L Ross
Well-Known Member
No not just me, my cast bullets also. Alas, the lost innocence of youth. Back in the day I used to just cast bullets, size them with a Lyman 450 to the diameter the book told me too, lube with that nice black Lyman lube and dump them in tubs, jars, boxes, whatever until they were loaded and shot up. The only measuring tool I had was a plastic RCBS sliding vernier caliper to measure rifle case length to see if they needed to be trimmed. I never measured cast bullets. They got shot up in revolvers, some leaded, some didn't.
At the PD, we complained our Combat Masterpieces leaded because the wadcutters we cast in H&G 10 cavity gang mould were cast from hospital x-ray lead and range master would only lube one groove to keep the smoke down in the range. Those bullets never got measured. They ran through the .357" die in a Star and went to the Star loader.
Nowadays of course I measure as cast diameter, post sized diameter, use custom ground sizing dies from Chris Smith. I use a micrometer to measure because I have been told no caliper is accurate enough to work.
Getting to the point of my post finally. I now pin gauge all my revolver throats and make copious notes. I carefully size my cast bullets to half a thou smaller than the throats if I can and gleefully shoot as cast when appropriate.
I started to remeasure my cast bullets prior to loading and horror of horrors, a lot of my older bullets have gotten fat! Or bullets cast and just stored to be sized and loaded later were measured and the diameter marked on the container. A year later they have gained diameter. Typically, this has been a growth of .001" to .002".
My normal alloy is pre-2000 wheel weights, (1976 to 2000), and 1% (roughly) tin. Am I nuts worrying about this? I recently re-resized a bunch of 45s that grew from .452" to just over .453". These were cast in a Master Caster 452-230 RNFP mould and had dropped at .454 and were sized and lubed to .452" shortly after casting, then laid around here for a couple of years. My buddy borrowed my MC and using the same mould and using wheel weights with a bit of lino to sweeten cast up a gallon bucket of them and they sat in said bucket for a year untouched. When he finally wanted to size them to .451" he found the raw castings to be .456" and too difficult to force through the .451" sizer. I inherited them and as I have a Colt with .456" throats I am fat and happy.
Is this a typical scenario? Do you guys plan on diameter growth? I knew that waiting to hardness to stabilize was necessary, but when does growth stabilize?
At the PD, we complained our Combat Masterpieces leaded because the wadcutters we cast in H&G 10 cavity gang mould were cast from hospital x-ray lead and range master would only lube one groove to keep the smoke down in the range. Those bullets never got measured. They ran through the .357" die in a Star and went to the Star loader.
Nowadays of course I measure as cast diameter, post sized diameter, use custom ground sizing dies from Chris Smith. I use a micrometer to measure because I have been told no caliper is accurate enough to work.
Getting to the point of my post finally. I now pin gauge all my revolver throats and make copious notes. I carefully size my cast bullets to half a thou smaller than the throats if I can and gleefully shoot as cast when appropriate.
I started to remeasure my cast bullets prior to loading and horror of horrors, a lot of my older bullets have gotten fat! Or bullets cast and just stored to be sized and loaded later were measured and the diameter marked on the container. A year later they have gained diameter. Typically, this has been a growth of .001" to .002".
My normal alloy is pre-2000 wheel weights, (1976 to 2000), and 1% (roughly) tin. Am I nuts worrying about this? I recently re-resized a bunch of 45s that grew from .452" to just over .453". These were cast in a Master Caster 452-230 RNFP mould and had dropped at .454 and were sized and lubed to .452" shortly after casting, then laid around here for a couple of years. My buddy borrowed my MC and using the same mould and using wheel weights with a bit of lino to sweeten cast up a gallon bucket of them and they sat in said bucket for a year untouched. When he finally wanted to size them to .451" he found the raw castings to be .456" and too difficult to force through the .451" sizer. I inherited them and as I have a Colt with .456" throats I am fat and happy.
Is this a typical scenario? Do you guys plan on diameter growth? I knew that waiting to hardness to stabilize was necessary, but when does growth stabilize?