Bullet Weight Inconsistencies?

[Span24]

Friends,

I have never loaded cast bullets, but a friend recently gave me a few hundred .356x124gr to try. I checked them out on the scale and found that the bullets are weighing in at between 124gr and 128gr. Is this typical? Is it OK to load with this kind of inconsistencies? I've never really scrutinized the popular retail bullets I typically load (primarily Hornady) so I don't know if this is typical or not.

Thanks in advance for your kind, helpful responses.

[GaryS]

I have that much discrepancy in mine. Maybe I'm not good at casting, or my alloy isn't mixed well (not even sure that is a thing). I load for the heavier bullets and call it good. At the end of the day, 4 grains of bullet weight won't make much difference in function or accuracy from a handgun, in my very new to casting opinion.

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[Span24]

I have that much discrepancy in mine. Maybe I'm not good at casting, or my alloy isn't mixed well (not even sure that is a thing). I load for the heavier bullets and call it good. At the end of the day, 4 grains of bullet weight won't make much difference in function or accuracy from a handgun, in my very new to casting opinion.

Thanks Gary!
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Hearing that you have the same degree of variance gives me some confidence to move forward.

Michael

[Mowgli Terry]

Hope you have worked through this problem by now, For me, I say a four grain variation is not even close to acceptable. It's possible to make runs of bullets with a fractions of grains variation. To give an honest appraisal it would be necessary to see the bullets.

Casting technique: Possibly, the first place to look is the sprue. The lead is drawn in to fill the mold. Allow the sprue to cool enough to change color. This is where the lead is drawn in to fill out the bullet. The bullet base may have rounded corners. I cast at 750 degrees. To me. when casting bullets everybody stays a newfer. There is always something to learn. Don't give up. Uniformity has all to do with technique.

[Mowgli Terry]

Hope you have worked through this problem by now, For me, I say a four grain variation is not even close to acceptable. It's possible to make runs of bullets with a fractions of grains variation. To give an honest appraisal it would be necessary to see the bullets.

Casting technique: Possibly, the first place to look is the sprue. The lead is drawn in to fill the mold. Allow the sprue to cool enough to change color. This is where the lead is drawn in to fill out the bullet. The bullet base may have rounded corners. I cast at 750 degrees. To really give better answers one would have to see these bullets. To me. when casting bullets everybody stays a newfer. There is always something to learn. Don't give up.

[SBSATS]

I have several hundred of the same cast from a Lee mold. Cast bullets invariably come out in varying weights and diameter. Even your lube will change them up a little, not to mention your alloy, or casting techniques.
I size all of mine and separate by weight to maintain consistently.
However for plinking and practice 4 grains difference in bullet weight isn't that noticeable.
I have never met a firearm that couldn't outshoot the shooter.
I find it much harder to get the lead bullets aligned in the case for seating resulting in bad accuracy than the weight of each bullet.

[Mowgli Terry]

If I weighed the bullets finding four gains difference I would take action. Toss that bullet back into the pot. Should the bullets be noticeably out of round that mold would be tossed also. Done right it's possible to make long runs of bullets with less than a grain variation. It takes just as long to make good bullets as junk.