For air cooled, I don't even go that far. A big soft towel doubled over and I drop boolits right onto it. When the pile starts getting big enough to ding them I just move over on the towel and drop in a different spot. EVery once in awhile I pick up one end of the towel so they all roll onto one side.
Water quenched...I use the towel with a hole in it over a 5 gal bucket. Dropping boolits into water and making a splash is not good near a pot of molten lead. If a drop of water landed in the pot, the rapid expansion of the water turning to steam will cause a mini explosion which will throw molten lead all around. Be mindful of this.
I wondered about water quenched hardness and sent some test boolits to a buddy who has a hardness tester and water quenched WW's harden to about 24-26 brinnel hardness, and the same boolits dropped in hardness over a few months to ~18-20
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