Casting progression as heat increases

[52Bore]

Not to muddy up sdporter’s post on what’s wrong.
Casted a box for Stephen Tucker (WR whitetail) and thought I’d share how bullets increase in weight as temp rises.
These are 540gr 45cal bullets Pure lead with a touch of tin, so the 5gr difference from 541-545gr can be visibly seen in the lighter bullets in form of wrinkles.
I let the pot heat to 700 (blue film on top), let my AL mold heat up close to the burner, started casting.
I thru a few back in as I can tell if the mold is hot as my HP pin can be removed easily, like normal I would say.
A box of 50, can be cast in under 30min.
After they cooled, I weighted the 1st half (photo) 541-544gr, then added the other 1/2 total - you can see I added a row to the right/heaviest and it has the most.
Final temp when done was just over 800 (thin film starts to turn yellow/gold), good bullets...
You can see from the photo, if I’d kept casting another 50+ the bullets would have continued to be heavy/uniform in weight.

1st half, 1gr rows


Added 2nd half - all bullets casted 541-545gr


Left early 700 degree bullet, Right last bullet (800) heaviest.


In matches, I’ll group bullets into 1gr increments - honestly I can’t tell a difference even with a few gr of weight difference.

 

[52Bore]

Ballistic program shows no difference in trajectory from a 5gr (1%) difference.
540gr vs 545gr

 

[edmehlig]

Art, I noticed the same yellow/ gold color with my pure lead when the temp gets to 800 degrees . Amazing how from 700 to 800 degrees the color turns from blue/purple to yellow/gold.

 

[Idaholewis]

More Heat Stacey. If you are Casting PURE Lead, and have a Lead Thermometer, Look for 800 Degrees, HOT is your Friend here

For HEAVY molds such as Accurate STEEL Molds, i dip the Bottom of the Blocks in the Molten Lead, I Start my Timer, and Let it Soak for 8 Full Minutes, This slightly Over Heats the Mold, The Sprue will “Dance” for a Full 30-45 Seconds before it Starts to Solidify, DON’T Open your Mold to Soon here!! As the Sprue Starts to Solidify you will see a Hole “sink” down in the Sprue, Count a Full 30-45 Seconds Before you Dump this Bullet, this first Bullet will be Purple/Blue, And PERFECTLY Filled out, But I don’t keep the First 3-4 Bullets, I Cast and Dump them, This is to Allow the Mold to “Settle down” and enter the Zone

What i said to Stacey in his Thread.

Simply put, Common sense says that a Perfectly filled out Bullet is gonna Weigh more than a Bullet that is not.