Why is ladle pour better than bottom pour?

[Ted Bell]

In reading through many, many posts on this forum, including the recent post about getting started casting bullets, there seems to be an overwhelming recommendation for ladle pour over bottom pour. This surprises me, as I would think the casting temp would be more consistent with bottom pour as the casting time from pot to mould is virtually instataneous with no time for the lead to cool, whereas with a ladle pour the lead is transferred to a ladle which I would think would cause some cooling, and then moved to the mould and poured, which although not slow would still take several seconds and an opportunity for more cooling. What makes ladle pouring better than bottom pouring for our typical BPCR bullets?

Thanks,
Ted

[bpcr shooter]

consistent weight during the pour, And that leads to more consistent bullet weight

[kenny s]

Yup. more consistent weight.
All the mold guys recommend it...slow pour, hot mold, let it cool etc.
'
I had a bottom pour. eventually discarded it.
Ok for pistol bullet molds but that's all...\
bought a new ladle from BA. big and heavy and works great.

Ken

[semtav]

Local shooter is a bottom pour only caster and he wins a lot of matches.
I'm not a bottom pour caster nor do I win a lot of matches

Hence either will work fine.

[Woody]

As has been stated, bottom pour is fine for small pistol, rifle, and gang type of moulds, but not so good for large heavy bullets. I was a die-hard bottom pour guy for years and years. When I started this journey 20 or so years ago, I continued to bottom pour from my white powder days. Fast, but about 25 percent of the bullets were culls with visible air cavities. The ones without visible defects shot great. I made Master in Long Range Target Rifle and in Silhouette with those bullets, but a 25 percent cull rate was killing me. I finally tried ladle pouring and immediately plugged the spout in my lead pot. Basically zero culls. I preheat the mould and start casting at 800 degrees. I use a cheap Lee 20 lbs production pot and a cheap Lyman thermometer. My weight range is less than a grain total spread and usually in .5 range. It's gotten so consistent, that the last several years, I don't weight my bullets, except the very first few out of the casting session. I do this only to insure that the mould temp has stabilized. My current hot plate preheats the mould so well, that I'm thinking it's a waste to even weight the first one anymore.

Woody

[bobw]

The guys have hit on the good points. I don't believe the inside diameter of any bottom pour spout is large enough to give you the same flow as a ladle for big bullets. That gives you the culls. bobw

[bpcr shooter]

suppose you could always drill it out???? if it dont work plug it up..........

[bobw]

Well yeah but if it still didn't work as good as a ladle does ,you may have ruined it for bottom poured pistol bullets. I cast both ways but converted to ladle only for rifle slugs years ago. Why because it works the best and low cull rate. Ain't no one here going to fault you too much if you gotta learn the hard way.

[bobw]

Well yeah but if it still didn't work as good as a ladle does ,you may have ruined it for bottom poured pistol bullets. I cast both ways but converted to ladle only for rifle slugs years ago. Why because it works the best and low cull rate. Ain't no one here going to fault you too much if you gotta learn the hard way.

[Ray Newman]

For What Its Worth: Probably 25+ years ago, I stated ladle casting. ‘Nevva’ could get a good bullet from a bottom pour furnace.

Gave up the bottom pour, next tried a propane fired camp stove, and now a WAAGE K4757 pot. The camp stove worked well, especially when fed by a 25 pound propane tank. So far, the WAAGE works the best. Some here do not care for the WAAGE, but it works well for me.

An old time Black Powder Shooter/Caster gave good advice when I first started to ladle. As I still experienced some difficulty pouring “match quality” bullets, he said to drill the spout out to about 3/16.” John stated that in his experience the spout diameter was just too small to pour a heavy 500 grain+ bullet: small spout diameter restricted melt flow, did not expel the air from the mould soon enough, and probably caused some cooling of the ladle and melt.

John never steered me wrong, so I drilled out the spout. Immediate improvement as to weight, flat bases, etc.

[Ted Bell]

Thanks for all of the information, folks. I had assumed ladleing would be a slower pour than bottom pouring, but it sounds like that is not the case and is the reason for better results when ladle pouring the bigger bullets. (Unless I have misunderstood these posts.)

Thanks,
Ted

[MSalyards]

I was told by someone on here when I first started that you stir your melt as your pulling it out with the ladle and it keeps the lead and tin mixed. While the bottom pour tended to let it separate. Made sense to me at the time.

[bushwacker2]

Just to through some dust into this post,years ago I made up a bottom pour ladle so I didn't have to do all that wrist turning, worked great been using it ever sence. It holds about 7 or 800 grs. has a tapered bottom, a top thumb operated lever with a loose pin, works like a bottom pour pot.

[Trigger1212]

Bushwacker, interesting, can you post some pictures?

Cheers!

Wade

[Gussy]

The difference between ladel and pot is head pressure. Lead is always the same height above the mould with a ladel. In a pot you start with 6 inches plus of head pressure and rapidly decrease as you empty the pot.