Cast bullets in the freezer.

[FredT]

After I am done casting a bunch of bullets, 3-4 hundred, I like to put them in a bowl and put them in the freezer for a few hours. Will this change their temper making them harder or just make them cold?

[parrott1969]

It stop/slows the hardening process and allows you to size them at a later date without "working" the lead.

[lwknight]

Why do you like to make them cold?

[PAT303]

They stay fresher for longer. Pat

[sagacious]

Why do you like to make them cold?

Was thinking exactly the same thing.

[FredT]

It was just a way to cool them down quickly so that I could deal with them. Thought maybe it would have some properties of water quenching.

[Ed Gallop]

When I first started casting I used to drop them in water. Not only does it cool them really fast, but I understand it will cause them to harden more than air cooling. I think it takes a few days to maximum hardness but I don't know. I do know that my water dropped black powder balls were harder to get started so I stopped dropping. Dropping would be faster and easier than freezing. I doubt the cooling process in a freezer would be quick enough to harden lead. I assume the water drop process is like hardening of tempering steel. I'm no expert and would like to hear from someone that is.

[44man]

When I first started casting I used to drop them in water. Not only does it cool them really fast, but I understand it will cause them to harden more than air cooling. I think it takes a few days to maximum hardness but I don't know. I do know that my water dropped black powder balls were harder to get started so I stopped dropping. Dropping would be faster and easier than freezing. I doubt the cooling process in a freezer would be quick enough to harden lead. I assume the water drop process is like hardening of tempering steel. I'm no expert and would like to hear from someone that is.
I think after thawing they can be prepared with some bacon grease! :bigsmyl2:
But what are you using hard lead for in the muzzle loader???? Pure lead is always best and will not harden in water.

[XWrench3]

make sure you dont leave them in there to long, or they will get freezer burnt!:kidding: seriously though, i dont think it will do anything to them other than get them cold. now, if you were dropping them into liquid nitrogen, or something similar, you might be crogenicly treating them. i would think that would do something. but what, i am not sure.

[Ed Gallop]

I think after thawing they can be prepared with some bacon grease! :bigsmyl2:
But what are you using hard lead for in the muzzle loader???? Pure lead is always best and will not harden in water.

I cast pure lead for black powder but was told the free wheel weights would work fine. They were a bit more difficult to get started but after trying water dropping they were much harder to use. I know lead is much better but gave the weights a try. Didn't take long to go back to soft lead.

[AZ-Stew]

I cast pure lead for black powder but was told the free wheel weights would work fine. They were a bit more difficult to get started but after trying water dropping they were much harder to use. I know lead is much better but gave the weights a try. Didn't take long to go back to soft lead.

Don't use the WW balls for cap and ball revolvers. That's a good way to break a loading lever. Not that I'd know anything about that from first hand experience or anything...[smilie=1:

Regards,

Stew

[prs]

After casting 300 to 400 boolits, the group is going to have a temperature variation from recent cast ones to first cast ones that is way too wide. Consistency is the key to success with boolits. If you want WW alloy to be hard, consistently hard, heat up the whole batch to just below slump quench them all at once in a large bath of cold water.

As the other poster learned, WW is not gonna be fun to seat with a ram rod. Round ball cast of WW and heat treated to be soft (heated to near slump and then heat reduced very slowly over a long time, can be used in cap 'n ball, but still not as soft as good "pure" lead and then the heat treated ones do age and harden up a bit over time. Jest not worth the fuss.

prs

[MtGun44]

The heat treatment in lead is precipitation hardening and aging and you slow/stop the process by
cooling the boolits. So if you heat treat boolits and then quickly freeze them you can size them
easily at some future date and then let them age harden later.

This is akin to aluminum hardening but totally different than steel hardening.