Powder Coat

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  • Last Post 19 December 2014
gpidaho posted this 01 July 2014

I just spent a beautiful Idaho day  out south of Boise with my son inlaw Chris running tests on some Powder Coat bullets. We had 100 rnds + of 45acp, 41mag and 357mag Not an accuracy test so much as a test for function.  I have a utilitarian Ruger P97DC that never fails to cycle with jacketed bullets but balks regularly with cast, especially when lubed with LLA or 45-45-10. I haved tried various seating depths, some better than others but stubborn enough to need a forward assist with the right thumb on the slide way to often. Enter Powder Coat bullets. Not one failure to go into battery. All the pistol and two revolvers needed for clean-up was a wipe down and a couple patches and they were clean. I for one think PC works great and is so easy to do. Im done with greasy lubes at least until I find a down side with PC   GP

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mike morrison posted this 01 July 2014

explain how you powder coat your bullets. m

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gpidaho posted this 01 July 2014

Mike:  Go to the Cast Boolit forum,the Threads on Coatings and Alternatives,page one. Read Stickys A Trick For Tumble Powder Coating and Powder Coating 101- The Electrostatic Method.  So far Ive been using the tumble  coat method and it does work really well, I just ordered an electrostatic set up today as I always enjoy a new toy. Try this its easy and works very well GP

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mike morrison posted this 01 July 2014

gpidaho picked up a sample .355 for 9mm at the Quigley. Interesting, don't know how they did it but looked really good. don't have a 9mm so will pass them on to someone who does. thanks for the info. will look into it. m

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Vassal posted this 01 July 2014

I'd be really interested in a detailed thread with pics,,, Mr Idaho.

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gpidaho posted this 02 July 2014

Mr. Vassal: I will try to get that together. I don't have the camera equip. or computer skills to do that as I type all this in one finger at a time. Son inlaw Chris is a whiz with all that and I will get him to help. If you PM me I will go one better and send some along for you to try. .358, .411. .452 ? Sized or unsized so you can fit them to your needs. Its not for everyone but works great for me. A Shooting friend, GP Please see coatings and Alt.at Cast Boolits as there are many people there with great advice.

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Little Debbie posted this 17 December 2014

I'm in the early stages of of powder coating.  It can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be.  After reading all of the threads on the other cast bullet site I ve done the following several times resulting in a smooth even coat of paint.

Use Harbor Freight red powder coat paint. It's the easiest and cheapest way to try this. Coat your bullets within about a week of casting. I don't know if the surface oxidation      causes a problem, but some bullet I had sitting around for six months or so we're not as nice  as fresh cast. Get a Glad brand or other #5 plastic screw top container. The theory is that this helps create a static charge that allows better powder adhesion. It seems to work. A pint size works for a 100 bullets at a time. Get some plastic beads. 1/4 inch or so, lots of people are using 6 mm air soft pellets. The heavy black ones are best but I've used some craft beads my wife had and they work great. You need a toaster oven. Mine was $3 at a local thrift store. It had a solid tray with it, you'll need that too.. Get a roll of non stick aluminum foil, Reynolds brand is best, but the off brand I found locally worked too. Okay: Put a layer of beads that covers the bottom of you plastic container, maybe a little more.  Place a couple of table spoons of powder in the container. This powder is very fine and gets everywhere. Place 100 9mm/38 bullets or 50 41/44/45 bullets.  Roll and shake the container for 30-60 seconds. The bullets should appear fully coated. If not agitate some more. Put a layer of foil on your tray.  Set your toaster oven to 400 degrees to preheat. Keeping you fingers well powdered grab each bullet by the nose and place base first on the foil covered tray. Don't let the bullets touch. Place the tray in your in the oven. After the paint goes liquid and shiny, let bake for 10 minutes. Remove tray and let cool. Pop the bullets off the foil. Occasionally you will have a disc of foild hearing to the base. I don't worry about it.  You will gave gained an average of .002 diameter with the coating. When I need to size I run the bullets through a Lee sizer. A well adhering coat will not be affected.  Some results shown below

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gpidaho posted this 17 December 2014

Little Debbie:  You got it. Wait until you get an electrostatic gun, then they have a glass finish. I've found the “shake and bake” method perfectly acceptable for handguns and some rifles.  All I can add to your post is that the use of plastic containers marked with the recycle #5 seem to work best.  Had a new to me 30 carbine at the range today shooting Powder coated bullets and I think the bore was cleaner when I got home than when I headed out.  Love the stuff!  GP

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Little Debbie posted this 17 December 2014

GP: I'm not totally sold on this yet. The 9mm round shown contains a Lyman 356402 sized to 358 after coating. I normally use this as cast (.3575 diameter) tumble lubed with 45/45/10 or Ben's new tumble lube (60% liquid alox + 40% Johnsons liquid floor wax). The powder coat bullets leave hard fouling at the beginning of the rifling and accuracy is 10 inches and larger at 25 yards from a rest. The more I shoot without cleaning the worse it gets. The tumble lube bullets are good for 3 inches and the barrel is spotless after running a dry patch through the bore. All loads fired in my Glock 17 at an average of 1050 fps. The powder coat is very smokey on a humid day too. The Saeco 358 180 gr RNFP shown is as accurate and non fouling as the same bullet conventionally lubed or tumble lubed when loaded in .38 Special cases and fired in my S&W M19 and M13 at 800 fps. The coated diameter of this bullet is .362 and sizes to .359 with no issues.

The .44 bullet shown has not been tested. I plan to use it in my standard 1200 fps .44 Magnum load which doesn't work that well with tumble lubing. I don't think I'll coat bullets with the gun. Tumbling seems to give me great results ( round and truncated nose bullets are so slick when coated by powder coating they are hard to pick up by the nose). The powder is messy enough I can't imagine spraying it!  Rifle bullets are so hard to keep standing up I'm not sure I'll make a holder for them or not.  What velocity are you pushing the bullets in your M1 carbine? Matt

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gpidaho posted this 17 December 2014

Matt: I've never had a problem with fouling or smoke when shooting PC in either handgun or rifle. They seem nearly as clean after shooting as before. I just run a very few patches through to remove gun powder residue and guns are clean.  It was my first outing today with the 30 carbine. Very cold and windy in Idaho this morning so I couldn't set up the chronograph. The Lee C309-113-Fs were gas checked and over 12.5 H-110, The Lee TL314-90-SWCs Plain based and sized down in steps to .309 and.310 were over 13.5gr. H-110.  All bullets were powder coated and some were COWW+2% tin and some were linotype.  Function was flawless with these rounds and barrel clean as a whistle. Very encouraging first outing. Fun little beer can roller.   GP

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gpidaho posted this 17 December 2014

I'll try to get some pictures up this week, just got a digital camera. I use aluminum plates cut to the size of the oven rack. I've drilled the plates to accept the gas check shanks of various bullets and then spray coat. Also caps of various sizes can be used to cover the noses of bore riders when you don't want the added girth to cause chambering problems in rifle rounds. Can't do that when tumble coating. A picture being worth a thousand words I will try to post if I get this figured out GP

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mike morrison posted this 19 December 2014

ok followed the advice and went to the other boolet site read up on pc and ordered some powder from smoke. bought an oven and did the shake and bake method. cast some 124gr tl bullets from a lee mould. had axcess to a 9MM to try them in. had a dirty bbl and lotsa leading. made a new expander at .355 and solved the leading problem. have only shot them at close range but hope to shoot more soon. this may be something i will do. no sticky bullets, no cleaning the seating die from lube. more testing and shooting will allow a firm decision. interesting. may try some rifle bullets.

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gpidaho posted this 19 December 2014

Mike, thanks for your comments.  A thing or two that will help.   Although powder coat is as tough as nails when you do the smash test it is very easy to shave off the thin coat if you don't use a generious flare( I shoot for 8 to 10 thousandths)  If your shooting say a 303 Brit or a Mosin I  first use the 31cal. M-Die then just kiss the end of the brass with the Lee universal expander .  When crimping don't over due it as the sharp edge of a role crimp can cause paint stripping.  I like to use just enough crimp to remove all the belling, and use a taper crimp when you need more for a good burn.  Im having very good results in all my handguns and about half my rifles.  I have an old worn out Mosin that I have shooting better groups powder coated than Win. factory jacketed(still wouldn't call it a target rifle but well under 2” at 50yrds.)  Keep after it,  it's like casting, the more its done the better they get.    GP

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mike morrison posted this 19 December 2014

thanks for the info. yes i am using a generous flare and closing it up just enough to chamber with no problems. still have lots to learn. this is all new to me and i will see where it goes. i have made many M type expanders for several calibers. the lee universal is a perfect platform for this. thanks.

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