Sponge pieces to break fall into water bucket?

[8shot]

Thinking about using a 5 gallon bucket...probably half full of water and cutting sponges up into approx 1" pieces to create a layer on top of the water. Figure the sponges will break the fall, cool the bullets and allow them to roll off and drop into the bucket?

[Rcmaveric]

You can. I repurposed an old t-shirt and drape it across the top. Then I just pick it up 4 corner style when it gets full. I doubt the get damaged much falling the couple feet between my legs and into a bucket. But I dont want any battle damaged bullets.

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[metricmonkeywrench]

I read somewhere about using a towel or t-shirt with a hole in the middle pushed down into a funnel shape to catch the bullets and ease their transition into the water and minimize splashing.

Just haven't gotten around to trying it yet

[MT Gianni]

Yep, split the tee shirt about 4" or so and let it sag. Fill water so the bottom 1/4 of the shirt is submerged and let the bullets roll.

[onelight]

I sometimes use an old towel one end over the side of box or bucket the other laying in the bottom to make a ramp.
Just let them roll down when I get a pile at the bottom just pick that end up and let them go in the bottom and put the towel back on top of them. Cushions with no water.

[Winger Ed.]

There's several ways.
Sponges is one of them.

I lay a old towel on the water. Boolits hit it, chill out, and after 3-4, they'll drag it to the bottom.
When there's a pretty big bunch on it, I pull it up, let the boolits fall off, and lay it back down.

I've found that if you're casting light boolits with a hard alloy, they don't ding up much.
If you're not loading up to shoot for the Bianchi Cup, ya don't really need anything.

[mdi]

I don't water drop, so I'm adding a related question. I drop bullets from the mold onto a dry towel, maybe 8", and none of my bullets get damaged, even when one lands on another (most of my bullets, from 125 gr to 250 gr, are BHN 11 or so). Do you water quenchers actually get dented bullets from falling 12" through cool to tepid water and hitting the bottom of the bucket? Or do your bullets get damaged falling into/onto water from a couple feet?

[Half Dog]

I drop mine in a shallow, almost like Tupperware, bowl. I remove the bullets after every 100 or so and place them on a towel to dry.

[GregLaROCHE]

There are a lot of variables to consider. Boolit weight, how much water it falls through until it reaches the bottom, how hot the alloy is and how long you wait to empty it from the mould.

I’ve had some 500 grain boolits get dents when the water wasn’t deep enough and 180 grain boolits bend, when dropped on a dry towel. For that reason I think I will stick to water quenching. I like the idea of a cloth funnel just under the surface with a hole in the center. Maybe I’ll try that next time.

[762sultan]

I use a 2 gallon plastic pail with a collander that is big enough to fit on top of the bucket and have the water level high enough to submerge the hot bullets. After dropping about 30 or 40 bullets I dump them in a container. No dings.

[Rcmaveric]

I have never damaged a bullet dropping it into water. But I have damaged bullets dropping them 4 inches into a wooden box. My casting station is higher table with enough room to comfortably hold a wood tray in my lap. The wooden tray/box has 3 wooden boxes in it. I normally cast with two molds. All the sprue go in a collective larger box and the each bullet style gets their own. It was a wooden set up I peiced to gather from Michelle's premade wooden boxes.

So the bullets arent falling that far. My for arms rest on the trays edge when pouring. So from that height into wooden trays have damaged hot bullets. Lol I use an old sock now to cushion their landing. When I get a hand full of bullets in their box I pull the sock out and lay it over the pile.

But for water dropping, no. Inhave never dinged a bullet. From my experience with trays I would rather avoid it.

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[waksupi]

I've never had a problem dropping directly to the water.

[kevin c]

I don't water drop, but I'm thinking that a slit cloth hung over but not touching the water in the bucket would guide the dropped casts into the water gently, with little or no splashing, and would be easier and quicker to stow afterwards without having to deal with a hundred or so soaked bits of sponge.

[Bigslug]

The sponges work - at least as a decent splash-control item.

[screwcutter]

I float a layer of clean snow on top of water in 5 gal bucket.

[onelight]

I float a layer of clean snow on top of water in 5 gal bucket.

[Walks]

I drop into a 5gal bucket with half full of water. Never noticed a "dented" bullet yet.
After 500 or so, I dump the bucket in a plastic colander then spread the bullets on a towel in the sun to dry.

[44Blam]

When I water drop, I use a home depot 5 gal bucket about 1/2 full and about 6' away from and on the floor behind me. I cast, break the sprue and turn around and drop.

I do powder coat my boolits though. So, I found that just air cooling them out of the pot and then water dropping them out of the PC oven actually helps more than water dropping from the pot.

As an added benefit, I can cull any non-perfect boolits while casting.

[megasupermagnum]

I never was able to water drop bullets into a 5 gallon bucket. No matter what method I did, I always got too many bullets with dings in them. It isn't a concern unless that ding is in the base, which too many did. It didn't matter if I had snow, or a towel, or anything.

Instead I went to a shallower plastic tote, maybe 24"x12"x12" I prop one end up ever so slightly with a wood block. I drop bullets in one end, and most of them roll to the other end unharmed. Once in a while I have to clear the ones that do not roll. I drop all my buckshot into a 5 gallon bucket, since minor damage is of little concern.

[rbuck351]

I have been water dropping boolits into a 2/3s full 5gal bucket of water for about 40 years without any dings. That's everything from 38gr 22 cal to 400gr 45 cal. Water won't ding them and it slows them enough they won't ding when hitting other boolits in the bottom of the bucket. I have never had it splash enough water to make any problem for me.