Freezing Cast Boolits?

[PatMarlin]

Will puttin' cast boolits in the freezer speed up or slow age hardness?

Sounds far fetched, but I thougt I'd ask.

[Bass Ackward]

Will puttin' cast boolits in the freezer speed up or slow age hardness?

Sounds far fetched, but I thougt I'd ask.

Pat,

Retards hardening.

But if you freeze them after they harden, then the softening that occurs with age slows dramatically.

[44man]

I have to ask---WHY WORRY? I shoot boolits hours old and years old and can't see a single, tiny difference. They all shoot good. I don't see any difference in air cooled or water dropped either. The only thing that changes anything is the alloy. When I see anyone put every boolit in one hole at 100 yd's, I will use their method. All of you know how my guns shoot and the groups I get. I never weigh boolits either, depending on my casting methods for good boolits.
If you tell me I have to shoot my boolits exactly 27-3/4 days after casting, weigh every boolit to 1/10 of a gr., I will tell you to pound salt.
Gee whiz, I have boolits weeks old, years old, hours old and some are a couple of grains different---NO GOOD, have to melt them, recast them, weigh them and time them!
What are you guys talking about anyway?

[PatMarlin]

No worries here 44man..

I wasn't looking for a means to an end. I was just wonderin'?

Wonderin' what freezing would do to lead. It does intersting things to lots of stuff.

[fecmech]

Pat--I tried it a while back to ease sizing of water dropped bullets that I did not want to size immediately. I kept the bullets in the freezer for up to 2 weeks and they sized with the same resistance that they did sizing right after casting. That was noticeably easier than letting them remain over night at room temp. Nick

[Scrounger]

Pat--I tried it a while back to ease sizing of water dropped bullets that I did not want to size immediately. I kept the bullets in the freezer for up to 2 weeks and they sized with the same resistance that they did sizing right after casting. That was noticeably easier than letting them remain over night at room temp. Nick

You can do the same things with 'cold treatment' that you can do with heat. I read stories about that 30 years ago in Mechanix Illustrated and such magazines. And I know you have read about the companies 'cold treating' barrels to improve accuracy. Now. how to do it, I cant tell you, but I'd bet my last rifle it could be done... You're going to have to get them much colder than what your freezer can do, most likely several hundred degrees below Zero.

[Vegas Vince]

I have never put boolits in the freezer, but i have tryed the refrigerator. I test serveral batches over a two week time. I used WC WW and let them sit three to four day before lubing & sizing. I live in las Vegas so my garage is a cool 95 to 100 degrees all summer. so i thought refrigeration would assist the process. FORGET IT total waste of time!!! BHN was the same.

Vegas Vince

[charger 1]

Pat,

Retards hardening.

But if you freeze them after they harden, then the softening that occurs with age slows dramatically.

Yep, I found that out the hard way. On a buddies advice I did the freezer routine cause I was in a hurry to get em to the range.What I did find out is that our gas oven with pilot light temp will do quite a bit when their left in for a day....He11 if I'm payin for that propane it might well be workin for me

[Bass Ackward]

I have to ask---WHY WORRY? I shoot boolits hours old and years old and can't see a single, tiny difference. They all shoot good. I don't see any difference in air cooled or water dropped either. The only thing that changes anything is the alloy. When I see anyone put every boolit in one hole at 100 yd's, I will use their method. All of you know how my guns shoot and the groups I get. I never weigh boolits either, depending on my casting methods for good boolits.
If you tell me I have to shoot my boolits exactly 27-3/4 days after casting, weigh every boolit to 1/10 of a gr., I will tell you to pound salt.
Gee whiz, I have boolits weeks old, years old, hours old and some are a couple of grains different---NO GOOD, have to melt them, recast them, weigh them and time them!
What are you guys talking about anyway?

44man,

Pressure does seem to matter to some folks running on the top. If you develop a top load with 35 BHN bullets and one year later they soften to 18, you "will" develop a problem if you didn't account for that. Particularly if it was developed with faster powders. I don't prefer to HT for this reason. While I usually shoot, most everything in a reasonable period of time, I don't want to have the hastles of that.

And beware, I now have a red dot, space invader gun that I am closing in on you too. Not only do I have the mission of one hole, but I am going to get their using a different technique if I can.

[Wayne Smith]

Bass, 44Man, we need to be specific when we talk this way. Casting and loading for revolver/pistol and you're right. Cast for hi velocity rifle and it may make a big difference.

[44man]

I guess you are right in that high velocity in a rifle would need the hardest boolit.
Bass, how about a picture of your gun. I hope you DO get some one hole groups.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have never put boolits in the freezer, but i have tryed the refrigerator. I test serveral batches over a two week time. I used WC WW and let them sit three to four day before lubing & sizing. I live in las Vegas so my garage is a cool 95 to 100 degrees all summer. so i thought refrigeration would assist the process. FORGET IT total waste of time!!! BHN was the same.

Vegas Vince

I put steaks, prawns (shrimps to you guys) and beer in my fridge! Mick.

[Bass Ackward]

Bass, 44Man, we need to be specific when we talk this way. Casting and loading for revolver/pistol and you're right. Cast for hi velocity rifle and it may make a big difference.

Wayne,

This is probably going to shock you. But low velocity rifle is different from HV rifle accuracy. I prefer hard bullets for 1800 fps. That is because I want to store and load these without being too particular and I want to shoot faster powders. When it comes to velocities over 2000 fps, I drop to 14 BHN for HV work. Kind of bass ackwards huh?

My theory is that hard bullets have a reputation that they don't deserve. Examples.

1. A hard bullet requires less or less quality of a lube than a soft. Or another way to state this, a hard bullet can go faster on a small amount or poor lube than a softone. So it can be said that a hard bullet has a higher velocity potential than a soft which is really untrue.

2. A hard bullet survises a rougher bore than a softer bullet because it is tougher and also because it will spring back maintaining contact with the bore. So if your bore isn't perfect, you have about .001 margin for error from this springback. A hard bullet resists sizing in a bore more from fouling.

3. Sizing a hard bullet will result in a bigger diameter bullet than sizing a soft one. Same principal as above. We all know how larger diameter bullets perform over smaller. Hardness? Or diameter? Another factor to sizing is improper sizing that either results in deformed or obturated bullets. Here hard bullets size easier without operator errors.

4. A hard bullet survives faster generated pressures than a soft bullet because the base is stronger. This is true.

5. Hard bullets are easier to load without causing problems of cases sizing them down, bases getting deformed from an improper bell on the case or improper fit of the seater die, etc.

So are hard bullets really more accurate? Or is the reloader or shooter simply unaware of what problems he is not addressing? Since some people can shoot soft bullets, I don't think you can call hardness a "law".

44man,

I have no pictures yet. Aaaaaah, sort of hard to take if you catch my traditionalist bias. But I will get around to it eventually and would be glad to email you one. God is that Redhawk ugly!

[felix]

Actually, BA, there is another factor. Boolit toughness! I have no real way in measuring this parameter before shooting a boolit lot. A soft and tough boolit will outshoot a hard boolit that strips. Hammering a boolit through a hand held barrel section that is throated with the same reamer of the gun of interest might be a tool which can be used. Measure the length of the tails generated by the rifling. The requirement would be to make sure the boolit is hammered through like would happen during a true firing with the load contemplated. This gadget would measure lube effectiveness as well, so we are talking various combos. A wild guess at best on all accounts. ... felix

Shorter the tails, the tougher the boolit, or, better the lube. ... felix

[Bucks Owin]

I'm thinking of putting some cast boolits in the smoker next time I make jerky. Maybe a nice alder coating will help my boolits smoke the rams in silhouette. (Nothing else seems to help!)

I'll try anything!

Dennis

[johnho]

Cast bullets in the freezer???? I can see you're not married. I have trouble putting bait in there, now if I filled her freezer up with bullets...........

[JackOfAllTrades]

When I pour with a four cavity mould, it only takes 15 minutes or so to get a hundred sitting on a towl. They're still too hot for me to handle bare handed. I bunch up the towel, march straight to the freezer and lett'm sit over night. Then I size the next day after I've let them sit for an hour or so at room temperature. Now, maybe it's because I use too much linotype in my mix, but over the years folks have commented on how hard my bullets are. My process isn't quite like ice-water quenching as soon as I cast, but it seems to work.

So, am I doing something wrong? Can I really get my boolits harder?

-Steve

[felix]

Steve, the hardness in your situation is due to the mix. ... felix

[JackOfAllTrades]

OK then, If I reduce the amount of linotype, then quench my fresh hot bullets in "ice-water" or just "tap-water", I could possibly get harder bullets?

-Steve

[felix]

Yes, especially if your mix contains some arsenic, which contaminates the current mix of pure lead and lino. Use a couple of heaping tablespoons of magnum shot per 10 pounds of mix. ... felix