outward appearance of a bullet

Rally Hess

Well-Known Member
I tend to agree with Fiver and Rick. If I can see it while casting, it's going back in the pot. I figure it eliminates one of the possibilities of a flier and a good fill is a more consistent bullet. I tend to build, cast and load for a particular firearm, then load a lot of them and move onto another firearm. We are currently very fortunate to have so many mould makers producing such quality products. I figure I should try to do them justice. I'm sure they have spent plenty of sleepless nights getting their moulds where they are.
 
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Roger Allen

Active Member
Yeah just because we nit pick them on a short fall here or there......we are leaps and bounds from where we were and a lot of the shortfalls there are ways sometimes to cheat and defy the things in our way w mold design. Oh and if one mold doesn't work for one gun another gun might be a perfect fit (sloppy generous chambers throats) or you sell it to someone and buy from the 2k designs you can pick from
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The best schutzen shooters of 1900 would not even place in the top ten in todays CBA matches. Only by fixing the rules to use 1880's technology and equipment, does schutzen work. They are great folks and keep history alive, but they aren't in the same ballpark as today.
 

JSH

Active Member
I sort mine by eye. Good flat bases, gas checked or not. Well filled out lube grooves. Then if it doesn't "feel" right in the lube sizer it gets chunked into the scrap bucket.
I went down the road of eye balling them, then weighing. The weighing all but drove me nuts. I saw no reasonable difference in weights out to 200m.

I think some of this gets into our heads. If we take a back seat to bullet quality, we go shoot and accept sub standard results on paper.
If I don't have confidence in my bullet, that I cast, I don't have confidence it will land where I intended.
Just to easy to recycle IMHO.
If you bought bullets, jacketed or not, would one be satisfied with "buggered" up projectiles. Seconds are seconds,non way around it.
When I started casting about 20 years ago, folks comments were "oh the will shoot". Well, so will a rock or a felt wad.
I expect and strive for no less than what I would expect from a jacketed bullet. I expect this on demand, not an occasional good group.
Do I get it? Not always, and those are still works in progress. I have a couple of guns that are "done" and pretty much boring.
Jeff
 

Roger Allen

Active Member
I know how you feel about boring guns.

They're figured out and there's no more pursuit of greatness or challenge there....only hope for those guns is a new mold.
 

JSH

Active Member
Lol, bad thing when they get boring, it is time to move onto the next one. Yet a body has so much effort in the challenge of getting them to shoot excellent I am hesitant to sell them,must they sit and take up space.
Not all bad. We don't have to feed them, nor do they poop in the yard.
Jeff
 

Ian

Notorious member
Boring guns? No such thing. Once you get one shooting the way you want, you can alleviate the boredom by loading several thousand rounds of the "pet load" you developed for it, and then spend as much time as you feel like perfecting the torque on the nut behind the butt. Developing loads is a means to feed my reloading habit, which is a means of feeding my shooting habit, which is a means of feeding my hunting habit, which puts a little grub on the table once in a while and feeds my lead scrounging and brass collecting habits, and somewhere in there that's all going to feed my new machining habit. It's all a big cycle of entertainment and enjoyment for me.
 

Roger Allen

Active Member
I'm pretty happy right now developing that load for my m700 300aac now I have a better scope I'm learning how to use the bdc w out cocking my gun to the left of the right. I've somewhat mastered it but I need to practice this a ton now.

My 45-70, 35 rem, and my muzzleloader totally figured out and rather simple guns but I'm really into my blackout. Figuring out the drop, bdc, which bullet prints better for trajectory, etc
 

Elric

Well-Known Member
Hot lead flows down hill so if you just have to use both cavities raise the handle when pouring the front cavity and lower it when pouring the rear...:)

I was having a bad time with a dual cavity, occasionally I would fill one cavity, and the sprue would go into the other cavity... But not enough for a good pour...

I tip the mould so the farthest cavity is lower, pour that cavity first, that way if I do have a sprue puddle thats a bit big, it runs off the end of the block. Then I pour the second cavity without being concerned about spillage into the other cavity.
 

Rally Hess

Well-Known Member
Dito Ian. I actually enjoy casting and loading as much as I do hunting. My deer season was one shot this year, so it wouldn't take much to feed a lifetime of deer hunting. I cast about 5000 bullets to get there, and will probably be shooting the ammo I have loaded for a long time. A single 1/2" group doesn't mean much to me, but a 2" 15 shot group, made from recycled components, tickles me to death. Now pheasant hunting is just an addiction!!