First try with HF Electrostatic gun

[waco]

This is my first attempt at PC boolits. My brother and I have read lots of threads and researched the subject.
After getting the green light from my wife, :grin: I went to HF and got the gun and powder to try my hand at PC boolits! I also went out and bought a new convection oven for curing boolits.87698
We tried our 360477 NOE mold for our first test run.87700 The house hold has nine .357 magnums so this was an easy choice.87701 87702My brother has a new Rossi .357 lever gun that is still needing to be broken in, we will be testing this PC load and reporting later.87704

[xacex]

I have not read or heard of someone trying P/C, and not liking it so far. At the range up here i am finding more and more colorful spattered boolits in the berm. I don't know if it is a good thing for my lead supply sources, but it is nice to know I'm not the only one out here doing this. Your invested now, so good luck. Try some different things that I know you have already read, like water dropping after P/C, or driving cast faster than you thing you should, and show us those group pictures when you got it down!
Amazing how easy this is right! That's a mighty fine oven you got for this. Makes my goodwill find look like a pile of ****, but it still works.

[JASON4X4]

Congratulations no more messy lube

[waco]

Yeah, we were water dropping out of the oven.

[Doc Highwall]

Waco, they look great but I am still concerned about the abrasive affects of the powder coating to the barrel steel.

[Balta]

Wife gave a green light finnaly ?! Great...and nice looking bullets :)

[jackmanuk]

id like to make some brightly colored bullets , like blues and reds .... be good then to distinguishthe different loads

[geargnasher]

Please keep us updated, Waco. I'm about to get into doing exactly what you did, HF powder and gun + new convection oven, plan to do rifle boolits too and get quench hardness/coat cure in the same step. Once I learned that the coating isn't ruined by the water quench that changed my whole perspective on this. I wasn't going to do it just for pistol boolits.

As for bore wear, I'm about half tempted to see if I can burn out a brand-new Savage factory .308 barrel with PC. Those barrels are relatively soft and I've seen more than a few of them start to wear down the lands pretty badly in as little as 200 rounds of jacketed

Gear

[waco]

Well, I'm back from the woods with my brother. The above loads were tested through three firearms. My Tauras Tracker .357, my brothers GP-100, and his Rossi .357 lever gun.
Both the revolvers sport 4" barrels, and the lever has a 20".
The load. Mixed .357 brass, NOE 360477 150gr SWC, over 5.0gr Redot, sparked by a CCI SPP, Sized to .3585, PC with HF matte black.
The alloy was range scrap, pretty soft, not sure of the BHN.
Keep in mind, the Rossi is new and has less than 500 rounds through it. All to date have been jacketed bullets. We were trying to break in the gun. It fouls HORRIBLY with J words. It took us over an hour and a half to scrub all the copper out of the boar the first time we shot this gun. So, today, we cleaned it again, hit the hills and shot only the PC Redot load above.
Accuracy was good, 5 shot group of 1.25" @ 25yards off a bench. More important, after 80 rounds, we got home and cleaned the gun. Two wet patches, 10 passes with the brush, and four dry patches, nothing but powder fouling and a smooth shiny bore after that!
In all fairness, this rifle has never seen a lead boolit untill today. But, with how bad it fouled with J bullets, I'm guessing naked boolits would have leaded it something awful.
I had some of the same load with naked boolits lubed with BAC and sized to the same .3585
the Chrony results were interesting.
Tauraus naked lubed boolits
951 FPS
910
920
901
923
945
powder coated boolits
924
935
902
903
899
921
GP-100
lubed boolits
917
944
914
909
920
Powder coated
875
902
912
965
921
Rossi lever powder coated only....
1132
1140
1127
1097
1122
We didn't clean the revolvers yet, but looking down the bore, just a little powder fouling. I think this is our new go to method of making boolits.
Only time will tell about wear and tear, but for now, I'm loving it!

[waco]

Our next project is to size and check >357 HP boolits then PC.
I guess it will fuse the GC to the boolit. right, ........????

[waco]

Gear, do you think the PC boolits will have a worse affect on the bore than copper?
I know it's tough stuff, but is it harder than copper?

[dbosman]

On "sale" for $59.99 at present. I wonder if the 20% or 25% off coupons work on "sale" items?

http://www.harborfreight.com/10-30-psi-powder-coating-system-94244.html

[geargnasher]

I don't think the 'hardness' of PC is the issue, it's whether or not it has an abrasive effect at extremely high rub speeds. Copper jackets have zinc and other metals added to them as tougheners but also to make the jacket more "slippery" against steel. PC seems to have no problem with "slippery" so it might not be hurting the barrels at all, but only time and careful attention to wear by people using it will tell. Seems the commercial coatings aren't hurting anything, so my fears are probably un-warranted, but I don't see too many commercial PC rifle boolits, so it's sort of new ground. Paper jacket enthusiasts have discovered some things like clay in paper can have quite a polishing effect, too much sometimes.

Gear

[btroj]

My biggest concern is how even and consistent is the thickness of the coating?

I had some powder coated and they varied a few thou in diameter before sizing. Sizing takes care of the diameter but it doesn't fix differences in nose contact with rifling. A bore ride nose would be a big problem.

Keep us in the loop.

[bangerjim]

Waco, they look great but I am still concerned about the abrasive affects of the powder coating to the barrel steel.

I do not see any abrasive effects with PC at all. If anything, my matte black slugs almost feel like TFE coated! I use the HF powder and cannot vouch for that expensive stuff by the pound.

There are many many people on here shooting PC and I am sure we would hear about it. My barrels are clean after shooting and show no sign of wear.

Banger

[bangerjim]

On "sale" for $59.99 at present. I wonder if the 20% or 25% off coupons work on "sale" items?

http://www.harborfreight.com/10-30-psi-powder-coating-system-94244.html

As long as it is not a store coupon sale price, you can use the 20/25% coupons. I do it all the time at my local stores.

Banger

[Beagle333]

I bought mine online, and it was "on sale", and the coupon still applied and took more off. :grin:

[bangerjim]

Gear, do you think the PC boolits will have a worse affect on the bore than copper?
I know it's tough stuff, but is it harder than copper?

Do an artist pencil test for yourself. You can test the hardness of the PC coasting just like the paint industry has done for many years. The same for FMJ's. You can't do that kind of surface testing with your bhn tester.

Banger

[waco]

I can't speak to the boar riding aspect of all this.
But I've had the same results. Several thousands difference in coating before sizing.
BTW. I almost stuck a boolit in my 450. It was about .363 before sizing. After that, I hit each group of boolits with a shot of Hornady one shot case lube. Went through the sizer much easier.
Waco

[Freightman]

What I did was take some1200 degree heat resistant paint, cleaned my mold with acetone taped off the groves and painted with two coats the nose part of the mold. Solved the chambering problem and the heat resistant paint has held up for several thousand rounds.