New to casting

[Bones4557]

272552272553272554I’ve just test fired @10 yds. 9.2 gn UNIQUE 44 magnum my cast boolits into 4,one gallon milk jugs full
Of water. It pasted through ALL 4 & buried 4 inches into soft dirt/mud the boolit shows rifling but ZERO DISTORTION/DEFORMITY is this GOOD or bad

[Don Purcell]

You are one up on me as I have never tried powder coating. See nothing wrong with your casting and your alloy seems amply hard. One question, the bases seem to have "flecks" of material on them. For my own use I would prefer a wider meplat but for starting out you look good. Welcome to the Dark Side Luke, we have cookies.

[Conditor22]

Welcome to cast boolits Bones4557,
" boolit shows rifling but ZERO DISTORTION/DEFORMITY is this GOOD or bad"

that depends on what you're looking for!

If the nose deforms it will tear up more flesh and create a larger hole. IF you want more penetration your golden.

what alloy are you using?
what pot are you using?

the PC (Powder Coating) looks like it stuck pretty well,
what PC are you using?
How long are you baking it and at what temperature?

[charlie b]

Looks good to me.

Do you want expansion? If so look at your lead alloy and maybe try some softer alloy. Or, try a hollow point mold.

[Winger Ed.]

Looks good to me too.
I wouldn't expect much expansion in water from that design unless you use a real soft alloy, and step up the speed.
Even then, they probably won't 'splat'.

Shooting into solid wood or if there were some gravel under the mud would look more impressive for expansion.

[farmbif]

looks real good.
good way to start out, no leading or other problems. non distorted bullet is not a problem. like mentioned above if you want mushroomed bullet get hollow point mold and or cast with softer alloy.

[daloper]

Welcome to this madness. It looks like you are falling down the rabbit hole. No looking back now.

[lightman]

Welcome aboard!

[WHITETAIL]

Welcome to the forum !
They look good and you did good!
Remember that a piece of paper does not
care if your boolit expanes or not as long
as you hit the target.:holysheep

[Winger Ed.]

as long as you hit the target.:holysheep

You do have to hit it pretty hard though.
The Target Kong are known to drag off their wounded.:bigsmyl2:

[Wayne Smith]

Yeah! That looks good, and remember you will be punching a .44 caliber hole. Most rifle bullets have to expand to get to that size, yours don't. Depending upon your desired use you may be perfect as is - nice round holes in targets, big holes straight through game, etc. If you want the holes in game even bigger you can go softer or HP. but how necessary will it be? Depends on what you are hunting.

[OS OK]

The only thing I see that is concerning is the large portion of missing PC on the middle cast...

...that makes me think of a couple of reasons we should see that, if this is showing up on other casts.
> when you dump from the mould, try your best not to touch the new casts and get finger oils on them. Dump into a clean catch pan with a clean cotton pad lining it.
if possible PC them ASAP after casting.
> others have had problems with the PC adhering when they chill the cast in water when they dump out of the mould...make sure the water is clean and in a clean container.

We will know much more about what you are doing when you answer Conditor22's questions...I don't know of anyone who cast's more or PC's more than Jim.
What he says is Gospel...

Your question...(Of water. It pasted through ALL 4 & buried 4 inches into soft dirt/mud the boolit shows rifling but ZERO DISTORTION/DEFORMITY is this GOOD or bad )
> Can't answer that question adequately without knowing what you expected, what the blend of boolit metal was, etc.
I can tell you this much...
I put a chronograph behind a water filled jug to monitor the speed of a .45ACP HP as it exited the first and only jug of water...it went into the jug at 908fps and exited at 450fps. That had some to do with the HP expanding like a parachute and slowing the cast but the point is that water filled jugs slow the projectile substantially and I suspect that your cast SWC was traveling pretty slow when it embedded in the mud/dirt...don't expect to see much if any expansion from low speeds. That profile is a piercing profile when water is concerned until it is cast as soft as possible and then not much can be expected unless it's hitting that jug with considerable speed.

Here's the video where I captured that exit speed of the HP leaving the water jug...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maRWzS58gQ < FIRST TIME EVER

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I would have thought, after the first shot, there wouldn't be much water left in the 4 jugs?

[OldBearHair]

I certainly would not expect a bullet to be perfect after passing through four jugs of water, then having to dig them out of the dirt with a piece of PC missing. Maybe take Winger Ed's advice to step up the speed all the while watching pressures.

[kreuzlover]

Elmer Keith, the .44 magnum guru, wanted penetration in his bullet designs. In his time, what jacketed handgun bullets there were, probably didn't expand at ALL. With his designs the bullet is designed to punch straight through, leaving TWO holes in the game being shot. I used his plain base .44 semi-wadcutter to kill whitetails, and it usually only required one shot.

[fredj338]

I would say it is normal, not good or bad. In order for solids to expand, they have to be nearly dead soft lead.

[Eddie17]

I’ve pulled my cast PC’d boolits out of the shooting berm. They show better adhesion then yours.
Like said, keep boolits clean an bake at proper temperature an time.

[JoeJames]

Yeah! That looks good, and remember you will be punching a .44 caliber hole. Most rifle bullets have to expand to get to that size, yours don't. Depending upon your desired use you may be perfect as is - nice round holes in targets, big holes straight through game, etc. If you want the holes in game even bigger you can go softer or HP. but how necessary will it be? Depends on what you are hunting.Agree. A 44 caliber hole is what lesser pistol calibers aspire to. If I am running a 240 grain .430" boolit down range at @900 fps I don't worry about expansion.