Reefinmike
Member
Im hoping it is just that my first batch of cast bullets were newbie mistakes, i hope from simply just a not hot enough alloy and mold. I cleaned upmthree different batches of wheel weights.
Batch one- i tapped every weight on a set of bolt cutters. If they didnt sound soft, they were thrown out, if they were suspect, they were run over a magnet. If they didnt stick i attempted to cut them. If they werent cut easily, they were tossed. I might add that i without reading up, added about 15-20%stick onmpure lead ww's. About seven pounds
Batch two- i simply looked for gouges in the ww's- a new method i read up on. If it was gouged, it was thrown in the good pile. If not, tapped cut blah blah blah. About thirteen pounds.
Batch three- used same method as batch two until halfway through when i came across a zinc ww with a decent gouge that looked very similar to a lead and the coating caused a lead like thud. I then went through every ww, of it didnt have a significant obvious lead gouge, i clipped it.
My first batch of bullets, the suspect ones were 102 gr 380's in a lee double mold. At first i thought they looked good. I rejected about 20% out of 500. Looking through the "good" ones that i used batch two lead, they now look terrible to my most recent casts with batch 3 lead. The bottom edge is rounded on many and not sharp, lin general, not smooth and shiny. Many ofnmy accepted ones have some slight wrinkles. I casted 500 38 spls using batch one lead and they all turned out beautifully, only 10 rejects due to the mold not lining up
Just now i casted some 380s using batch three lead and they came out very sexy, no wrinkles, shiny boolits with sharp defined groves and tail end. Only had 5 /600 rejected due to incomplete fills
Also, i should mention that the suspect batch of 380's have a gritty looking dimpled in sprue plate cut. So, do you think that slight wrinkles, rounded bottoms and a rough sprue plate cut are from zinc contamination or just newbie casting and i should re-melt them?
Batch one- i tapped every weight on a set of bolt cutters. If they didnt sound soft, they were thrown out, if they were suspect, they were run over a magnet. If they didnt stick i attempted to cut them. If they werent cut easily, they were tossed. I might add that i without reading up, added about 15-20%stick onmpure lead ww's. About seven pounds
Batch two- i simply looked for gouges in the ww's- a new method i read up on. If it was gouged, it was thrown in the good pile. If not, tapped cut blah blah blah. About thirteen pounds.
Batch three- used same method as batch two until halfway through when i came across a zinc ww with a decent gouge that looked very similar to a lead and the coating caused a lead like thud. I then went through every ww, of it didnt have a significant obvious lead gouge, i clipped it.
My first batch of bullets, the suspect ones were 102 gr 380's in a lee double mold. At first i thought they looked good. I rejected about 20% out of 500. Looking through the "good" ones that i used batch two lead, they now look terrible to my most recent casts with batch 3 lead. The bottom edge is rounded on many and not sharp, lin general, not smooth and shiny. Many ofnmy accepted ones have some slight wrinkles. I casted 500 38 spls using batch one lead and they all turned out beautifully, only 10 rejects due to the mold not lining up
Just now i casted some 380s using batch three lead and they came out very sexy, no wrinkles, shiny boolits with sharp defined groves and tail end. Only had 5 /600 rejected due to incomplete fills
Also, i should mention that the suspect batch of 380's have a gritty looking dimpled in sprue plate cut. So, do you think that slight wrinkles, rounded bottoms and a rough sprue plate cut are from zinc contamination or just newbie casting and i should re-melt them?