bottom pour or laddle

[bingo]

Just getting back into making boolits. Moved , found most of my reloading stuff, but can not find my small Lee bottom pour.

Worked for smelting ww and scrap lead, made 1oz. slugs(Lee the one with the stabilizing fin at the base)and 45 RFN(single). Got a rhythm down and made good bollits

Question What is better(quality)? A pot with laddle or a bottom pour like I had. Two side notes.

Plan on getting a HP for 45 and maybe for .311 7.62x39.
Have a double burner coleman takes propane, and a 8 qt. casr iron pot with lid

Any imput will be apreciated,Thanks

Bingo

Spending A LOT of tine on this site is keeping me from doing important stuff like casting and loading bollits.

[docone31]

I really like my 20lb bottom pour pot! Just ingot outside of the pot, and keep it hot.
It works well for me.
I turn the spigot every time I shut it down, no drips.

[Old Ironsights]

I don't load a lot of odd/large calibers so a Lee Drip-o-matic works fine for me.

I'm too klutzy to handle a ladle AND a mould at the same time anyway...

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Once upon a time there were no bottom pours so everybody ladle poured their bullets and made perfectly good ones. They shot good groups and set records a hundred years ago. A ladle works well. It is slower....but so what? As long as you don't mind the slower pace and are happy with the quality of the bullets you produce. It is a much debated subject. A bottom pour is definitely the faster way to get production and equally as good quality, but like everything else you have to pay for convenience. The problem with bottom pours is the question of which brand to get involved with. Lee makes the lowest priced models while Lyman models cost more and RCBS is the most expensive. They all produce both bottom pour pots and non-bottom pour pots (for the ladle method) It comes down basically to a question of personal preference and what you are happy and comfortable with as well as, of course, what you are able/willing to spend. Many forum members will give you their personal experiences and good and sound recommendations to help you make a good choice. Good luck with it. LLS

[454PB]

Like most casters, I started casting with a ladle. I did it that way until Lee came out with their first bottom pour pot (1974?). Once I learned the bottom pour technique, I never went back to the ladle.

A few weeks ago I decided to do some dipper casting. Took me about 50 boolits to see how crude that method is.

[Mk42gunner]

My RCBS ladle works just fine while my Lee 20 pound drip-o-matic makes drip art.

This gives you both options.


Robert

[Recluse]

Dangdest thing. . .

I like my bottom pour for handgun boolits, but almost purely by accident, I found that my long gun boolits come out much better when I ladle pour. Go figure.

I thought I'd sworn off ladle pouring when I swore off being pleasant to anyone from the IRS, but now I'm kind of enjoying it.

Ladle pouring that is, not the (expletive deleted) IRS.

:coffee:

[archmaker]

I have a Lyman 20 and tried to bottom pour my 30 and 7mm bullets with it and it just did not work very well, the ladle worked and I never went back.

But reading the post above I may give the bottom pour a try once I start casting my pistol bullets.

[Bret4207]

I've been ladling for 30+ years. Slower? Maybe, but with a 1 lb Rowell ladle and a 10 cav H+G mould (which won't fit under a BP nozzle from what I've seen, sideways maybe?) I can turn out heaps of boolits. Same with a 6 Banger Lee. Maybe with a 4 banger Lyman or 2 or 3 cav Lyman/RCBS/SAECO/Lee the BP is faster-maybe. I haven't done enough BPing to say having just got my first decent BP, a SAECO. Lee's BP's are junk, sorry Mr. Lee, and a waste of money IMO. Feel free to disagree. There's no way some of my HP moulds will fit under a Lee.

I know I can do 150-175 GOOD boolits an hour with a ladle and 2 banger. With a 6 banger it's over 400 ph, I spend more time getting the sprues moved than anything else. With a 10 cav H+G 5-600 per hour is easy, but my arm wears out.

From what I've seen you need a different setup to use a BP fast. With a ladle everything works best at elbow height. With a BP I want the nozzle at near face height so I can see the stream or line things up for nozzle to sprue contact. Maybe others have a better system?

I may end up using a BP in the end, but I will never throw my ladle away. I know I can always cast excellent boolits with a ladle. I'm not so sure with the BP yet and doubt it with a Lee.

[docone31]

So, I am not alone in haveing my Bottom Pour at face height! Being a jeweler, my devices to hold, braze, stone set are all at face height. I was pouring and splashing everywhere and I decided to try face height casting.
Bingo!
I have my ladle, but I use that for ingoting. One ladle, one ingot. I have an ingot mold for makeing bar stock for rolling out, and it makes a perfect ingot mold for casting also.
Yep, face height is the ticket for me.

[monadnock#5]

I've always had a problem filling multi cavity moulds with a bp. Particularly when the pot is full with greater pressure at the nozzle. As the cavity fills to the top the stream jumps and invariably makes a bee line for the unfilled cavity. "DANG, did it again!!" Couple that with the fact that only Lyman moulds fit well in the Lyman mould guide.

Then I bought an old NEI 4 cav the some bonehead had milled to fit a mould guide. Not milled evenly on both sides, but all on one side so that the cavities aren't in line with the spout. Hm-mm, OK, drop the mould guide and hold the mould so that it's 45° to the guide. "EUREKA!!" I've now adopted this style for ALL my moulds. It works very well for me. And yes, my setup is at about face level.

[chg]

I use a RCBS bottom pour for both rifle and pistol casting. I use the bottom pour feature for all pistol bullets and rifle bullets up to .35 caliber. For rifle bullets in .379 and .45 caliber I get better results with a RCBS ladle. I just screw the volume adjustment down tight and ladle away with the heavier rifle calibers. I get much better results with the ladle on these.