Use a towel with a hole in it!

M

maillemaker

New member
So someone here, I think it was Hog, suggested that when you drop bullets into a bucket of water that you first suspect a towel over the bucket. Cut a hole in the middle of the towel and let it just touch the water. As you drop bullets into the bucket, they will hit the wet towel and then gently roll down to the hole and fall into the bucket.

It minimizes the splash and it breaks the fall of the bullets so they don't dent on each other.

Works like a charm! Thanks whoever it was that suggested it!

Steve
 
That sounds like a pretty good idea. However, it seems like if you are wanting to water quench for maximum hardness, this would be taking away from the effect just a little bit. By letting a bullet fall to a wet towel before dropping into water, wouldn't it be cooling just a little more before hitting the water?

Has anybody done measurements to compare? I would think you want the bullet to hit the water as soon as possible after the lead has set up for max hardness.

Of course, if you don't need max hardness, I see now downside to this method.
 
That sounds like a pretty good idea. However, it seems like if you are wanting to water quench for maximum hardness, this would be taking away from the effect just a little bit. By letting a bullet fall to a wet towel before dropping into water, wouldn't it be cooling just a little more before hitting the water?

Has anybody done measurements to compare? I would think you want the bullet to hit the water as soon as possible after the lead has set up for max hardness.

Of course, if you don't need max hardness, I see now downside to this method.
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I have done this for years. However, the towel with the hole in it (clamped to the sides with a sag in the middle to allow the bullets to slide to and then trough), is not wet...it is dry. The bullet falls into water in the bottom of the bucket.
As you noted, there can be some difference in time between bullets getting to the water. I did find an apparent difference in hardness between bullets ( it does not take long for a small bullet to cool while in the mould),and subsequently abandoned the practice for oven heat-treating to assure the most uniformity inasmuch as I was interested in rifle cast lead bullet accuracy(possible CBA postal matches), at the time.
 
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Well then push the towel into the water a bit, the affect it has is temporary anyways!!

For that reason I abandoned the practice ;)
 
Well then push the towel into the water a bit, the affect it has is temporary anyways!!
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I have no idea what you intend to say.
Nevertheless, the time from the cast to quench is sometimes not exact because of human elements...varying exact alloy, anything causing a slight disruption of the casting rhythm (some bullets cooling more than others before quenching).
I was more confident in allowing the bullets to air cool and then heat treating them in large batches.
Note that this was a concern for only my attempts at accuracy with rifle bullets...water dropping or air cooling (for soft pistol hunting bullets), is adequate/more appropriate for bullets for other purposes.
Results using Ruger #1B (sporting rifle), in 30-06, Saeco # 301 mould, .311 as cast, lubed in .311 die.
 
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