Frosted Bullets

[DGV]

Is there any difference in quality of bullets that are frosted metilurgically (spelling) or otherwise in using for Big Game or even just target practice. Any and all comments are welcome.

[bedwards]

I honestly don't think so, but someone will come along soon and correct me!


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[Calamity Jake]

Heavy frosting is bad, it causes the boolit to be small for cal. Makes them grainy with the antimony crystles on the outside and possibley brittle.
An evenly frosted(dull gray color) is good.
Spotty frosting means these areas will be small for cal.

M2¢

[BPCR Bill]

Frosting is caused by a mould that is too hot, and is usually accompanied by "finning" into the block vents, but not always. If you are casting with one mould block and going too fast, frosting is sure to happen. Check the temperature of your melt occasionally and try to cast with a slower cadence. Casting with two moulds during a session is something I do. If you let the amount of alloy get too low in the pot it's temperature will go up. You'll have variances in boolit diameter as well as weights. I shoot BPCR competitively and am pretty anal about the quality of my castings for target work. Ditto for big game hunting. Deer and Elk have x-rings too! If you're plinking on wild mean beer cans, not a big deal I guess.

Regards,
Bill

[leftiye]

Heavy frosting is caused by a mold that is too hot. Light uniform frosting is caused by a mold that is just right. Finning is caused by mold halves that aren't closed. Whiskering is caused by pressure, a good alloy, and a mold that is not too cold.

[454PB]

I usually throw non-frosted boolits back in the pot. I strive for a light frosted appearance and don't consider the first shiney boolits up to full quality. Try this sometime......set the first shiney boolits aside and then later weigh and measure them for comparison to the frosted ones.

[Down South]

I like a light uniform frost. The shiny boolits usually are not filled out correctly (round edges on the drive bands in places and wrinkles). I discard the non frosted boolits back to the pot.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

+1 for lite frost, dull gray , shiny -back to melt.

[jonk]

I also like light frosting. Even heavy frosting. Any frosting, especially chocolate.

But really, I find it doesn't hurt anything. In fact it helps fill out to have it hot. It may or may not shrink the size of the bullet but I've not had any issues.

The only non-frosted bullets I get reliably good fill out with are pure lead and then only when the lead is hot anyhow- just no antimony to frost. I probably have some zinc contamination and this is part of the reason but that's ok.

[runfiverun]

i think there is a difference between grey and frosted.
to me frosted is white grey is good.
i have a mold that once it is up to temp will throw beautiful grey boolits unless i fill it too slowly then it will frost up [white] the front driving band and round it off.

[lead Foot]

We don't get any frosting here it doesn't get cold enough But I know what you meant. Living in the bush and at the end of the line the power is not good enough to get the pot hot enough. I did get frosting with a lee mould once and had no problems with it just shot the same. I do agree with running two moulds at once.
Lead foot;

[jdgabbard]

If their not frosty, I drop them back into the pot for recasting.

[303Guy]

I get a fine, light grey frosting. Sometimes I get course frosting. Recovered course frosted boolits show a strength irregulatity and swell along the frosting boundries. I have a mold I designed specifically to control the cooling rate along it's length. These boolits expand up to the faster cooled section of the boolit.

[WHITETAIL]

If frosting is good enough for Tony the Tiger it's good enough for me!

[Bret4207]

Heavy frosting is caused by a mold that is too hot. Light uniform frosting is caused by a mold that is just right. Finning is caused by mold halves that aren't closed. Whiskering is caused by pressure, a good alloy, and a mold that is not too cold.

Very well said. I'll add that frosted boolits expand just like non-frosted as far as I can tell.

[Bob Krack]

What I wanna know is - where can I get a mould for this boolit? pretty low BC but I would bet it gets great expansion and would hold all the lube you could possibly want!

[303Guy]

.... would hold all the lube you could possibly want!

Hee hee!

I have tried knurling the boolit and would you believe the knurls are still there after firing! Actually, the second fired boolit above, was knurled up to the neck.

One boolit I tried had flame cutting which started leading in the bore - what a struggle to get all of it out! There was a patch that just kept on re-leading!

This was part of the first batch of seven boolits I range tested. MV around 1900fps. No leading. These were 220gr slow cooled WW.


They were all frosted.

I think this pic shows the frosting. They were from a different mold which didn't have as much differencial cooling as the one in the pic above.

It seems that docone31 has the mold design sorted. Perhaps someone could make a few for the fellows?

[Whitespider]

I like bright, shiny boolits. On a good day, if I can get every thing just right, alloy, alloy temperature, mold temperature, timing, etc., my boolits are mirror bright with an occasional one just barely starting to "gray" up a bit. When I'm having one of those "good" days it's hard to shut the pot down. I also have the occasional "bad" day when I can't seem to pour anything, go figure.

[Bill*]

Just thinking out loud.... , would a frost finish hold more tumble lube??? Seems to me it would? (and I've never been wrong, except for usually)

[243winxb]

Frosted bullets are generally a sign that the mold is too hot. Let the mold cool for minute or two with the blocks open and sprue plate open. You may also want to lower the temperature of the pot. Once you reach a spot where you are seeing wrinkled bullets, you have gone too far. Slightly adjust back to a hotter temperature and you should have achieved the prime temperature setting for your pot.

Frosted bullets cause no problem when shooting so it is not necessary to discard them back into the pot. In fact, frosted bullets tend to cause the Liquid Alox to adhere even better which is very desirable, especially for bullets meant to be shot at higher velocities. http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/faq/index.cgi