Powder coating is quick, easy and dirt cheap

[oafpatroll]

Posted the same content to GS.

It just occurred to me that the bullets I made for load dev on my new revolver yesterday cost me nothing except powdercoat as they were made from 100% range scrap I had collected on my last few club shoots and the melting pot and powder coating oven were both running off solar. That means they cost an almost incalculably small amount in powder.

I got a new to me pair of moulds on saturday and inclusive of mould degreasing, handle assembly and smoking I had a batch of roughly 100 of each powder coated and ready for sizing at 5pm and everything packed away from a cold start at 1:30. I find bullet making quite relaxing and now that I can do some of it for damn near free I'm extra chuffed.

[Treeman]

It is pleasing ey !
Butttttt ! wait now, are they accurate in "your" weapon ?, if not      please tell me how relaxing it is. This casting can be a rabbit hole with suicidal thoughts , harder, softer, bubbles, aaaarrrrrggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[oafpatroll]

These bullets are for a 357 revolver that I don't yet have in hand so I don't know how well they'll do but all the other stuff I make works great.

I have a 12G slug that can clover leaf at 50m and a 132gr .270 Win that gave an 11mm 5 shot group at 100m. My 9mmP sport shooting bullets do fine out to sadpa and steel challenge ranges unless I'm retarding. This Saturday I was and came stone last in a steel challenge so maybe I scrap them from the list.

[Krazong]

My "shake and bake" method did not go as planned.  I can coat them and load the bullets, fire them in my 9mmP and 762x39, but about 2/3 of them will keyhole over 10m range and will loose all accuracy.

I'm back to using plain old lubed cast lead in my 9mmP and 38Spl.  Velocities in my 357 Mag dictates a copper jacketed or plated bullet.

[oafpatroll]

My "shake and bake" method did not go as planned.  I can coat them and load the bullets, fire them in my 9mmP and 762x39, but about 2/3 of them will keyhole over 10m range and will loose all accuracy.

I'm back to using plain old lubed cast lead in my 9mmP and 38Spl.  Velocities in my 357 Mag dictates a copper jacketed or plated bullet.

Interesting. I shake and bake and have had unchecked bullets up to 1800fps with no leading and no keyholing. If they are sized appropriately I can't think why PC bullets would be more inclined to tumbling than traditionally lubed.

I did find that a change from MS200 to S121 caused me some tumbling on 9mmP pellets but I resolved that by bumping the charge a bit.

[Krazong]

Yip, about 1800 ft/sec seems to be the upper velocity limit of lead / PC bullets.
This is the velocity I get from my 357 Magnum rounds when firing out of my Rossi Puma lever action rifle.

[oafpatroll]

Yip, about 1800 ft/sec seems to be the upper velocity limit of lead / PC bullets.
This is the velocity I get from my 357 Magnum rounds when firing out of my Rossi Puma lever action rifle.

I know a couple of guys who run 30 cal plain based PC bullets in AK and 300blk at above 2000 with good results and there are people on cast boolits who claim velocities of up to 2600. I intend testing out my 270 bullets uncheckecked and seeing where I can get them to as I find gas checks an irritation.

[Treeman]

Yip, about 1800 ft/sec seems to be the upper velocity limit of lead / PC bullets.
This is the velocity I get from my 357 Magnum rounds when firing out of my Rossi Puma lever action rifle.

I know a couple of guys who run 30 cal plain based PC bullets in AK and 300blk at above 2000 with good results and there are people on cast boolits who claim velocities of up to 2600. I intend testing out my 270 bullets uncheckecked and seeing where I can get them to as I find gas checks an irritation.

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You will find that 2200 fps is abouts the problems start velocity. I have also read that some guys are achieving closer to the 2600 than 2000 fps velocities, but no mention of longer distance accuracy.
Everything points to 2200 fps at the moment and it seems the larger the caliber the more achievable that higher velocity is.
It would seem that the heavy slower calibers get higher velocities, closer to original velocities than say a 223 would get. I have gathered by my own deductions that the bigger bore just seem better suited for PC and higher velocities. 

[Krazong]

I stand corrected then.

Maybe I should test my SWC cast bullets I use for my 38Spl in my 357 Mag and see if I still get decent accuracy.
Using cast lead I should gain an extra +- 100ft/sec compared to CMJ/FMJ.  This implies a velocity of around 1900 ft/sec

Will test and report back.

[oafpatroll]

I stand corrected then.

Maybe I should test my SWC cast bullets I use for my 38Spl in my 357 Mag and see if I still get decent accuracy.
Using cast lead I should gain an extra +- 100ft/sec compared to CMJ/FMJ.  This implies a velocity of around 1900 ft/sec

Will test and report back.

My experience is that I require slightly less propellant to achieve book velocities for cast when powdercoating. Have to assume the stuff is slidier than raw lead.

[troglodyte]

My experience is that I require slightly less propellant to achieve book velocities for cast when powder coating. Have to assume the stuff is slidier than raw lead.
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Are you certain about this, the powder coating reduces friction substantially, the reduced friction = less pressure, the less pressure = reduced velocity. I have found that you need more propellant to get same velocity via raising the pressures. Then because of the lower pressure you can raise the load to achieve higher velocity than uncoated.
You can at a point move to an faster propellant and step a level up in velocity. This has all been learn back in the Moly and other coating start out days.

[oafpatroll]

My experience is that I require slightly less propellant to achieve book velocities for cast when powder coating. Have to assume the stuff is slidier than raw lead.
*******************************
Are you certain about this, the powder coating reduces friction substantially, the reduced friction = less pressure, the less pressure = reduced velocity. I have found that you need more propellant to get same velocity via raising the pressures. Then because of the lower pressure you can raise the load to achieve higher velocity than uncoated.
You can at a point move to an faster propellant and step a level up in velocity. This has all been learn back in the Moly and other coating start out days.

Not sure of the whys and wherefores but my results are as follows. I use roughly 10% less powder for a given plated bullet weight when loading cast PC and a hair less, but a noticeable one, than I used with the identical bullets in raw lead lubed form.