Casting conical bullets

A friend and I will be casting a large quantity of ball and bullet soon to clean up a bunch of lead we have accumulated. I am savvy with casting but always wonder if it is best to drop the hot lead on a board to cool or drop it in a bucket of water with an old towel in the bottom. I wonder about deformation of the hot bullet and /or problems with hot bullet hitting cool water. Your thoughts?

I drop my Minie balls onto a couple burnt old pot holders my wife threw out, and some scraps from old towels. These line an old Eastern European/communist bloc-era sheet metal ammo can. It is just to me left while I cast, and I just whack the sprue plate open, open the mold over the pile of rags, and the bullet falls out. As I cast, I move the bullets to one end of the can, and use pliers to dispose of bullets that don't look too good, putting those back in the furnace with the molten lead.

I would not want any moisture around the molten lead.

Dropping hot bullets into water to cool can result much increased hardness if there is any percentage of Antimony in the alloy. The practice has zero effect on really pure lead or lead with a tiny bit of tin. Antimonial alloys create a strong crystalline structure when cooled rapidly.

I take several rags and wet them thoroughly, wring them out and then lay one or two dry ones on top. Mostly for padding but it does help cool the bullets and prevent a really hot one from sticking to the cloth. Other that that I keep water as far away from molten lead as possible. One cubic centimeter of water will generate 1,700 cc's of steam so you can see it doesn't take more than a drop to send lead flying.

I have a pile of old T-Shirts for grease rags in the garage. I just take a couple of them and double them over for a soft landing and use them without worrying about wetting them. They may scorch a little, but never a problem with them burning. I don't like to use wet stuff around a lead casting pot. Just make sure the cloth is cotton or wool and isn't synthetic which will melt and make a mess.

curator said:

Dropping hot bullets into water to cool can result much increased hardness if there is any percentage of Antimony in the alloy. The practice has zero effect on really pure lead or lead with a tiny bit of tin. Antimonial alloys create a strong crystalline structure when cooled rapidly.

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I think the presence of a bit of arsenic is the ingredient that causes the hardening effect. Dropping in a bucket is popular with modern cast bullet casters who use wheel weights and want very hard bullets. Wheel weights have that small amount of arsenic needed.

I just pop open the mold into my palm and closely examine the minie ball for perfection. If it is flawed, I crush it between my fingers and flick it back into the pot like a particularly obnoxious booger.

Really though, I just open the mold over a couple old towels laying on the bench, tap the mold and it just rolls out the mold. I'll cast enough to where the bench is getting crowded, then pick them up with some pliers and check for deformities. Bad ones go back in the pot. No water quenching as I want them dead soft.

Ok, well, that steers me in the right direction.

I usually just drop on the bench onto a old towel that doubled or even triple layered. never had a problem with that. When I do a bucket which is rare I put the bucket behind me on a stool that way no risk of splashing water into molten lead. As stated alloyed lead will come out harder but soft lead will not be effected.