frosted bullets. what is wrong with them

so besides appearance is there something wrong structurely with frosted bullets?

Last edited by Smoke4320; Today at 06:50 AM.

I've never cranked any frosted bullets out. But from everything I gather, your bullet batter is too hot.
I've heard said that there is nothing wrong with them, and that a frosted bullet might retain more lube.
Hell, I don't know.

If something is worth shooting once, it's worth shooting a bunch of times.

Could be one or more of the following.
Casting too fast(Re, mold too hot)
Mold too hot.
Lead too hot.

General consensus seems to be that a frosted bullet retains lube better. There's some guys here who strive for frosted bullets. Me personally, as long as there is proper fillout and no wrinkles and good bases, they're going to be lubesized and loaded.

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Nothing is wrong with them. Lube them then shoot them.

I'd rather err on the side of frosted boolits!

As long as the frosty boolit is up; to size, to weight, and well filled out, size and shoot them! To size,,-- they're as big in diameter as a non-frosty boolit. To weight--,, if they weigh the same,(in the approximate weight range). Well filled out--,, the edges of the driving bands are sharp and the bottom edge is completely filled out.

I find that the frosted boolit is usually smaller by at least .001 and can weigh up to 3-4 grains less than a shiny one.

Now for a definition of just what is considered frosted; There isn't one! What I consider frosty another considers "[U]a lighter gray color[U/] Are these frosted??

I don't consider any of those to be frosted. To me a frosted boolit looks like they're galvanized. Apparent crystals on the surface of the boolit.

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The only problem with frosted bullets is that sometimes you get SBS (shrunken boolit syndrome) where the boollit is not filled out near the bands and base - other than that they may even be more consistent (weight wise) than bright shinny boolit!

If they have SBS I put them in the recycle box to be remelted and cast, other wise I just shoot them. I took 2 elk's with frosted boolits, one in a 45/70 and one in a 45/90.

I took 2 elk's with frosted boolitsBy any chance, were the elk offended?

If something is worth shooting once, it's worth shooting a bunch of times.

I usually try to get frosted boolits from a mold at first. That means everything is up to heat. Then I will open the hot mold between pours for about a 3 count to cool it off slowly till my boolits just lose the "galvanized" look. I like a little grey color. But, I am also sizing .001 to .002 from as cast diamater and I have not noticed a change in POI in boolits varying up to two grains in total weight.

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so besides appearance is there something wrong structurely with frosted bullets?Maybe, maybe not.

mild frosting is no problem but heavy frosting can reduce the diameter significantly.

See:

http://www.reloadingtips.com/how_to/frosted-bullets.htm

Frosting is always caused by the MOLD being to hot.

You can have frosting with the alloy at 600 degrees if you cast too fast.

.

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By any chance, were the elk offended?

Nope - just dead

Here's my take on frosted bullets. When the melt is hot, up way more than necessary, my bullets drop small (I don't have temperatures handy, but frosted is an indication, for me, that temps. are up). For me, a cooler alloy, and a mold cooler (but still hot enough for good fill out) will drop bullets closer to designed diameter. I have one mold that will make great bullets all day, slightly frosted, but .001"-.002" smaller than I need. For this mold it can be a balancing act of temperatures to get the bullets a bit larger...

Thanks for all the answers. was really interested in structure issues.
mostly concerning my hunting rounds. breaking apart on impact ect
Plan on powdercoating everything anyway and resizing.

I haven't heard of any claims of structure change due to frosting, nor ever experienced such.

I actually like mildly frosted boolits if the frosting is uniform or nearly so. May be bogus, but I always felt frosted boolits held thinned LLA better and actually shot a mite better too.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.", old Chinese proverb.

Lyman mentioned bullets alloy being brittle but, look at what they tested with. They were using #2 and Linotype in more bullet alloy, hardening them up and possibly heat-treating. In that respect, too much heat could enter the equation. As far as ordinary wheelweight, I don't think it's going to matter that much.

Lyman may have been shooting steel or some other hard target in their testing too.

It's only something to keep in mind when adjusting temperature and alloy, not set in stone anywhere.
Good Luck,
Ron

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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