Test

CBA Member

Boschloper posted this 09 March 2021

Good looking powder coat. How about some details on the bullet?

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CBA Member

pat i. posted this 09 March 2021

I used an Accurate 31-165sb (b for bevil base) as a starting point. I had my mold cut .302 on the nose, .304 on the 1st band, .307 on the 2nd band, and .310 for the base and band ahead of it, all positive tolerances. Powder coating kinda threw a monkey wrench into those dimensions but it wont hurt to try shooting it. I'm new to powder coating bullets and shot some for the first time yesterday out of a 32 long and a 38 special. Seems to work good at the speed I was shooting them which wasn't too fast.

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CBA Member

pat i. posted this 09 March 2021

I have a taper die in one of my presses that brings the diameters pretty close to the uncoated diameters so a fair test against bare bullets should work. This is a low velocity plainbase bullet in a factory rifle so I dont expect miracles.

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Standard Member

Tom G posted this 09 March 2021

Hi Pat,

Your bullet looks real good. I've been PC'ing my pistol bullets for about a year now and I don't plan on going back. Using Eastwood red and the shake and bake process I pick up about .004" increase in diameter over cast. I use the 6 cavity Lee molds for high production pistols bullets and they work well as they usually cast on the small size as compared to other commercial molds. All I do for sizing is run them through a Lee push through die. Using the Lee molds they don't get so big with the added PC. If I was to go for a custom mold I would have it cast at right about measured groove dia. It doesn't seem to hurt the ones I'm shooting by sizing them down to groove or one thou. over. They shoot very accurately and never lead the barrel.

If you want to test your bullets for adhesion, just take a hammer and smash one down into a flat washes and it the coating stays on, you're good to go.

You'll find that they act more like jacketed bullets than lead when they have the PC coating. I picked up a nice Ransom Rest from George Morrison and plan to test PC'd vs. conventionally lubed bullets in my pistols. I'll write it up and post it here when I get it done. I also plan to make up a bunch to try in my AR too.

It's finally starting to warm up around here but I've still got a snow pile that won't go away behind the house where the sun doesn't shine.

Tom

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CBA Member

pat i. posted this 09 March 2021

Hi Tom. Nice to hear from you. Glad to see you're having luck with the PC. I did try the smash test and it amazing how that stuff sticks to lead. When I shot those coated bullets out of a couple of handguns yesterday I did have some kind of fouling in about the first quarter inch of barrel but it didnt seemed hurt anything and came right out. But then again I wasn't pushing too hard. I'll try to get out to try the 06 in a week or two to see how they work.

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Standard Member

Spindrift posted this 09 March 2021

Nice looking bullet, very good coat!

My (limited) experience with plain base PC bullets in rifles, is you can load them to similar levels as you would with a lubed, gas-checked bullet of the same design. GC designs, without GC installed, also work well at similar load levels. Good luck with your shooting, and keep us posted!

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CBA Member

pat i. posted this 09 March 2021

Thanks to you guys for saying the coat looks good. It has nothing to do with me but I think a big part of that is I'm using Eastwood Ford light blue powder. I read before I started that it's one of the best for powder coating so why fight city hall. It works.

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CBA Member

pat i. posted this 13 March 2021

Took this bullet out for test drive and so far no good. The powder coating is challenge since it changes the dimensions. I did run it into a taper die a little bit to approximate the as cast diameters but maybe I made the first and second driving band too small. I'll try again. One thing though it sure is clean shooting for a lead bullet. With greased bullets I was using 9 1/2 grs of WST but ended bumping it up to 10 1/2 for the coated bullet. Might have to try a slower powder and kick the velocity up a bit to see what happens.