I have a few simple questions about casting:
1. Weighing bullets-Do you weigh before sizing/lubing/gas checking? Or after?
2.What is your tolerance (+/-). Or, does it vary with the weight range?
3. Do you put lube in the crimp groove? I was trying to lube some short (Lee .30-115)bullets, and was unable to get my RCBS LAM II to "shorten up" enough to keep the lube out of the crimp groove. Does this do any harm?
4.Will using a gas check correct for slightly rounded bases, or should I cull even the very slightly rounded ones?
Thanks, in advance, guys. The more I get into this cast bullet thing, it seems like more questions arise, than are answered........Bug.

Bug
After casting, I sort the bullets visually. Even if I feel odd about an individual bullet it goes back for re-casting. Rifle bullets get sorted visually, then I weigh them and sort into three piles, heavy, lite, and med. If the bullets are 243 I sort with a grain between them. If I throwing 100 grain 243 bullets, I'll use 100 grain as the medium everything 98.5 or less goes lite and everything 101.5 goes heavy. Anything that varies greatly out of those ranges goes back to the pot.
If I'm casting 45 caliber rifle slugs I'll have a spread of 5 or more grains for the medium with five grain spread for the lite and heavy. As long as I keep the three groups separate and shoot each group together I get good accuracy.
Pistol bullets get a good hard looking over before sizing and lubing, again as I size and lube and once again as I seat them in the case.
Jim

It all depends on what you are trying to do. My normal goal for cast bullets is 2 MOA in cheap rifles and I can get that without all the timeconsuming niceties. Those bullets get only visual inspection and I do accept very slightly rounded bases when I am GCing. My take on the lube in the crimp groove is that it might as well be there since I ain't gonna crimp anyway unless I need a heavy bullet pull in a straight wall case.

Were I shooting cast bullet matches, I would be a little fussier, but I ain't.

Bug, in reply to your questions:

1) I don't bother weighing the bullets as a regular thing, but I am not shooting matches these days. If I WAS shooting matches, I'd weigh the competition bullets only...not the practice ones unless shooting LONG range. After weighing one complete run of over 800 .30-caliber bullets, I found that some bullets which PASSED the weighing-in process would have failed my visual inspection. Therefore the weighing was not necessary for my purposes.

2) I find that my 365-grain RCBS .416s will vary only about one grain....plenty close enough for guvmint work. Typical .30-caliber variation (150-grains up to 220 grains) even from 2-cavity moulds will be under one grain, likewise close enough. I cast with the furnace as hot as it will go, about 870 degrees, and very quickly, with a rate of 400-500 per hour from a 2-cavity mould. I believe this helps keep the weight variation down. My visual inspection is done as the bullets are sized and lubed.

3) With today's fine lubes, it's often not necessary to even fill all the lube grooves, let alone the crimp groove. Some bullet designs have too much lube capacity, and filling all of the lube grooves will actually reduce the accuracy of the bullet.

With that short .30 Lee design of yours, I wonder if a Lyman sizer die with more lube holes might not be better than the RCBS die??? (If you are using an RCBS die.) It would offer more possibilities in its settings. Un-needed lube holes in the die can be temporarily filled with #6 shot pellets. I use a Lee 130-grain .30 mould, and have no trouble keeping lube out of the crimp groove.

I avoid lubing the crimp groove in any design, anyway, because of the mess if actually crimping the case, and the exposed lube if not crimping the case.

4) I inspect rather rigorously and tend to reject most rounded bases, but if you are happy with the weight spread and the condition is not very pronounced, then yes, the gascheck will give you a perfect base and minor roundness can be ignored....but NOT in a plain-based bullet.

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)