It’s all about perfection – anything else goes right back into the pot.
If it’s got good fill-out, shiny or frosted, looks don’t matter.
What’s a couple wrinkles? As long as it doesn’t cross a band I’m good with it.
Hell, I’ll shoot anything. Like women, some may not be much to look at, but have everything ya need.
Frosted or shiny doesn't matter to me. I put my boolits in classes. Grade 1, 2 and 3.
If I see really good cast with no imperfections, of course that is grade one.
One or two slight imperfections are grade two.
Anything above that is grade three and goes back into the pot.
I always check the base first. If the base is not filled and uniform, grade three and back into the pot.
If a man has nothing greater to believe in than himself, he is a very lonely man.
My home made alloy requires that I cast at high pot settings to get good fillout. As a result, I get plenty of frosty boolets. Works for my applications.
Winelover
If I get shiney and frosted I go with it. But if anything else, gose back in the pot. I do not go with any thing that dose not look right . One thing about casting ,you do not have any trash.(just the dirt you had skim off the top,if you have any). You just re use it.
Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA
L even save some culls for fouling shot, or fireforming brass.
Except for real issues the culls are likely accurate for close in shooting
Amendments
The Second there to protect the First!
I want my rifle boolits nearly perfect. I give them a visual inspection, and if they look perfect I weigh them. I will tolerate +/- .5 grain variation, no more. For my handgun boolits, if they look nearly perfect, I shoot them...dale
I only cast pistol boolits, mostly for practice and shooting IDPA. As long as I have good fill out I shoot 'em, at pistol ranges looks don't matter much.
Turning money into noise, since 1970
Good fill out?? Nice sharp corners?? It get loaded and fired.
Shiloh
Je suis Charlie
"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
Bertrand de Jouvenel
“Any government that does not trust its citizens with firearms is either a tyranny, or planning to become one.” – Joseph P. Martino
“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert , in five years there would be a shortage of sand.” – Milton Friedman
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns; why should we let them have ideas?" - J. Stalin
I'm only really picky about bases. Any noticeable defect gets tossed. I do weigh my LHP for hunting or rifle bullets for longer range. Internal voids can not be seen but can be found w/ more than 2-3gr wt variation.
It's not that simple. I shoot alot that would be rejects, but it depends on the cartridge and what is expected of it. The .30cal and .224 boolits have to be perfect. The 44 plinking loads I shoot wrinkles, hunting loads have to be perfect. .40 S&W , .380 acp, and 38 spl plinking loads anything goes, Defence loads have to be perfect.
I didn't vote because I would have to check all the boxes.
I only cast for handguns and if the bases are good, I save 'em. Only use cheap Lee molds, but my alloy is always clean, and my pot is turned up to full tilt boogie before I start. So most generally the only ones that get culled are the first 1/2 doz. or so.
I just shoot for fun, if I can land 'em all on a paper plate @ 25 paces all is well.
I ran out of .44's and my sons wanted to visit and go to the range. I loaded up 63 poor rejects, some with multiple issues (base, dropped and dented, poor fill, gas check not on too square, etc.) and they had a ball with them at 25 yards and were getting 2-3" groups.
I am going to lower my standard and keep more rejects on hand for plinking and the perfect boolits for groups or hunting. If I get low on lead, I can always melt rejects, unless they get used first
I'm pretty critical of my small-caliber rifle castings.......not as demanding of my handgun boolits, but obvious flaws like rounded drive bands--uneven fill-out--or wrinkles earn the offender a re-melt. Like others have said, I do an initial look-see during the casting session or as I store them, then another once-over as I size and lube them. Cull rate overall on rifle boolits is about 15%-20%, about half that with handgun castings.
I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.
I didn't choose the I'll shoot anything option, but there's not much that I won't shoot. The only boolits that I remelt are ones with an undersized driving band. In my defense I only cast for pistol calibers. My son and I go to a 50' indoor airconditioned range, and the bulk of our targets are silhouettes that depict bad guys who are shooting at us. What I've noticed during my very short carreer as a boolit caster, is if a gun doesn't like a boolit, things go really bad and it doesn't seem to make sense to work at it. On the other hand, my son has a 9mm AR-15 and we shoot Lee 125 grain RN over 3.6 grains of Bulleye, and an overall length of 1.115, I pan lube with 60/40 parafin wax, vaseline. This past weekend he unloaded 2-32 round magazines at 50 feet into one ragged hole that could be covered mostly by a quarter. The bullets that I used would have gone right back into the melting pot by most people, but I know that this gun just doesn't care what they look like.
On the other hand I loaded up some perfect boolits that I measured, and I knew that they were going to fit the barrel in my Glock 26. I understand the hype that cast boolits turn all glocks into hand grenades. I was shooting one boolit at a time, then taking the gun down to check for lead in the barrel. I understand that the hexagonal rifling is prone to leading which can raise chamber pressures. Well my boolits were sized properly and left no lead, but they flew all over gods creation
I cull till I get the base fill out I'm looking for. After that I only cull if my mold bullet doesn't fill out.
Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
As long as the cavity is full, I'll shoot it. but I shoot pistols only.
for me, it is more of a "what am i going to use them for" thing than anything else. if they are for plinking, anything that fills out is good to shoot. for more serious work, i get fussy. how fussy is directly related to how serious the shooting.
But for me; uniformly frosty is part of perfection. Shiny boolits really don't tell me much about weight consistency or at what temp they were cast, just that is was relatively cool. I find my frosty boolits to be very consistent of weight.
prs
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| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
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| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
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| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
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