How do you segregate/reject your cast bullets?

[wquiles]

I bought on-line several cast bullets for my 44Mag (I know, I know, I should be casting my own - I am working on that angle ....), and I received some "less than perfect" bullets. I contacted the seller, and they sent me additional ones no charge. Great customer service - no complaints.

Now, I went ahead and weight each one, and inspected each one, and first segregated on those few that had the noted defects, and then segregated the remainder by weight - basically eliminating the very light and heavy ones. So my question to you guys: how do you choose your "good" ones from the "plinking" bullets?

- Visual/defects?
- Weight? if so, what is the margin for rejection?



Weight-wise, these were made from a Ranch Dog 265gr mold (with GC) and sized .432" (perfect for my particular Ruger), but they weighted right at a nominal of 280gr:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/loads/44mag/CCB/20140817_174112.jpg


These are tumble-lubed:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/loads/44mag/CCB/20140817_174133.jpg


Dummy round with no powder/primer:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/loads/44mag/CCB/20140817_174203.jpg


Here are some of the ones with defects I rejected:
The one in the dummy round, and the two bullets at 11 and 12 o-clock:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/loads/44mag/CCB/20140802_104258.jpg


The bottom left (pointing to the right):
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/loads/44mag/CCB/20140817_174339.jpg

Bottom bullet:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/loads/44mag/CCB/20140817_174452.jpg


My plan with the light/heavy/defect bullets is to load them for plinking - not worrying too much about best/optimum accuracy. What do you guys do with your "rejects"?

Will

[tazman]

I segregate by visual defect only. I don't worry much about weight as all will usually be within a couple of grains anyway(I am talking 38/9mm here).
I don't worry about weight because I am not a match shooter and nothing I do requires match accuracy.
It wouldn't matter in any case because I am not capable of one hole groups at 50 yards let alone 1 inch at 100yds as are some of the people on this site. I am not in that class.
If you are capable of such, then you may want to use a finer standard of selection.
Also you might want to test those defective boolits and see just how good they shoot. It might surprise you.

[wquiles]

Thank you. I suspect that those defects I show above are cause by the mold not being hot enough, but once the mold got hot, the rest of the bullets look fine.



Also you might want to test those defective boolits and see just how good they shoot. It might surprise you.

That is exactly my plan. If they shoot (for me, and my setup) as good as the "more uniform" bullets, then I will not bother separating them. My setup is a 1x Red Dot sight (my eyes are now too old for iron sights), so it might not make much of a difference :mrgreen:

[Artful]

I visually inspect - especially the bases...most important part.
- then I have two balance beam scales -
if it's under - back into the pot
If it's between - practice
if it over then match

[Bent Ramrod]

I weigh boolits for specialty (match or long range shooting) use and for load development. In the first category it's not that much extra work for the percentage and in the second case it's just the elimination of another variable from the mix. For normal "fun" shooting, rifle or pistol, using a proven load, unless they are really deformed or have rounded bases, I load and shoot them all up.

[Shiloh]

If it has a base and a nose, it get kept. I look them over again, the ones with gaps and voids get scrapped.
Any defects on the base, and they get recycled.

Shiloh

[John Boy]

You are lucky these bullets have GC's cause those bullets are plain Ugly!

[dragon813gt]

Any glaring deformities? Any wrinkles? Base filled out w/ no rounded edges? If the answer to all three is no then they get shot. And honestly they have to be really wrinkled for me to put them back in the pot. Nose deformities have little effect on accuracy. The base is the most important part.

[220]

Visually inspect only, those with obvious defects get recycled.
I pull out any rejects after casting, again when lube/sizing/coating and again when loading. Cant see the point in adding another step by individually inspecting each one when they are going to be handled probably 3 times between casting and loading.
I have done a bit of weighing and if my casting is anything like consistent then once those with obvious defects are culled then variation in weight is less than 1%.
Have bench tested rejects against weighed projectiles in one of my revolvers. 5% variation against less than 1% did open groups by 20% but still good enough for 10 shot 10 ring groups on an Olympic precision pistol target at 25m.

[462]

Do yourself a big favor and don't delay casting your own.

I don't sell boolits but have given away a few thousand. I'd be ashamed giving those boolits away, let alone charging good money for them.

[JeffinNZ]

I used to be absolutely manic and weighed and inspected every bullet I was going to shoot. Now I generally only visually inspect but I am still pretty harsh.

[HeavyMetal]

Visual inspection 99% of the time concentrating on good sharp base's for keepers.

For match or load devlopment I also weigh and try to seperate into batches with a 2 grain spread.

I've found that since I went to a hot plate my molds are a lot more uniform in heat and provide much more uniform castings than I got 3 years ago, this has reduced my urge to weigh castings unless I see glaring defects visually.

Back to those you bought: Tumble lube you say?? Where in lies the lube?? I'm thinking those are a tad lite on lube plus a bit soft as they are about 15 grains heavy ( and it ain't the lube) have you had leading issues?

If they fit right and are GC'd maybe not but I am curious.

Yes those would also be my reason to cast my own, LOL!

[462]

In answer your question.

Handgun boolits: Sharp bands and bases. Have not found a need to gas check Magnum handgun boolits.

Rifle boolits: The above, plus no wrinkles, inclusions, or any other type of deformity, and sorted by weight after sizing/lubing and checking.

[HATCH]

I do mostly handgun. I look at the sprue mark on the base. If there is a pin hole then it goes back in the pot. Then I look or fill out.

[wquiles]

Wow, thank you so much guys. Great feedback - much appreciated :mrgreen:

And to answer the question - I don't know "yet" how these work (or not) in my Ruger. I have about 120 bullets (including the new replacement ones), so I can experiment a little. I will load 10-20 rounds to test accuracy in the next week or so.

[texaswoodworker]

Major visual defects go back in the pot. Minor defects are ok for plinking. I only weight if I am looking for a high degree of accuracy. I won't weight my 45 acp bullets for plinking at 15-25 yards. I will weight my 30-06 bullets for shooting tight little groups at 100 yards though.

[smokesahoy]

It looks like you were sent the proceeds of 1 run, the defects appear to all be cold mold defects. I'd have put them back in the pot, the vendor opted to just send whatever fell out. I hope they were cheap at least.

[Jack Stanley]

The smaller the caliber and the longer the distance the tighter I am on quality control . The middle of a match is not the time to be wondering if you were making good slugs .

However for short range as long as the baseband is perfect that the rest looks well filled out I use it . Mid range distance it depends on what I want to do , since I store visually good bullets I can weigh them if I need to before lube .

Jack

[Green Lizzard]

i dont mind returning them to the pot, i have enough flyers from my shooting without building them in. when shooting for score if just touches the line you get that 10, if it just misses you get the 9. i ask myself, do you want to put a three cent gas check and a three cent primer on that then miss the line

[prs]

Agree with John Boy, but even with checks you will win no prize.

Remember Karate Kid, Mr. Miagi say; "Best'a defense is no be there." That applies here. Clean the mold, re-melt that scrap, pre-heat the mold, and try-try again. Do not start keeping boolits until they look perfect. If its a multi cav mold keep none if any one is FLB (funny look'n boolit). If having trouble, get them up to where they frost and then back off the heat a tad, keep boolits only when they drop consistently. This PIA method is not a PIA, it will save you lots of **** ache when you cull by weight. Culling by weight with good look'n crisp detailed boolits of appropriate size is not needed for casual plinkers. On the other hand, game animals deserve the best chance at a humane kill and target shooting requires the best too. Best practice is to weigh each boolit, set them on paper in rows representing the "same" weight. Same is your definition, 1g, .5g, less, more? With a big group your rows will sort of give you a bell curve of boolits. Any given row can be a "lot" unto itself. The center row and maybe two to each side are keepers, the out-layers are scrap for re-melt. The more proficient you become and the better broken in your mold gets (or your familiarity with what the mold "likes") the more your bell curve hugs close to the center row. Its like getting to Carnegie Hall.

prs

[C. Latch]

When I first strted casting I weighed every bullet. Now, not even 2 years later, I weigh one bullet when a mold is new. Other than that, I don't care what it weighs. If the base is perfect and there are no wrinkles or inclusions, the weight will be close enough.

[lightman]

I would have culled most of those. I don't inspect my bullets, exactly, but I look at them as they drop from the mold, go thru the sizer and get loaded. Mostly looking for rounded edges, wrinkles, and voids.

[Handloader109]

I gave away, well I was paid shipping, and I sent the person what I considered as close to perfect some 9mm in a couple of sizes. They looked a lot better than those. I would be ashamed to have sent you those, let alone sold them. But I do shoot any that are fully filled out with no voids. Get your own mold or go buy retail bullits

[4rdwhln]

I segregate all my boolits by weight. I am sure I do not need to as my eye sight is not very good and I do not get to shoot near enough to shoot the way I would like to. I also segregate my brass by weight on all my bottleneck brass. The pistol stuff is only sorted by manufacture. I do not load a plinking load and a accurate load. I find the best load I can get with the components I have, then make as many as I can. That way I can shoot and always have the knowledge that I have done the very best I can with the ammo.

[wquiles]

Wanted to update this thread, and thanks again for the feedback and encouragement to start casting my own. I ended up buying 2x 44Mag molds (one from Accurate and one from NOE), and even though I am still a novice, look at the quality of "my" Ranch Dog boolit, vs those I showed in this thread that were from the commercial company:

http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/casting/Accurate_43-265F/20141227_141519.jpg


These are from the Accurate mold (43-265F):
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/casting/Accurate_43-265F/20150104_142124.jpg



Loaded rounds with each mold:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/casting/Accurate_43-265F/20141227_133407.jpg


Definitely not going back to buying cast boolits again :-P


Will

[jcren]

Congrats on your success! It impressed me as well how easily I could get serviceable boolits with my first casti g session. Looks great!

[echo154]

I usually visually inspect them, cull if too many defects, and shoot the rest. If its for my 45-70 or 45-110 I weigh them too. I am mostly concerned with base, diameter and then the nose. YMMV

[MT Chambers]

I weigh and segregate bullets that are for use in known accurate rifles, to make the most of their accuracy, others I just use if they look perfect. If you are doing everything to get the most of your breachseating in a very accurate rifle it doesn't make sense to be using bullets that vary as much as 3 or 4 grains IMHO.

[leebuilder]

I cull all defects out.
Then weigh and still find the odd reject. I pays off. Dang fliers

[44man]

Your first boolits show you have become a casting expert very fast. Wonderful job.

[Blackwater]

For normal, every day stuff, I only sort by culling any with rounded edges that obviously came from the first few castings before the mould warmed up, and any with visible defects, and call it good. However, when I'm accuracy testing, or casting for hunting or some purpose where I want them to be the best they can be, I'll weigh them, and sort accordingly, on my electronic scale (because it registers quicker than my beam balance). If I keep a good watch on the pot temp, they come out so close that there's no practical difference in normal, every day shooting. I also watch to see how long it takes the sprue to solidify, and adjust my casting rate accordingly. These two simple things have improved my uniformity significantly, and these days, I've foregone the weight sorting often because of this.

[bnelson06]

I cull the somewhat wrinkled and the frosted ones out by sending them on the fast track to a dirt birm........ Costs me some powder and a primer but they won't get into my good boolit mix until I dig them out and melt them down again.

[rintinglen]

When I first strted casting I weighed every bullet. Now, not even 2 years later, I weigh one bullet when a mold is new. Other than that, I don't care what it weighs. If the base is perfect and there are no wrinkles or inclusions, the weight will be close enough.
This^^
I only weigh boolits at first casting to make sure they are in line with the anticipated use. I am, however, ruthless when it comes to visual defects. If I see the slightest wrinkle, or deformity--back in the pot it goes! I am perhaps a smidge more forgiving for pistol boolits than rifle, but very little. My experience has been that if it looks good, it'll shoot good.

Only if I were shooting CBA and going for the win would I go to the time and effort of weighing boolits. then I'd sort by tenths and shoot only those with in a -.1, 0 +.1 range. Boolits in the -.2 to -.4 or plus .2 to plus .4 range would be used for practice. Every boolit else would go back in the pot.

I shoot lever action pistol cartridge silhouette and have found no benefit at all to weighing boolits in this sport. And for casual plinking, fugiidaboutit.

[WHITETAIL]

I cull all of my boolits after a meltting session.
If they are for pistol I only eye them.
If they are for my rifle they get weighed and put in
zip lock bags with apiece of paper with the weight on it.:cbpour:

[wquiles]

Thank you guys :-P



Your first boolits show you have become a casting expert very fast. Wonderful job.
Thanks. I have learned a lot from your posts on how to improve my revolver groups. Last thing remaining is sending my cylinder to Doug (forum member here) to have the cylinder throats all professionally reamed & honed to perfection, as they are uneven (not all 6x the same), and the throats are a tiny bit smaller right now than what I need them to be.

Will

[TXGunNut]

Good job, Will. Now you know why I and most everyone else around here cast our own boolits. I may not always be happy with them but like you even my first attempt was better than I was able to buy. There are some good commercial casters but I'm happier with my own.
Back to your OP I don't generally weigh handgun boolits, a careful visual inspection seems to suffice. I weigh rifle boolits during load development but a visual inspection there generally eliminates all but a few culls. I try to keep the ES of weights within a grain but I'm a hunter, not a comp shooter.

[fredj338]

I only weigh my bullets used for precision shooting at distance, handgun or rifle. In general, The only rejects I toss back are base rejects. Those will throw flyers, even at closer range.

[Echo]

Do yourself a big favor and don't delay casting your own.

I don't sell boolits but have given away a few thousand. I'd be ashamed giving those boolits away, let alone charging good money for them.
A big PLUS ONE! EVERY ONE of the boolits shown would go back in my pot! Life is too short to shoot ugly boolits!
I automatically reject any roundheels seen when the sprue is cut. When dropped from the mould, any with folds are rejects, and go back to the pot. Any cosmetic aberration is cause to reject. Plus any with obvious pits in the base go to the pot...

[Col. Cornelius]

I cast mostly pistol caliber bullets. As long as the base looks good, I keep them.

I have shot groups at 50 yrs through a pistol caliber lever action rifle (38-40) to compare sorted perfect bullets to visual rejects. Amazingly, at this range, as long as the bases were good, the groups were good. So for my use, 50yrds or less, this is acceptable for pistol caliber bullets, even when shot through pistol caliber lever action rifles/carbines.

For long range (up to 1,200 yards), 45-70 or 45-90, with black powder, I am very picky about the bullets I cast.

[michiganmike]

For my 7mm-08, Lyman 12 gauge sabot, and my 40 S&W I give each bullet a quick look after it falls out of the mold. I reject it if it has any obvious defects: rounded edges, large wrinkles, not completely filled in, defective bases. These get pushed into the pile of spew lead and go back into the pot.

Once the bullets have cooled and I am done casting I give each bullet a close visual inspection. Sometimes I miss problem bullets the first time. I look for the same thing. I first take a close look at the bases, then the body of the bullet. As previously, I look in particular for crisp, clean lines.

Finally, in particular with my rifle bullets I weight each bullet. My standard is +/- 1 grain. Sometimes the bullets fall into to specific groups by weight using the +/- 1 gr. standard. Its usually just two, maybe three. I keep them separate, box them up, load and fire them separately. Maybe a little OCD, but I like to eliminate variables to the extent possible.

My Ruger SR40 has open sights and I have 65 year old eyes. So, at the short distances I shoot, weight variation makes little difference.

[retread]

Do yourself a big favor and don't delay casting your own.

I don't sell boolits but have given away a few thousand. I'd be ashamed giving those boolits away, let alone charging good money for them.

+1 for sure