Meticulously Stacking your Boolits in the oven...

[DaveSpud]

If you're one of those folks who just dump your boolits on the screen/paper after coating...

Don't you get flat spot(s) where the boolit rests on the paper/screen? Does that not affect accuracy? Does resizing remove the flat spot?

I'm particularly concerned about shooting those loooooooooong 230gr. Lee .308 boolits through a suppressor. Avoiding baffle strikes is a high priority, and I would think flat spots increase the likelihood of instability.

So, I meticulously stack all my boolits on the base before baking. Its a pain. Sometimes a boolit falls and gets a flat spot. I re-smelt those. Is that a waste?

What's your experience?

[dave 45-90]

287966I use plastic egg crate fluorescent light fixture covers cut to pan size to set them up Pull the grate up and pc. Stand up like solders. Then I use hemostats with a needle shape ground point to move them to another pan. Doesn’t affect coating and the overspray is contained in my special designed rotating table

[charlie b]

Just size them after. The flat spot might affect accuracy but they still do 1 1/2 MOA or less for me. If they are touching each other they form more of a defect than just laying on the side.

I stand them up because I can fit more on the tray. I use trays with a 1/2" wire grid. I leave the wire in there when they are baked.

[oley55]

I'm still pretty new to PCing and only cast/coat easy to stand-up pistol bullets. That said setting bullets upright doesn't really take that long. I can coat and set up a full tray of bullets in the time it takes to cook a batch. So no time wasted expending a bit more effort.

I'm fairly certain at some point I will try shake, bake and dump in a pile, but not until I have fully mastered the basic processes.

[shell70634]

I used to stand all of them up on non-stick aluminum foil covered piece of sheet metal to bake. Still do for small groups of large caliber boolits in a cheap toaster oven. For quantity I use a kitchen size oven a friend gave me. I buy plastic containers from Dollar Tree. They have screw on lids and the number 5 on the base. It will fit in my thumblers tumbler. I have done the shake method but I'm lazy. I haven't found the plastic beads to be anything but a pain so I don't use any. This is what I did this morning.
Started with this: 165 grain swc 38 boolits
288049
Tumbled a few handfuls per container for 15 to 20 minutes. I use whatever color I have laying around and sometimes get an interesting mix.
288050
Then dump em in a hardware clothe box to shake of excess.
288051
Then dump em onto the oven rack. It's covered with hardware clothe and non-stick aluminum foil. I leave gaps between the foil to allow heat to circulate. My oven can be 400 degrees down low and 250 degrees up high. I try not to let them pile on top of each other but I don't worry about them touching. If I watch the thermometers closely the bottom rack will get to 400 and I keep it adjusted for that. After 18 to 20 minutes at 400 I remove the bottom rack and then watch the upper rack and do the same.
288052
288053
I have a laundry room utility sink nearby that I fill half full of water. The boolits get dumped into the water, foil and all. The only loss of boolits are when 2 are base to base when they hit the water. I can't get them apart. Any others that stick together usually break apart easily without bare lead showing. Then I dump them onto a towel to dry before sizing.
288054
Monitoring the heat is the only critical process. I lost a loaded rack of 235 grain 45 acp boolits because the bottom rack got far to hot and the boolits started to deform. A few of the boolits that are directly on the hardware clothe have small bare spots, but most are usable.

This works for me. I pc'd about 2500 boolits in less than 2 hours.

[OS OK]

Try a silicone ice cube tray...

https://i.imgur.com/GL7t4ra.jpg

[reedap1]

I use ammo box plastic inserts from 38 Special ammunition that I quickly drilled out to be through round holes. I glued some together to fit my baking sheet. After "powdering" the bullets I use nitrile gloved hands with PC on the fingers to stand the bullets in the holders. When full I very carefully lift the plastic holder and all my bullets are neatly standing in rows. Carefully slide the baking sheet into the oven and cook them. If you had a heavy night of drinking the day before your results won't be so good...just sayin'

[AndyC]

Try a silicone ice cube tray...
Yep - that's what I use for rifle boolits, too

https://i.imgur.com/D6Lmi0G.jpg

[rfd]

I PC big bullets for .45-70 rifles and carefully standing up each bullet (using PC powdered surgical gloves) on a teflon mat insures creating proper coated bullets that have clean sides AND bases that will be ready for sizing, loading, and top notch accuracy to 200 yards and beyond. YMMV.