (magnum shot) and water drop. Then, I "think" that water dropped alloy will mellow a bit over a modest time period; but I am not so sure of that.

prs