Show what kind of Bullets you cast
- Thread starter dannyd
- Start date
Hey, thanks, guys! I was leery of PC for a number of reasons and I was seriously going to miss the sharp-edged, perfect castings we're all so proud of, but the Eastwood Medium Ford Blue (recommended by @CWLONGSHOT . for the neophyte to start with) seems to really let the detail shine through - even when I just gob it on, so the bullets look like fuzzy teddy-bears before they go into the oven. I'm quite impressed at how good these look with no experience or previous skills at play - and using what equipment I had on hand.
I know the aesthetic is purely secondary to function/performance, but admit to a deep-seated aversion to toward ugly bullets. I appease my conscience by telling myself that we owe it to our craft to top off the function/performance with an appealing aesthetic.
I got lucky, and leaned on CW, and can claim no credit for the way these look.
Ian
Notorious member
The internet boards have a LOT of photos of lousy castings goobered up with way too much powder coat. For pistol work that may be fine, but PC won't make up for poor casting quality, clean, sharp bullet bases, or porosity under the gas check. Pretty bullets are accurate bullets, coated or not.
CWLONGSHOT
Well-Known Member
100% YOU DID IT!! I just provided some advice and maybe instilled a little confidence, that you could do it!
CW
CWLONGSHOT
Well-Known Member
Too many dont realize!!
When I size I like to let them drop i to a basket instead of a jug like most (?) do. Why? Cause you can "feel" differences. You can "feel" a GC seating properly or not. Doing singly allows me to cull on the go and have a far better albeit smaller quantity of my best and OK bullets. The OK are plinkers or sighters or foulers. U less Im only making plinkers. Then if coarse those lil imperfections are far less of a concern.
CW
Jwatts8815
Active Member
LOL!
So, I'm not the only one who's feels embarrassed for the fella (including myself) who posted a photo of a whole pile of otherwise perfect bullets, and your attention is immediately drawn to to that ONE singular sprue teat, base ding or rounded band the poor guy posted without having noticed it himself until it was too late?
I'm sure though too, that everyone here, unless I'm just weird and lucky sometimes, has "one of those days, when nothing goes right, from morning 'til night" and everything you touch related to casting makes you wonder how the heck you've done this for SO long and STILL don't have it all sorted out.
ART & Science. Never a more appropriate description, but the subjective "art" part makes it NEVER boring.
So, I'm not the only one who's feels embarrassed for the fella (including myself) who posted a photo of a whole pile of otherwise perfect bullets, and your attention is immediately drawn to to that ONE singular sprue teat, base ding or rounded band the poor guy posted without having noticed it himself until it was too late?
I'm sure though too, that everyone here, unless I'm just weird and lucky sometimes, has "one of those days, when nothing goes right, from morning 'til night" and everything you touch related to casting makes you wonder how the heck you've done this for SO long and STILL don't have it all sorted out.
ART & Science. Never a more appropriate description, but the subjective "art" part makes it NEVER boring.
CWLONGSHOT
Well-Known Member
Most all of my pics are pre cull as I look as I cast. Look again before I coat. Look again as I size. So I cull as I go.
We ALL MAKE culls. Someone says different they is simply lying to themselves or us. We surely have folks who make less culls than others but we ALL MAKE THEM!
We aint here to point out others short comings we are here for like minded fellow ship and to help and exchange knowledge.
In short, dont worry about it!
CW
We ALL MAKE culls. Someone says different they is simply lying to themselves or us. We surely have folks who make less culls than others but we ALL MAKE THEM!
We aint here to point out others short comings we are here for like minded fellow ship and to help and exchange knowledge.
In short, dont worry about it!
CW
Michael
Active Member. Uh/What
Casting means good bullets and bad bullets, just like having a cat or dog, sooner or later they are going to yack on the carpet, and you are going find in the middle of night with your foot on your way to the bathroom. In paraphrasing CW, yack happens. Welcome to the club.
Point is fellas - while none of us are perfect, we still (or should) strive for perfection in our craft - in anything we do, regardless of the fact that it is quite probably impossible to achieve.
And we can laugh at ourselves when we think we've got it, only to find out we don't. All part of any fun.
And we can laugh at ourselves when we think we've got it, only to find out we don't. All part of any fun.
Cadillac Jeff
Well-Known Member
YUP life's to short to chute ugly bulletts
I'd have to set aside all the culls as I go and see how I come out after all the different stages of "passive culling."
I can't say it would be much different unless the lead pixies were sleeping that day. Agree on better success on bigger, less on smaller.
There re "those days" though, where it makes me wonder how I could go so long and still be so dumb. I fought one problem off and on for maybe a couple years - one session, I could do no wrong, the next - made me want to toss all the casting stiff into a dumpster. Using "questionable alloy doesn't help, but I've managed to roll with it regardless of whether I have perfect alloy or something difficult.
EVENTUALLY, and after a lot of frustration, I figured out that I'd finally worn the ID of the spout out enough that I was getting way too much flow. I wish mow I'd kept some of the photos of the bullets, but they were worse than any I've ever seen anyone post. Not to "outdo" everyone else on being the best at being the worst, but they had HUGE contorted voids on the sides of the bullets. Perfect nose. perfect base, but the center looked like someone held a torch flame to it for a while and melted 20% of the bullet away.
As an expedient, I have resorted to only filling my 10# pots half full, which is a pain in the neck when using a pair of 4C moulds. @Ian suggested some time back that I can peen the nozzle to a smaller ID (with considerable effort,) which I have yet to do - you can't take the nozzle off the 10# pot. I've toyed with the idea of getting a new pot - a 20# pot, but I'm waiting out the scarcity factor for now.
Still, there is that something which drives us to continue to strive for perfection, which is a good thing and which is becoming a rare trait. Casting yields a lot of flexibility, the ability to shoot more, significant autonomy from normal supply chains, but also nurtures a lot of drive to do things better. Like shooting, high quantity does not make up for low quality.
