Ray,

  Well, the info I have is pretty old so might be out of date.

  The way I get it is that alloys of Lead & Tin do not appreciably harden over time, altho I do know shooters who feel that you should leave this type bullet sit for a month before shooting.

  Alloys that contain Antimony will self harden over a period of 20 to 30 days and then slightly soften.

  Self hardening will only go so far so quite a few of the CBA shooters will harden them further by either dropping them directly from the mould into a pail of water, or will put them in an oven and soak them for a given length of time and then immediately drop them into water. Again, they will let these sit for about a month before using them so the hardness will stabilize.

  I've never gotten into this so what I've wrote is general in nature and from what I've read in CBA's "The Fouling Shot" over the years. I'm sure if you need exact info there will be someone here who can provide that.

PETE

Ray, how come yer always askin' these thought-provokin' questions?

The article you're seeking is in The Fouling Shot/The Cast Bullet issue #89 Jan-Feb 1991 and was written by Dennis Marshall in response to a question by OH McKagen. It's fairly extensive & gives probably more info than some folks might want, but I've copied it anyway & will mail it to you whenever I can get one of them tuit thingies.

There are other articles on heat-treating bullets (both to harden and to soften them) scattered throughout the issues, but this one gives the best explanation of the mechanisms and results.
HTH, Joe

BTW the CBA is a really neat org for ASSRA shooters, our own FAsmus as well as Wayne Schwartz and others have written for their magazine. The back issues have a LOT of good info.

Bob,

  Well, I'm going to try a first for me and cast up about 2000 bullets for the Krag so I can shoot the CBA's military matches next Summer. So will be able to give you a definitive answer then as I have several targets shot with fresh bullets, and if there's any definitive difference it should show up then.

PETE

I've read and heard many times that one should not use "old" cast bullets; ones that have been carried over from one summer's shooting till the next spring. I've read that changes take place  in hardness, and change in diameter also. 

Bob,

I think we have to keep the bullet separate from the cartridge here.

I, like the fellows below in this thread, really like to shoot well-aged bullets! I love it when I locate a box of "Match" bullets a year or even two after they've been cast. I know then that they are stablized as per hardness and size such that a fellow may reduce at least a couple of the variables we contend with when shooting cast bullets.

On the other hand, a fellow should approach old ammunition loaded with cast bullets with rather low expectations! I have it on good "range authority" that shooting cartridges loaded much longer than a week or two will toss the uncalled flyer even when shooting a proven combination.

We could ask for reasons and/or speculations why this might be so here on-line. Right-off I don't really know for sure why.

I do not know this for an actual proven fact. But I always make sure my "record" shells are fresh!

Good afternoon,
Forrest

Forrest,

  Quote:


  About the only reason I've heard for this fresh vs old ammo is that the lube in cast bullets will over time tend to "lock" in. The article I read on it said the author had set up a jig of some sort to test how much it took to pull fresh and old cartridges, and if there were any differences between any cartridge in each group. His conclusions were that it took more pressure to pull old ammo and individual cartridges in the old batch varied quite a bit. New loaded bullets pulled easier and were more consistent over the batch.

  I haven't tried to verify this, but since reading it I always use loaded ammo no older than two days for match shooting.

  As for leaving bullets set for a while or use them fresh, is a good question. Personally I usually shoot fresh bullets, but I know shooters who won't shoot anything fresher than a month old. From the way we all shoot in our club I can't really say one way is better than another. Considering the accuracy we can achieve with PB Lead bullets I'm not sure if you could tell the difference.

PETE

Joe,

  Neat idea about re-seating bullets a bit to break them free. I can see how this would probably work very well with jacketed ammo. But, I wonder if bullet lube when locked into the case would leave a clean surface when broke free. Or, if froze ammo on firing would leave a ring or part of a ring of lube. If so then possibly this might score the sides of the base and be the real cause of inaccuracy in old ammo.

  As for doing a test on the idea, I just don't have any cartridges that have been laying around for any length of time. As I mentioned I load up any cartridges I'll need for the weekend on Thursday or Friday, and any left over I'll shoot down within a day or two during the following week.

Just checked to be sure and all I have are about a dozen PP .45/70's. Since they are loaded with BP I'm not sure if seating them deeper would be off much help since they are loaded against compressied powder, and I don't have any jig to pull them.

PETE

  Neat idea about re-seating bullets a bit to break them free. 

PETE,

Your first post and this one read well.

We shooters here in Sheridan think the problem of shooting old ammunition is to do with unequal bullet-pull with shells that have been loaded for an over-long period of time.

I have at least partly overcome this in some loads by intentionally loading to excess overall length and letting the rifle "seat" the bullet upon chambering the round. This will only work when shooting rilfes with some sort of power associated with closing the breech as in Ballards, Stevens and so forth. 

I certainly would not work with BP over a copressed load or some of the smokeless loads I use that are loaded over compress powder and inert cerial of some kind.

Good evening,
Forrest