question on lipstick bullets

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  • Last Post 31 December 2022
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Ross Smith posted this 26 December 2022

My friend spouted off on PC bullets, sez they leaded and fouled his barrel. I suspect it was a revolver but don't know. I think the fouling and leading were already there but like I sed he's a friend. I really didn';t want to push it. Any body else had trouble that way?

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Shuz posted this 31 December 2022

Rather than pick each boolit up with tweezers to shake off the excess powder, I just dump the freshly coated boolits into a wire vegetable type strainer and shake the excess powder off. I then just dump them onto 1/4 " screen cloth that lines a pan and place in the toaster oven. I was surprised at how the boolits got coated, even where they touched the screen cloth.

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Buttersdad posted this 31 December 2022

I don't have a large investment in my powder coating process, because I can't afford it. I use what is called the shake and bake method. I use smoke's powder coat colors and they work great. I too use a tweezer to stand the bullets up on the base in a pan with non-stick aluminum foil on it. I also tap the bullet in the tweezer before I stand it in the pan, because my first pc'd bullets came out like some Aaron shared. It works great for me, but if you choose to try powder coating start with a quality powder, I started with Harbor Freight powder and had to powder coat each bullet twice to get complete coverage, but not with smokes powders. You can find smokes in the vendor forum on castboolits forum.

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Lucky1 posted this 26 December 2022

Good thing you didn't have the wrap on the tailgate that looks like a girl roped and tied in back under the tonneau cover. "Gee officer, why do you want to talk to me? "

Scott Ingle

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Aaron posted this 26 December 2022

I try to rotate the first aid kits out of my cars every other year.  Strange statement huh? 

Too funny. In the back of my truck are several rolls of silver duct tape, along with several sections of rope. I spend a lot of time in the woods hiking and the duct tape is used to remove ticks from my clothing. I keep a roll up front too so when I see one climbing up my pant leg, I tape it off. Use it like on a lint roller except use one wrap around your 4 fingers. Rope (3/8") is for trail work.

Anyway, I was visiting my son in Norfolk and my wife, daughter-in-law, and her mother got in the back of the truck. Everyone went all silent. Real silent. I looked back through the rear view and saw them mumbling with concern. I asked what the problem was. My wife, very quietly and slowly asked me "What's with the tape and rope?"

 

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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foesgth posted this 26 December 2022

Aaron,

I try to rotate the first aid kits out of my cars every other year.  Strange statement huh?  In those kits there is usually a pair of plastic tweezers for pulling splinters.  I have found them to be the best for PC bullets.  They will pick up a coat of powder and leave little or no mark on your bullets.  I dump mine in a drawer organizer basket and give them a couple of taps over a cookie sheet.  That removes the excess powder and spreads them out so I can line them up to bake.  I use a baking sheet cut from 1/4" aluminum with non-stick foil on top.  With the thick aluminum sheet you don't get the flex that causes your bullets to fall.  For really tall bullets (311-299) I use silicon mini ice cube trays.  Just make sure they are oven rated.  I already ran the non oven rated experiment for you and you don't want to clean up after that...trust me.

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358156hp posted this 26 December 2022

Hi Aaron,

You appear to have a surplus of powder on your bullets. I usually remove my bullets from the tumbling container with large tweezers positioned in a lube groove, then I tap the tweezers (with the bullet in them) lightly on the rim of the tumbling container to remove the excess. Opinions differ, but I stand mine up on their bases on the baking sheet. This takes longer than the popular "just dump them on the sheet" procedure, but I'm happy with the results. I use silicone baking mats, cut to size for my baking.

 

 

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Aaron posted this 26 December 2022

I had no intention of candy coating my bullets. I ordered some lead lubricated bullets from Badman Bullets to save me some time a few months ago. He didn't have the ones I wanted and instead offered to send me some PC'd bullets of the same style to try out. What the heck - I'll try them and see what all the fuss is.

Bottom line is that I fired 50 PC'd 38 SPL/357 Mag RN bullets and had no leading whatsoever. In fact, the barrel was unbelievably clean after the full 50 rounds were fired. These were medium-ish loads with 12gr of Accurate #9 pushing the bullets.

Having seen first-hand that a clean bore is possible with pretty good loads, I ordered some powder and tried to powder coat some bullets. Needless to say, mine (my first attempt to powder coat) were a complete failure. The coating process must be done properly for the process to work. Just like casting.

The red coated (cherry flavored) bullets are the ones from Badman Bullets. The green (lime flavored) bullets are my first run at powder coating.

One can clearly see I have a rather long way to go with the learning process.

From my reading online, different powders behave differently in this process and different colors may also behave differently for some reason, unbeknownst to me. There are as many differing coating techniques as there are videos online.

For me, with a significant investment in lubricating material, and decades of lubricating experience, I will stick with wax lubricants. Powder coating is interesting, but I don't want to invest more money developing an adjunct process when the one I use works fine for me. I appreciate powder coating and I would chime in that when PROPERLY done, leading is not an issue with powder coated bullets. The key here is doing it PROPERLY.

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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