Powder Coating Boolits

[popper]

No, that was 50 yds. That range is a fancy one but not set up well for accuracy. They have the cheap plastic stock rests and a U cutout in the bench with no room for a rear bag. I take my own bags. You have to use one hand for a rear bag and try to wait for the 20 mph gust to stop before firing. I did clean the 336 this morning. 2 specks of lead, powder residue and a tinch of Cu on the patches. I'm guessing the 2400 plain base load was ~1800 fps so I'm satisfied with the PC in the 30-30. Interesting the GC shot 2" high, PB was 1" high, CL were right on, where the scope is sighted. POA is corners of diamond.

[bmiller]

Popper, did you notice any more black residue with pc bullets than with standard bullets? The last time I shot mine the rifle's bore had a lot of residue. In all fairness, I shot conventionally lubed bullets as well.

[ItZaLLgooD]

I was able to get out and do some testing yesterday. I am glad to report that the powder coating worked well in everything I tried.

I shot about 50 rnds through a Glock 40 with the stock barrel. They were Lee's 175 TL-SWC (more like a TC but whatever) over 5.3 grains of Unique. Kinda mild for a 40 but not to wimpy. I have had no issues shooting this combo with 45-45-10. The smoke from the lubed boolits vs. the PC'd is more dramatic. The 45-45-10 lubed rounds smoke like a chimney, not a mosquito in a 100 yard radius. The PC'd smoke a little, not bad at all. I blasted through a couple of magazines quickly to see if a hot barrel changed anything. Nope.

I also tried some PC'd boolits in my S+W model 66. I usually shoot the Lee TL-158-SWC over 5.3 grains of Unique lubed with 45-45-10 with no leading but tons of smoke. Same results with the 357 as the 40. No accuracy issues and reduced smoke. For fun I loaded up a few with 14.5 grains of H110. They have a little more zip than the Unique but zero fouling in the barrel.

I had my brother run some 45's through his Kimber 1911. They are Lee's TL-230-TC modified to drop a 200 grain boolit over 5.0 grains of Titegroup. I have shot several thousand of these lubed with the 45-45-10 though my Taurus PT 1911 (until my extractor broke a couple of weeks ago while testing the PC). Same results as all of the other PC attempts. His Kimber really liked this load. Nice tight groups.

Overall I do see more black residue in the barrel than I have in the past but nothing that a few passes with a brass brush doesn't take care of. Definitely easier to clean than the copper fouling you get after a couple hundred plated bullets. The exception was the 357's loaded wih H110. They actually cleaned out the residue left from the rounds shot with Unique.

The whole reason that I wanted to try this is that between my son,brother and myself we go through about 7000 rounds a year with USPSA shoots some of which are indoors. Smoke is a concern with indoor ranges. Money is also a concern. I have been shooting plated bullets through the Glock mostly beause of the smoke/safety concerns. I have heard arguments on both sides of the lead in a Glock barrel. My son (who is only 13) does most of his shooting with the Glock. I errored on the safe side and bought the plated stuff. I believe that PC eliminates any leading concerns and will allow me to feel confident about casting and PC'ing for the Glock safely. This will save me some cash in the process.

357 Sig is my next adventure. Any suggestions for a 9mm Lee mold suitable for 357Sig?

[MJohnston]

I got to do more testing yesterday as well. Just wish I had better results to show for it. I tried to fire into milk jugs to test expansion and see how to powder coating held up. The boolit went through 7 jugs and went out the side to be never found again. The pic shows what I found in the dirt just under the grass. Wonder if the powder coating came off in the barrel or the dirt. After seeing the fracturing instead of deforming I tested again and they were about 14-15 hardness instead of 10 like I thought they were. I am also getting more residue in the barrel but it seems to clean out easy enough. I am going to round up some 5 gallon buckets next weekend and see if I can recover a good boolit. I chronorgaphed the rounds too just to make sure they were going about what I thought they should but I didn't think to load up some standard lubed ones to compare. Will do next weekend.

[jmorris]

Seems to be a lot of hate for such a simple idea but after reading all of the posts in this thread and gathering up the equipment to do what has been done, I think it could have promise.

With some more testing to make sure it viable for my needs, I am already thinking towards solutions for doing bulk. Maybe holding them in the traditional lube grove or like another post from both ends.

The photos below may get the point across. Only have one side in the photos because I only have two hands but either would be pretty quick to setup using the same idea to line up, hold and clamp as the linker I built for my 1919.

Edit to add something sharp and made of metal would replace the plastic fingers, just trying to show the concept before building anything.

[jmorris]

I just used the HF device out of the box. For the folks that have done some testing with the unit, what nozzle do you use and what other suggestions do you have?

All I had to test were bullets that were cast a few years ago and I didn't do anything to them in the way of prep.

[Advil]

Edit to add something sharp and made of metal would replace the plastic fingers, just trying to show the concept before building anything.

That gives me an idea. What if you made a loop of fine cable wire around a couple of bolts and strung a whole lot of boolits by the lube groove on the wire? You could even make the boolits turn for easier coating by turning a bolt and making the cable turn? Might be able to make a pretty long row of them that way in a small space for easier baking.

[bmiller]

I just used the HF device out of the box. For the folks that have done some testing with the unit, what nozzle do you use and what other suggestions do you have?

All I had to test were bullets that were cast a few years ago and I didn't do anything to them in the way of prep.

JMorris, with my HF unit it seemed finding the right air pressure was more critical than the nozzle.

[popper]

bmiller - The first rounds I fired had clean holes on the target and the holes got a dirtier ring as I fired more. Bore was clean of lead but tool several patches and 2 trips with Hoppe's to clean it out. The black junk is about like I get with unique and recluse lube. It's microgroove so even the 20 jacketed rounds didn't leave appreciable copper. The jacket load was 4895, the CBs used 2400. None of the necks were sooty so I assumed my 2400 load is good pressure. Yes, air pressure is most important.
Mjohnston - the right slug looks like a bore rider and everything except the nose came off. Are you applying heavy enough? I had leading from too light and poor coverage in 40SW. I'm using white powder and when done properly it is completely brilliant white. Otherwise it looks whispy white and speckled. What caliber and fps?

[MJohnston]

That is what I was wondering is if I wasnt putting a heavy enough coating on . I put on enough to cover the lead but thats it. I wasnt shooting for any thickness. Is there any way to tell when you have it thick enough? Maybe always do 2 coats? Its 50 cal at 1060fps. I was thinking maybe the dirt wore it off but more likely to thin of a coat.

[popper]

try some real heavy and see what the color is and compare with what you have done. Mine look like they are made of plastic, not coated.

[jmorris]

JMorris, with my HF unit it seemed finding the right air pressure was more critical than the nozzle.

I was using 20 psi with the on gun valve set on its lowest setting.

[bstone5]

The powder coat needs to thick and completely cover the lead or lead will be in the barrel.

Keeping the powder coat level in the container on the gun at least half full aids in getting a good coating.

Adjust the air pressure until a good cloud of powder comes out of the gun helps in getting a good coating.

I run the air pressure at the gun 30 psi to get a good cloud out of the gun.

As stated earlier the cast bullets should look like plastic with no light coating of powder being shown.

The thick cloud of powder in the air will give a good coating on the bullets, the thick or heavy cloud will result in less passes over
the bullets to properly coat the bullets.

Play with the air pressure to get the best cloud of powder coat coming out of the gun.

[bstone5]

Over the weekend the 45 ACP bullets powder coated with the Reynolds Aluminum No-Stick foil were sized and soda can gas checks installed. The gas checks were also made at the same time.

The total time was 8 hours to make the gas checks, size and install the gas checks.

Some of the bases of the powder coated bullets need a little cleaning for the gas checks to fit to the bases of the bullets. The powder coating stuck out past the base on some of the bullets, I was hoping the bevel base would not require cleaning but about half of the bullets required a little clean up bu sanding the base of the bullets.

A total of just over 1000 bullets were completed in the 8 hour time period.

The powder coating looked good with very few thin spots.

I will load a few and try them out in a few weeks.

[jmorris]

Didn't get very far when the kiddo woke up but here is the idea for the holders.

#18 brad nails with the head ground off stick in the aluminum jigs and 8-32 all thread clamps them together on the tip and base of the bullets, aligned in the wood jig.

Will add a strip of sheet metal to both sides of the wood to align the pins for clamping in the center then lift them out.

Figure laying a sheet of foil on a hunk of foam and poking the nails through then wrapping it around the rest if the fixture will make for easy clean up and you don't waist so much by having the pan full of powder.

My $20 oven is only 10" wide so that limits me to 15 wide but I can spread out & of the fixtures out at a time on the rack for 105 per pass.

[dudits]

ok, i am feeling a bit lazy and dont really want to go through all 28 pages again right now.
what is the fastest a PC boolit has been pushed without problems?
and a PC boolit GC'd?

working on finding an oven so i can join the PC crowd here

[popper]

jmorris - how about something like 2 hacksaw blades that ride in the lube groove, with small cutouts for spacing? Hinged on one end and clamped on the other. I'd thought of wire but it's not stiff enough. So you end up with a divit of PC in the lube groove, who cares. Nose and base get coated.

[jmorris]

Holding them in the lube grove was what I was thinking with the photo 4 in the post above. Going to give the nail method a try first just because with that style fixture I could fit more in my oven, I know just get a bigger oven but I haven't even figured out if this is the stuff for me or not.

[bstone5]

Dudits

Look Here

Post #498 Sheet 25

I have fired PC'd 308 win at 2400 fps with no problem. I use polyester TGIC powder.


Sheep Dog
Minutman
Boyscout
Contructionist
Patriot

[ryokox3]

I did some on a non stick foil, not branded as release, just nonstick. The pc seemed to avoid the bases on both the boolit and the foil. Very odd, like there was an opposite charge on the foil pushing the pc away.

Anyone else experience this? On a similar note, is there a way to get a stronger static charge on the foil? I'm using the sears coating gun and it works fine but I was thinking a stronger charge on the foil/boolits might pull in some more pc and have less waste.