I bottom pour because its easy and I never learned to use a ladle well. I like that with bottom pour I can let a little slag accumulate on the surface and still get nice clean alloy out of the bottom.
I bottom pour because its easy and I never learned to use a ladle well. I like that with bottom pour I can let a little slag accumulate on the surface and still get nice clean alloy out of the bottom.
Hick: Iron sights!
Less than and equal to 400 grain, I bottom pour. Greater than 400 grain, I ladle.
I bottom pore with a lee 4/20 pot most of the time mostly handgun boolits , but sometimes I feel like dipping a few .
I gave up creating lee drip sculptures years ago. Went to ladle pouring and never looked back. I usually open the sprue holes in my molds to allow faster pouring too.
If you are going to make a hole in something. MAKE IT A BIG ONE!
I agree. MAYBE and I mean MAYBE a ladle might work better for a beginning caster for larger bullets but I can make them out of any alloy you can throw at me that have weight variations just as good with a bottom pour as I can a ladle. Most variations in bullet weight come from maintaining mold temp and rhythm, not from how the lead is put in the mold. Id no sooner go back to ladel casting as I would single stage loading of pistol ammo.
I've always used a ladle not becouse it is nessarly better but never owned a bottom pour pot. might try one at some point.
My results are consistent as well. Usually if there is a variance it is because of something I did. Let the molds get too hot, too cold, dirty etc
I shootCowboy Action so accuracy is not quite as critical as production.
Done both. Prefer the bottom pour over ladle. But then again I am not pouring precision projectiles either.
My bullets turn out much better bottom pouring. Too many rejects using a ladle Gp
When I started casting 550 grain BPCS boolits with a Hoch nose pour mould, I started out with really poor quality boolits. So I went to experimenting with various techniques. I found pressure filling to work best. So I held the sprue in contact with the pour spout and then after I was sure the mould was full I pulled it away to form a generous sprue. I settled on a 5 count to be sure the mould was filled.
I would vote you can cast awesome boolits with a ladle or a bottom pour mould.
Very heavy, very light, or very complex designs will require more experimentation to find the best techniques. Normal weight pistol boolits in the usual designs are usually very forgiving of technique. Boolits with many square lube grooves are generally very demanding.
Keep two pots. A small Lee bottom pour filled with wheelweights for blasting bullets. A large Lee furnace with 30:1 for dipping the big black powder cartridge bullets.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |