For those here that cast their own bullets ... what is "good enough" for you?

If I was a competitor, I might weigh all my cast bullets, but I am a plinker. I make sure the bullet is filled out, crisp, no wrinkles, etc, and go from there. I get pretty good results that way.

I cast my bullets hot and they end up frosted and fairly consistant. I use mine mostly for plinkin but those I load up for hunting I take a little more care.

Standard Deviation

First off, I would say that there is something amiss in the alloy that was used to cast the 255's. They are much too light for the target of 255 grains. your Standard Deviation (SD) is much too high which is indicative of the bullets not meeting the weight requirement.

I just pulled ten .44-240's from an 'inspected' bucket and here are the weights of the ten:
239.8, 240.3, 239.9, 240.4, 240.2, 240.1, 240.0, 241.4, 240.7, 240.0.

The SD is 0.47 which is acceptable for me. Anything over 1.0 indicates a problem in the casting process and needs to be corrected pronto! And the variance is 0.224 which is exceptional. Notice that the weights meet the weight requirement.

Given your data I sure would not be happy at all with those bullets - they are scrap. They are not up to my standards of very high quality. The 300 grain bullets that you listed are much worse. They are also not up to meeting the weight requirement which is also indicative of a severe quality control problem. There must be a lot of inclusions in these bullets (large swings in the individual weights). When the alloy is correct and the quality control system is intact and functioning properly, only then can you expect to produce very high quality product.

cast bullets

45acp 200gr 208.3 207.8 206.8 207.7 208.0 207.5 208.4 208.4 357 158gr swc 165.0 164.7 165.1 165.2 164.6 164.3 164.4 164.5 I was testing the weight of the first 4 good bullets to the last 4 bullets out of a 10lb pot. If you want match ammo, weight each bullet. Weight bullet without lube. If your bullets came lubed, i would think weighting them would be a waste of time. I find 30 caliber rifle bullets run closer , do to there long skinny form. Short fat bullets have a larger weight spread. These bullets are good enough for me. The true test is on the target. The DIAMETER of the bullet is more important i feel.

It depends on what purpose the boolits I cast are intended for. If they are for the IPSC/IDPA handgun blasting ammo, if they are pretty well filled out, and have no nose defects, they get loaded. I certainly don't bother weighing them. If they are for serious target work, or for a rifle, THEN they get the full treatment. ANY visible surface defect gets returned to the re-melt pile. Then a weight check to identify the internal defects, a bubble or internal void results in lighter boolits. A diameter check determines whether it gets sized and to what diameter I want to end up with.

The bigger diameter and heavier boolits I establish a mean weight for the alloy I was working with. I pay no attention to what it is "supposed" to weigh. I COULD fiddle with the alloy to get to some target weight, but it is futile at best. It will still shoot well no matter what the weight is.

Example is the lee 457-340-F I was working with yesterday. It cast right at .458, so I will dip lube them with lee liquid alox, run them through a lee push through sizer, and load them. They came out at 337 to 339 representing the difference between the two cavities. I will separate them into two groups and load them separately.

What's the density of the lube compared to the alloy and is there enough of it to screw up weight measurements?

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I have no idea, never tested bullets with and without lube to compare. I do know that my bullets have different amounts of lube. The bullet weights above were inspected for visible flaws, nothing else.

I weight my cast bullets before I lube and size them.
For general range use it really don't matter so much.
If I am casting for a match I will accept 2 to 3 gr difference. Greater difference in weight and they are range use.

Density Of The Lube

The density of the lube is not a significant factor in the total mass of the bullet. For instance, a .45-230 RNBB will have approximately 0.6 grain of lube. 0.6/230 x 100 = 0.26%. However, that is not to say that having the entire lube groove(s) is not important. To the contrary, it is paramount that the entire lube groove(s) be completely filled in order to have the bullet pass inspection and be classified as a very high quality bullet. All of the attributes of a cast bullet are important in my book, otherwise, I would not bother casting them! I aim for perfection!