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So I went out and shot the rejects. For the most part, they shot good enough at 25 yards, and the dirt clods and cow pies at 30-40 took a pounding, but at 50 yards, I was lucky to hold 8" groups with the 1911, and 6" groups with the 4 5/8" Flattop in .357. At 100 yards, forget it, I had flyers that impacted 4' left of the aimpoint. So I guess, if I am just going out to plink, and I'm shooting light loads at indiscriminate targets, the rejects will work just fine, for real accuracy, and if I am trying to hit stuff long range, think I'll stick with the good ones.

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it sounds like something is terribly wrong with your casting procedure. The only time I have ever seen something that bad was some store bought 45acp bullets that Chuck Smith had loaded up. Jimmy P. and I were spotting for him as he couldn't tell where they were landing at long range. The light was just right - reflecting off the bases - and Jimmy and I could see them CORKSCREWING as they headed down range. I'm talking a three foot barrel roll.

How about some pics of your rejects?

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I came home and dumped them all in the pot, my control specimens all worked like a champ. Cast up about a hundred just before dinner, has a 97% keep rate, turned up the melt temp, and kept the mold hot.

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And rejects are easily recycled!

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Today's session was quite good!

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Several years ago Roger and I were shooting .500 linebaughs at 500 yards. We were using two different LFN style bullets. They would doo all kind of things corkscrew, rock back and forth, fly straight then all of a sudden veer off in any given direction.

I am not sure if the bullets had voids, if it was just the flight charistics of those bullets at that range, or a combination of the two. Most of them would fli straight to 200-300 yards and then go crazy. It was fun to watch. Too bad we didn't have a different caliber and bullet to test under the same conditions.

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Flies true for over 300 yards, the 357 bullets are harder to spot. The LFN from the 454 is easy to spot even at 400 yards. Normally I reject any bullets that have large wrinkles, incomplete fill, and if the weight is off by more than 3 grains.

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I have the Miha version of that bullet and really like the way it shoots. I haven't tried it at longer than 100 yards or so.

My normal casting procedure is to check the bases after cutting the sprue plat but before opening the mold. Rounded bases get tossed in with the sprues. I look at them after dropping from the mold, and then again while sizing. I don't weigh my handguns bullets but will for rifles. I bottom pour up to 300 gr or so, and ladle pour for heavier.

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I loved the RCBS mold so much, I jumped at the chance to get Miha's 4 cavity copy, just wish I would have been in possession of the greenbacks to get the HP model. From the 6" FA 454, they are minute of basketball sized rock at 200+ yards.

Dave

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Mine is the 2 cavity HP, but I cast a lot of them as solids. Wish I would have got in on the 4 cavity.

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From Miha is a 2 cavity with both sets of HP pins, really wish I could have gotten in on the 4 cav group buy.

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weighing each to the nearest tenth of a grain and creating a "bell" curve. That will tell you your standard deviation and where plus or minus three SDs are located - that will tell you the range of 99.7% of bullets cast will weigh (using that process).

You can even stack them on vertical lines by weight for a visual... here's one from 2005 when I was working with the Lyman 520gr 457125 bullet. Finally settled on the 457132 Postel bullet for my Shiloh Sharps; for some reason I can hold weight tolerance better with the same casting process - plus or minus 1/2gr on a 535gr bullet.

I had MUCH rather develop a reliable casting process than to try and sort in quality.

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I am thinking that prior to this past weekends casting sessions, I had something off in my mix, almost like I had too much lead. I will let you know how it goes, today's big 289gr bullets never had more than .5gr variance, most were within .2 to .3gr.

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Low SDs are a good indicator of a good process. Another proof of this is saving a few of the first "good" bullets from a mould, just as you think it is up to temp - not wrinkled, but the bullets are quite shiny. Weigh them and compare to bullets cast later. Likely will group outside of your normal distribution. I found I had two "bumps" on my bell curve and it was related to stopping and adding sprues back to the mix - both the melt and the mould were cooling down ever so slightly. Each group of bullets shot well if kept seperated, but again I did not want to inspect quality into my product.

Of course, we are getting off on a tangent, but IMHO these things help with long range cast bullet shooting.

And just because I like posting pics:

That's ten shots @ 100yds, Swiss black powder under 535gr 457132 Postels. Indescribable fun to beat up the 1123yd buffalo at Raton with that rifle and load. Shoot.... wait 3.5s for the bullet to get there... spotter sees hit with spotting scope, calls hit.... 3.5s later the "bonngggg" floats back....

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I even hit that buffalo a time or two shooting John K's 535 gr. cast in my 45-70 rolling block.
John does some fine casting.

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I can't say whether your experience was due to casting issues or bullet design, but I can say that certain bullet designs will do that. Cannon and I met Jeff Oakland in Cody and he and a friend of his had made a video of various bullet designs in flight at long range. Some flew just as pretty as you please and some did some things that I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it. If memory serves, WFN's were the worst offenders but Cannon probably remembers better.

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I think it was a little of both. Some became unstable quicker and more violently that others. I don't recall a single bullet flying perfectly straight all the way to the target. We hit it some, but I think those were more luck than anything. A couple were just about to hit the target and the 25-50 yards took a hard turn off course. Have a few videos somewhere, you can't see the bullet the whole way but can catch a glimpse of it occasionally.

We have shot .44 Specials at 500 yards and never notcied any problems with Keith bullets. But we were at a different range with the Sun at a different position. We couldn't trac the shot the whole way down range with them.

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