OH MY BECKY! I got bent boolits!

[mainiac]

Ive been battiling consentricity problems with my .32 win seater die. Loaded rounds are about .002-.003 run-out,(which i can live with) but occationally i have one .008-.015 out! Today i got to measuring some more, and decided to spin the boolit itself. Couldnt beleave how bannana shaped some of them was! Now im way out in the clouds thinking about this one! Im thinking about all the 4&1 groups ive shot with cast, (4 in under an inch& 1 that will fly out 2-3 inches. Could be the occational bannana shaped boolit doing this. I hate to think that i have to spin all boolits for now on, aint got patience for that! Maybe opening the mold to quick causes this? Or maybe its the water-dropping that is doing it? Now my mind is realing!!!! P.S. you guys probaly all ready figured out i cant spell very good, cant help it. Any of you serious experimenters tested for this?

[mto7464]

I got bent boolits one time from to hot a mold plus dropping them to soon

[Boerrancher]

No I haven't been able to test for bad spelling as mine is horrible. As for bent boolits, I had some 180 gr 30 cals do that because they came out of the mould too soon. I learned to slow down some or add a second mould.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[felix]

Antimony percentage not being kosher is the culprit. Add real lead and/or tin next time around, or just lower the boolit temp a little before dropping into water like was indicated above. Also, do not size until a month after casting, especially when gas checks are going to be crimped hard. ... felix

[mainiac]

felix, these boolits are 15/1 ww/babbit, and either your way ahead of me, or i didnt explain that the boolits are spun just like they came from the mold,before sizing. I have a suspicion that this has been going on since the beginning, and i never thought to check for it?

[targetshootr]

I used to have bent ones when I let them drop from the mold onto the top of other boolits. Bad idear.

[Yance]

When water dropping my boolits I drape a piece of heavy cloth (cut off jeans leg or the like) over about 2/3 of the top of my bucket. Boolits hit the cloth and it gives, slowing them down and allows them to enter the water gently. They're quite cool by the time they roll off to join the others at the bottom of the bucket.

When casting "soft" boolits, or those to be later heat treated and quenched I drop them on a thick layer of folded OLD towels. The way I can simply lift the edge of the towel and roll the cooled ones toward the back. That way you're not dropping soft hot boolits on top of the harder ones.

[Hipshot]

Got bent bullets when the LEE mold got too hot. .30 cal 180 gr. RNGC/wheelweights/air cooled.

Hipshot

[beagle]

I have gotten "banannas" on .25s and .30s. My problem stemmed from base first sizing.

I switched to nose first sizing and the problem went away.

Now, a .32's a pretty thick bullet but you might take a look before and after sizing to see if the nose is slumping due to TP/die missalignment.

Pretty easy to roll them on a flat surface and eliminate that step of the loading equation as the culprit./beagle

[SharpsShooter]

I've bent boolits from both dropping them while too hot and by sizing. Beagle is right. A flat surface like a pane of glass will tell you the story.


SS

[mold maker]

Hey Yance, Where is Fairview, NC??
Are we neighbors?

[mainiac]

I am talking about the boolit straight out of the mold, not sized. Anyway, my hole point is that maybe some of these unaccountable fliers that happen from time to time, is in fact caused by this.

[Larry Gibson]

It's not hard to bend bullets while sizing them in a lubrasizer. If the resistance from the amount of sizing and the GC is more than the yield strength of the alloy then it will give way at the least reisistance. This usually happens in a front lube or crimp groove. It is not hard to bend bullets and it is far more common than many think. Easy solution is a Lee push through sizer of the diameter you want. The bullets being pushed nose first through will not bend. Then lube them in the lubrasizer with a H die equal or .001" larger. If you don't have a Lee sizer then no problem. Back of the stop adjustment under the sizer and size/seat the GC by pushing the bullet nose first into the H die. This does the same thing as the Lee die and does not bend the bullet. The bullets are then run back through the H die base first (readjust the stop) to only lube them. Do not use a lot of force ramming the bullet against the stop. Push the bullet in with just enough preshure to bottom it out and to lube the bullet.

With either method your bent bullet problem will be gone and Becky will be happy again.

Larry Gibson

[Bigjohn]

+1 Dropping boolits from the mold while they are still too hot. I had the same problem with the LEE .459-500-2r. It was bad enough to see easily.

John.

[beagle]

Hey mold maker.... I was born in Newton. Grew up between Newton and Maiden on 321. Kind of got transplanted here to KY.

Is that old range still out there by Conover. It was there when I was a kid and that was in the late 40s. Lot of shooting use to go on there./beagle


Hey Yance, Where is Fairview, NC??
Are we neighbors?