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powder coating cast bullets

H

highlander

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Poking around Castboolits.com on powder coating bullets I figured give it a shot. So off to Harbor Frieght for pc,Rubbermaid bowl and a toaster oven from Walmart and airsoft bbs from Dick's. Took 1 teaspoon pc,bbs and placed them in the bowl shook the contents for a couple of minutes to coat the bbs. The bullets I was coating were 9 mm 130 hp cast. Placed the bullets in the bb/pc mix and shook for 1 min,removed the coated bullets and baked at 400 degrees for 15 min. Sized as I would normally size but no wax lube. Took a batch I had loaded up to the range yesterday and other than being a little light on the powder charge they work fine with one big advantage virtually no smoke.
Anyone firing cast bullets at an indoor range knows what I'mean talking about here. Shortly I'm going down in the cellar to cast some more bullets,powder coat and bake. I've some 45 200 gr swc ammo loaded I'mgoing to try in the near future as well.
 
andrew1220 said:
I can't imagine a plastic coating is harder than a copper jacket or plating?
Click to expand...

I dont know for sure but I see rubber wear out metal all the time..... axle seals, sway bar bushings ect ect..... although I dont think you will wear out the barrel anytime faster than normal
 
I can't say I've seen any data on barrel wear but from what I can put together the overall effect is barrel leading is eliminated.
If you think about it most barrel wear is from the erosive affects of the hot powder gasses. At this point I'm trying the process on my pistols .
 
Do you need to size these powder coated bullets? I have the Lee molds that supposedly don't require sizing, but I've gotten so much leading in the past with just using Alox that I had given up on casting for everything but shotgun slugs. Maybe powed coating is the way to go?
 
mac1911 said:
I dont know for sure but I see rubber wear out metal all the time..... axle seals, sway bar bushings ect ect..... although I dont think you will wear out the barrel anytime faster than normal
Click to expand...

In your examples the wear is caused by contaminates (dirt)
 
I have done some powder coating too.
As far as sizing it's all about what size they are after coating. If your bullets drop at .355 then the PC adds .002 then you will be at .357. You need to see if that's good for your bore diameter or not.

PC worked great but I found hi-Tek to be way easier and faster. I can cost as many bullets as I want at a time. Just need a bigger bucket. Once the coating gets dumped into the container you roll it around for about 10 seconds. Dump onto trays and they dry in a couple minutes. Bake 400* for 10 minutes and repeat.
Sure are pretty.




Highlander do you have any pics of the finished rounds? Or the bullets. I love the look of a good coated bullet.

Do you have anything you can really push them fast in? Wondering how the PC holds up to the higher velocity.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Unfortunately my skills at posting pictures leaves a great deal to be desired.
My attempts on pcing bullet are what I would call okay my drive bands are 80-90 % coated on my 9 mm bullets,my 45 bullets on the other hand 100% covered. As far as sizing once coated they will need to be sized depending on the pistol if you're using 9 mm and 357 you could coat and not need to size other calibers may require testing. The pc doesn't come off when sizing as you're swageing the diameter down. The test to see if the coating has been cured properly is to take a coated bullet place it on a hard surface take a hammer and smack the bullet,if you've done things correctly you should be able to pound the bullet flat with the coating intact.
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
I have done some powder coating too.
As far as sizing it's all about what size they are after coating. If your bullets drop at .355 then the PC adds .002 then you will be at .357. You need to see if that's good for your bore diameter or not.

PC worked great but I found hi-Tek to be way easier and faster. I can cost as many bullets as I want at a time. Just need a bigger bucket. Once the coating gets dumped into the container you roll it around for about 10 seconds. Dump onto trays and they dry in a couple minutes. Bake 400* for 10 minutes and repeat.
Sure are pretty.




Highlander do you have any pics of the finished rounds? Or the bullets. I love the look of a good coated bullet.

Do you have anything you can really push them fast in? Wondering how the PC holds up to the higher velocity.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Missed a thought yes I do I plan on coating some cast bullets for my CZ 527 in 7.62x39 in the near future,if that works next will be for my 40/65 and 45/70. Now and this is from the Castboolits.com forum powder coating will work in gas operated semi autos,not sure if I want to cast 22 Cal bullets but I do have a 300 BLK AR15 I like to try out.
 
The other method I've used is HF red and mineral spirits. 1 tsp added to some mineral spirits in a small bucket or cool whip container swirl around till the bullets are coated,remove from bucket let dry then bake at 400 degrees for 10 -15 min on a piece of parchment paper or non stick aluminum foil.
 
Supposedly the metallic colors are better for the high velocity loads.
Just a heads up. Hope it's not too late.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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