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 on Aug 15^th, 2026 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...

95 isn't too bad, kinda mild for Texas temps by comparison. I was able to visit the sweat lodge and made a bunch of 32cal and 40cal bullets a few days ago when the clouds were thick and it was only 98

As far as variance in larger calibers, I've noticed similar effects. I think there is something to be said for the volume of lead which fills the mold, ie less to go wrong with a smaller bullet since it fills the mold much faster. Small variances in your tempo and pour don't show up as much when you are pouring <200 gr of lead compared to >400 gr. I know that the volume of lead in my ladle can really change the results of my 45cal molds to completely fill out all the bands, so I try to grab as full of a ladle as possible. The smaller bullets aren't as finicky as the big pills. I try to be as consistent as possible, but I also try to cast as many as possible without overheating the mold.
Another factor could be the thermal capacity of the mold to reach and stay at what I call "thermal nirvana". Depending on what the mold is made of, I can say that my larger bullets are much more difficult to get to nirvana than the smaller bullets. How the mold responds to your tempo could play a role in the quality of the casts. Each mold is unique and what works for one doesn't always translate to another. Example, ive found that the 32 mold only needs 750 degree lead to throw great bullets, whereas my 530gr 45cal mold won't throw a decent bullet unless the lead pot is at 800 or higher. 
If you are casting different bullets at the same time, you may be experiencing the variances more than if you casted a individual batch of bullets from one mold. I used to try multiple molds at the same time, but found that to be effort wasted because the variances were too much.
Two things that really increased my production quality was switching to ladle pouring and upgrading my equipment to an RCBS digital control lead pot. Things got a lot better after those changes.

also for hot weather, I started wearing head bands to soak up the sweat a little better. Nothing more exciting than a visit from the tinsel fairies when the sweat drips on the table and splashes into the molten quicksilver 

I always use percentage when weighing my cast bullets, so my margins are tighter for lighter bullets weight wise, but the same percentage wise.

bpjack wrote on Aug 17^th, 2026 at 1:19pm:


Maybe that was an advantage to getting my wife into the game, she punched the 200 bullets out of the lube block for me, and i can even get her to run the 45's through the lubrisizer!

When I quit using a Lee pot and went to a PID controlled pot, I started getting much less variation in weight for my BPCR bullets.

My dad just got a set of the aluminum locking handles from bufallo arms after I sent him Wayne's article. He tends to get more of a spread than i do. His first time with them, the cast us 84 for his 400gr 40-65 (that number bugs me, shoulda done 1 more at least) 

70 of them were within 1 gr, , the rest were within 1.5 with just a couple rejects. They also let him cast for longer not having to hold the handles together. I may have to try a set

What kind of a scale do you use? Is it digital?

Does it read out in .1 grain or in .2 grain?

I use a frankford arsenal scale that goes to .1gr, but I don't think I'd trust it enough for powder. For bullets, its good enough,  and gives piece of mind that they are close

Yeah I think most of our digital scales aren't that great.  If you don't watch them constantly they'll drift. I keep mine on 24 hours a day now which seems to improve it quite a bit.  I wonder if the really high end ones popular with the f-open and benchrest shooters are less susceptible to drift.