Weighing Cast Boolits

[Sky King]

Does anybody sort by weight their boolits before sizing & lube? If so do you shoot all the same weight or combine several of the weights either side of your base weight boolit?

[mpmarty]

I weigh rifle boolits and discard (remelt) any that vary more than one grain from the median weight.

[outdoorfan]

I don't weigh; just give them a visual. Weighing takes the fun out of it for me. Even when I'm shooting the little .224's. The ones I have weighed are almost always close enough to each other in weight anyway.

[Fugowii]

Does anybody sort by weight their boolits before sizing & lube? If so do you shoot all the same weight or combine several of the weights either side of your base weight boolit?

Why would you do this for anything other than competition shooting or hunting?
For general range fodder it seems like overkill. But then again, a lot of us are
OCD candidates. :mrgreen:

[1Shirt]

I seperate and discard any rifle blts that don't look good befor I check/size/lube. I use a hard lube, and weigh after they are lubed. I check/size/lube on the same day I cast before they harden. I weigh and segrate by weight to exact weight for 22 & 6 mm cals, to within .2gr. for 6.5/7mm, .3gr. for 30/8mm, .375, and .5 gr.for 44/45's. I store them in the cheap plastic boxes with all kinds of adjustable compartments. The ones that are on the extreme ends of median weights I shoot only as plinkers or bbl warmers. Being a lousy handgunner, I don't bother weighing pistol/revolver blts. been accused of being anal, big whoop!
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[Shiloh]

I've been weighting and separating into half grain lots. I have heavy and light batches.
The huge majority are in the middle batch of the two.

Next time I'm taking a fellow caster and shooters advice. If it has a good nose and a flat base, it shoots. minor surface flaws are cosmetic. Poor fill and obvious flaws are re-melted.

Shiloh

[badgeredd]

Depends, but generally yes I weigh mine to get them within a 1/2 grain. I really doubt that weighing pistol boolits for general use would matter a whole lot. Obvious flawed boolits are remelted no matter what they are for. If you're looking for extreme accuracy, and have smallish boolits, weighing them is a must. Heavy boolits probably would be good within 1/2 grain +/- for general use. MHO.

Edd

[theperfessor]

I don't weigh my pistol bullets but I do reject any with obvious flaws such as base pits and rounded edges and bases. But to be honest I'm not that good a shot and don't compete in any competitions where ultimate accuracy is critical.

Once I start casting for my 45/70 Marlin and K31 I probably will, since the expected range is greater and the volume used will be much lower.

[bishopgrandpa]

I defininely do for rifle (45-70 & 450) because different casting batches will vary due to temperature, what you put next into the pot and many other variables. With big bullets it is easy to get great looking bullets that vary as much as 10 grains or even more. Using a cheap jewelers digital scale (ebay $10 or less) you can go thru a hundred in 5 minutes. Often they vary less than several grains but it is good to know for sure.

[awaveritt]

I initially weighed and measured boolits from my double cavity 9mm mold and found that there is a one grain difference between the two cavities. One cavity also seems to produce a more round boolit than the other. But here's what I discovered:

Each cavity happens to leave distinctly different sprue marks on the base so now, instead of measuring, its a relatively easy task to just sort by the sprue mark without going to the trouble to weigh. Then, having separated them, I load them according to "plinking" or "target" use.

Like others have said, this is probably overkill, but this is why the OCD types (ME!) are attracted to hobbies like these.:drinks:

[sandhillscowboy]

I weigh the bullets that I shoot in my 45-120, the reason is to detect any traped air pockets, and if you really want to find a good concent bullet weight them supended in water that will detect even the smallest air pocket.

[acoilfld]

I weigh my rifle bullets - but not the ones for handguns.

[Sky King]

Sound like I've been wasting my time. I only cast for 9mm, .357, .44mag and 45acp.
I guess if I have nothing to do, I may weigh them.

[BruceB]

For handgun bullets, weighing's a definite waste of time. If they look good, load and shoot.

After several large-scale trials with weighing rifle bullets, I find that it's not necessary for *my* shooting. Visual inspection while sizing and lubing picks up flaws that are not detected by the scale, meaning that even though there may be a condition that causes me to reject a bullet, that same condition may NOT be picked up by the scale.

I'm pretty ruthless in my accept/reject decisions, so the routine works well. There are relatively-few rejects, certainly under five percent in the majority of runs.

[Marlin Junky]

I weigh all my rifle boolits and separate into usually two or three (if necessary) lots. I shoot for single digit standard deviations but am pleased if I get in the 10 to 12 fps SD range when the average velocity is over 2000 fps. Weighing all boolits checks my casting session for proper heat conditions and technique. I always start with a mold fresh off the hot plate and prefer to start with a mold that's a little too hot than cold. Too hot is always a snap to spot (torn sprues, funny texture, etc.) but too cold sometimes alludes me until I hit the scale. Too cold is a sure way to get voids in your boolits. Five rounds at 100 yards into one hole is my goal.

MJ

[fredj338]

The only rilfe I cast for is 45-70, they get weighed & rejects of +/- 3gr works for me. I also weigh y large bore HP handgun rounds. You can get a void in the bottom of the HP that may go missed on visual inspection, it does cause flyers. Blasting bullets only get a visual inspection.

[kelbro]

I weigh rifle boolits and discard (remelt) any that vary more than one grain from the median weight.

I do the same. No need to closely examine for defects, the scale will find them.

[GP100man]

Huntin boolits get a good visual !!

A good base with a slightly rounded band , usually the front one , goes to the plinkin bin,

[lead Foot]

I don't weigh rifle or pistol boolits anymore ~ as long as you have good visual and more important a good base. You should be right. Here is two targets I shoot last week. It was shot using the RCBS 308-165-SIL Boolit.
Lead foot;

[Bret4207]

I rarely weigh my boolits, especially my handgun boolits. Visual culling is enough for most cases.

[pdawg_shooter]

I weigh all my bullets and remelt any that are more than 1% off average.

[high standard 40]

Most of my bullets are used for IHMSA Silhouette so I do a very critical visual inspection of all the bullets I cast but I don't weigh those.
I have one rifle dedicated to hunting, a 358 Win, and for this one I do weigh each bullet. After the close visual inspection, I weigh and keep only the bullets in the middle of the weight range for that batch with a variation of no more than .5 grain.
Does it really help? I can't say for sure because I never did a side by side comparison. But it makes me feel better. It's not much trouble since I shoot maybe 20-40 rounds a year though it.

[HORNET]

I'll usually weight sort rifle boolits to some degree, depending on the purpose. Ones for serious things like load development or matches get sorted fairly closely. Pistol boolits usually only get a quick visual check, if that. I cant shoot pistol well enough to tell much difference. Somebody much better might be able to tell. I'm usually just trying to eliminate the ones with internal voids
or where I didn't hold the handles together the same.

[Doc Highwall]

I cast mostly for rifle 99% of the time and I do a visual inspection on them as I cast. I fill the mould with lead and as it cools I inspect the boolits the I had previously drop out of the mould and when I am done casting I do another quick visual. I now will take a last visual when I size and lube them. Using this technique of visual inspection, during, after, and when sizing I have been able to shoot many sub minute of angle groups with my 308 Win. with the record being .305" for 5 shots at 100 yards.