Before I got into schuetzen,  the only thing I really cast were pistol bullets, and 45-70 bpcr bullets. I started sorting them by weight, and ended up with a large spread, which i figured was normal. Then i got into schuetzen and cast up .32's and .28's that are much more consistent. 

Today was a "cool" California summer day (only 95 degrees!) so i fired up the 20lb Lee pot and started ladleing the lead. I cast up 100 .32's the ranged from 178.9 - 179.3, then 100 .28's that were between 152.7 - 153.2. I was plenty happy with the results,  but then moved onto 45's. I cast up 170 thet were between 531 - 533.6, which is about my normal spread on these.

Why would the spread be so much larger on the bigger bullets? I suppose i have been spoiled with my Paul Jones and John Louis molds... 

The only thought I have is that with the smaller bullets, the lead level in the pot doesn't change much, but by the time I get 80 of the 45's, the lead level is getting low, and that may affect the temp, which could affect weight?

Also I'm pretty impressed that you cast in 95 degree temps.  I'm from the west coast of Canada.  If it gets over 80 degrees I'm looking for some shade 

gunlaker wrote yesterday at 10:14pm:


Gotta do what you gotta do. My stock has been running low, and i shot the last of my bpcr bullets in May, and we start again in a couple weeks. Shot the last of my schutzen bullets last month, and our match is next weekend...