culling cast boolits

[fredj338]

I only weigh bullets for extreme accuracy, like for my hunting rigs. I do, cull bullets on base appearence. Poor bases rately shoot well, throw more fliers than +/- 5gr.

[Patrick L]

I sort mostly just visual. The main thing I look at is the base. I want a nice, crisp, well filled base. I'll accept visual flaws on the nose or base that many probably wouldn't, especially on pistol bullets, because in my experience those bullets will still shoot better than most people can shoot them.

I do, however, weight sort the bullets I use in Highpower into batches of exactly the same weight, color coded with a sharpie. I generally keep all the bullets in a 1 1/2 grain range for my season supply. That means about 500 bullets for each gun.

I shoot an 03A3 Springfield, and a .223 Howa that I set up for that game. We shoot the NRA reduced course, which is scaled targets at 100 yards (simulating 300 and 600.) There is some offhand, and rapid fire sitting and prone, and for those stages, like I say my shooting ability is far more of a determining factor than bullets. However, for the final 20 round prone slowfire stage, I do like the fact that the bullets are all the same weight. In my mind at least, it's one less thing to worry about.

The funny thing is, I've all but proven to myself (through repeated testing; I've been shooting cast for score since '96!) that even in the prone slowfire stage it really doesn't matter, yet I continue to sort. Call it superstition, game day ritual, whatever. I think it was the late, great Jim Clark Sr. that said, "If you think it matters, it matters!" He was talking about the head games we all play.

As for my method, its pretty simple. An electronic scale makes short work of it. I have compartmentalized trays that I sort into, then I put a colored stripe on the nose of each weight, and then gascheck and lubesize each batch, and pack them base down into my storage boxes. I generally load the ammo from lightest to heaviest over the course of the season, and shoot it the same way. The loaded ammo goes stored base down also, so the color on the nose is always visible.

[gwpercle]

Handgun shooting , a good close eyeballing for visible defects will do it .
You can spend way too much time weighing and sorting when you could be shooting .

My advice ...If It Looks Good , Shoot It !
Gary

[fredj338]

Handgun shooting , a good close eyeballing for visible defects will do it .
You can spend way too much time weighing and sorting when you could be shooting .

My advice ...If It Looks Good , Shoot It !
Gary

^^THIS^^^ The avg shooter can't offhand hold 2" at 25y so bullet wt isn't the issue. The only reason I weigh hunting bullets is to find any possible inclusions that would destabilize my bullets. Shooting out to 100-150y, I want the best bullet I can get. A 270gr bullet that varies more than +/- 5gr probably has an inclusion in it.

[kmw1954]

Chirp, chirp.

I am still relatively new to casting as I've only been at this about 8 months so I don't know how valid my opinions are. Being as I am still learning this craft I first do a visual inspection for fill-out, inclusions and heavy frosting. Then I am still weighing and sorting bullets but then I am probably only dropping a couple hundred at a time. So that doesn't take a terrible amount of time.

Basically what I am looking for when I weigh check is to establish what the mold is dropping with my alloy and how consistent is my casting. With this information I have been able to determine that my casting is getting better and much more consistent and I have also been recording the mean weight of the mold with each alloy.

The alloys I have been using are straight COWW, range scrap and range scrap with 10% linotype added. I have also been able to determine that the range scrap is pretty consistent when using the pencil hardness test.

[Billwnr]

I approach inspecting rifle and handgun bullets different ways. Rifle; I visual inspect and weight sort all bullets. That IDs ones with hidden defects. I cull ones to the left side of the bell curve. This is after a visual inspection. Handgun; I've shot a lot of crap looking bullets and find it hard to tell the difference between perfect bullets and crap bullets at 25 yards. Further distances visual inspection and culling will benefit. On shooting crap bullets at 25 yards this is OMHO.

[Hanzy4200]

I've never weight culled a cast bullet. Unless it has a blemish to a bearing surface it's going down the bore. No offense, but if you are going that far, you mayhave a case of the OCD. Nasty stuff that.

[charlie b]

I've never weight culled a cast bullet. Unless it has a blemish to a bearing surface it's going down the bore. No offense, but if you are going that far, you mayhave a case of the OCD. Nasty stuff that.

Depends on your accuracy goals. When I shoot cast from my rifles I want sub MOA accuracy at 300yd or more. It does take a lot more care to get that kind of load with cast bullets.

If you just need 'minute of deer' at 100 yd then you are right. I can hit a paper plate with just about any bullet I cast at 100yd.

[pworley1]

I look for flat bases sharp grooves and no wrinkles. Once the mold and melt are at the right temperature there will be very few culls.

[Gobeyond]

I've never weight culled a cast bullet. Unless it has a blemish to a bearing surface it's going down the bore. No offense, but if you are going that far, you mayhave a case of the OCD. Nasty stuff that.

Perfectionism is for those who can handle it or who have very narrow window to travel through. Like a two inch group at five hundred yards. I an basically a plinker, but I like to hit stuff. I can’t see making bullets and throwing too many back. I’ve gone as far as 25%. I cull the ugliest of them. Some they will size out and shoot well enough.

[metricmonkeywrench]

Like many others visual up front for everything listed above. As I’m not consistent with my lead alloys (my own issue) bullet weight does vary in the bulk storage box.

When it comes time to size/lube after the bullet rest/stabilize time I will weigh to stay within 1-2g for both rifle and pistol with more allowable variation based on the weight of the bullet. This clears anything with non visible inclusions and keeps the shooting lot consistent within the box.

[Harter66]

I'm in the look for the flaws camp .

My definition of flaws has changed as I've changed my needs .

After I dump the obvious junk , about 15-25% of a session , I have what seems to be a tiny little gap of over under , some moulds make it a lot easier . The H&G 8c #130 drops 8 when running from 195.8-196.4 . There's an AL 3c NOE .461-535 , 2 loads of alloy I get 533.8 to 535.6 . If I can keep everything just so with the assorted 150-260 gr Lee 6c I can hold 4-6 gr and some days I do better , some not so much .

I'm not a competitive shooter ....... except maybe with myself .
Everything is tooled to the hunt and if I'm loading for business it's possible that I'm almost as picky as a match shooter maybe more . I want 1 gr over 200 gr and a half down to 100 gr , <.2 for the 22 cal most of which are 55&62 gr .

I'm told 2% is close enough .....so .4 on 50 gr , 2 gr on 100 , 4 gr on 200 , and a whopping 10.6 for the 535s . I can't imagine knowingly loading a bullet in 45-70 or 458 WM that's someplace between 530&540 gr but somehow 99-101 seems ok in a 25 cal where load data is different from 115-117 gr jackets.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I consider expected distance to target and whether casual or competition. The longer the range, the more critical the selection. Inside 25 yards, most bullets will do. At 200 yards, selection is more important. I do a visual inspection, if I can see a wrinkle or defect it does not get used. Usually I go with a +/- of a grain, that is - less than 2 grains from heavy to light, sorting into similar groups within that range for 100 yards or farther..

[35 Rem]

I do a visual test for complete fillout by spinning each bullet in my hand and that's it. Having never bought a digital scale, weight sorting individual bullets on a balance beam is not something I'd want to even consider. This has worked for me for all my handgun and rifle shooting for many years.

[mac60]

Visually for wrinkles/defects, flat/square corners on base then pick 10 at random and weigh for average so I can set my powder charge accordingly. I don't get too fancy with it.

[jdgabbard]

For me... I'm getting more relaxed about it as I get older. I used to only keep perfect boolits. Now, I toss the first 2-3 pours, and keep everything after that unless it has a major defect (like an obvious deformity). I don't worry about wrinkles or minor fill-out issues. I powder coat now, so most of these imperfections get covered up and are not as noticeable. For me, less time in front of the pot, and more time at the bench/range is what is important. Plus, I've started buying my newer molds oversized, so I no longer have to worry about fill-out causing issues with final boolit size. If you buy a .359" mold even less than optimum pour will get you .358"....