Tip for PCing rifle boolits

[Rainier]

I had a request to post this - I stumbled upon this method for holding .30 cal gas checked boolits while you powder coat. The gas check shank will fit "perfectly" into a 1/4" fender washer holding the boolit upright and steady and then pops right out after PCing and keeps the powder coat off the shank for easy gas check install. The added bonus of using 1" washers is it evenly spaces the boolits making an even coat of powder simpler to get.

Here a picture of the box of fender washers and a before and after...

88642

Hope this helps!

[starmac]

That should work, I was thinking drilling some holes in an aluminum plate, but that would be even easier.

[Beagle333]

Hmmm.... what time does HomeDepot open?;)
:coffee:

[bangerjim]

That should work, I was thinking drilling some holes in an aluminum plate, but that would be even easier.

You do NOT need to use or drill "plate"! Just use the correct size HF gasket punch to whack a hole in thin aluminum roof flashing. Do it on a piece of medium hard wood and it will form a little flange on the back side. Just press your 30GC's in. If tight, use a hand reamer to make SLIGHTLY larger. If holes get loose after several uses, LIGHTLY tap them with a wood hammer on a piece of hardwood to close up the hole a bit.

And yes.....you can reuse the sheet MANY....MANY times.

Definitely the fastest and cheeeeeeeepest method I have come up with for GC slugs!

Just another quick idea on how to accomplish what we are all after..........perrrrrrrrrrrrrfect coated slugs!

banger

[waco]

I just installed the gas checks before PC. Is this a problem?88696:-?

[Rainier]

I answered in the other thread but I can't imagine it being a "problem" - I guess we are all after the same thing, accurate boolits so, if "the proofs in the paper" let's try a range trip - powder coating the gas check and not and see if it makes any accuracy difference.
If you used the above fender washer method it appears you wouldn't get to gas check and powder coat them so the fender washer might not be the best answer.

[bangerjim]

I just installed the gas checks before PC. Is this a problem?88696:-?

I think the PC's slugs especially matte (black) look sexy with the copper GC's on the bottom! I put them on after PC'ing.

As long as your sizing does not scrape off the PC from the GC. The check is larger than the boolit so adding the PC makes it even harder to push thru the die.

But sounds like you got it covered!!!!!

banger

[waco]

Yup. The GC measures .3113" after sizing. PC still intact.

[Edubya]

Waco, those look and sound too perfect to be "homemade" so I think that we should not include or consider any results that you post with those.:mrgreen:

EW

[waco]

Lmao!!!

[KYShooter73]

Any special tricks to cleaning the PC off the washers after you have used them several times?

[retread]

I use aluminum sheet with proper sized holes on 1 inch centers. Cover with foil press down with fingers to show the hole locations and punch trough with the gas check section of the boolit. I use the nonstick type. The aluminum plate never needs cleaning. Same thing would work with the washers but seems like more work.

[Rainier]

I just put down a sheet of non-stick foil, put the boolits, gas check shank first, into the washers and fill the sheet. When they finish baking I water drop the whole mess, pull the washers and start again. I've used the same 63 washers and just finished a box of 1000 gas checks. Good news is I have a second box of gas checks and a batch of coated boolits that need sizing and checking :)
I've mailed out 3 batches of the PC Lee TL 160gr boolits to some folks with the understanding I'll get a range report back. I'm hoping all this work gets us several range reports with various guns under different conditions. I haven't tried the sheet with the holes but the washers seem fast to me and at $8.00 a 100 they are cheap enough to suit my stingy ways.

Edit- KYShooter73 - I don't bother to clean them off. The PC build up seems to be a benefit not a hindrance from the standpoint that the thicker the washer gets the heavier it becomes which seems to make washer and boolit more stable. Even with the build up the GC shank still gets covered and the boolit supported.

[KYShooter73]

Only used my washers twice now, but after 8 or 10 uses it will get thick. I'll try the same thing I do with my hollow point jig......set them on fire then wire brush them off. Anything to save a few bucks.

I sent some off to Starmac in Alaska for a cold temp test. -22 and he said all was well. :drinks:

[Rainier]

Ha! It does get bit cold in Alaska. I sent boolits to Georgia, Tennessee and Michigan plus my shooting partner loaded some today for his Blackout and I'll give them a go in my AR - this should be a hoot!

kYShooter73 - Just so you know, it's your fault I started PCing in the first place - I read through your instructional thread and figured even I could handle that. Bought a cheap toaster oven, tried one shot at the piglet method and immediately went to Harbor Freight and bought the PC setup and haven't looked back. So bottom line - Thanks, I think :)

I guess we gotta remember there's two sides to a washer - if you get 20 coats a side that's a fair number of coated boolits for an $8.00 investment - I suspect you can get more but I don't know yet (only have 15 on one side) just got started on this PC gig and so far really like it!

[KYShooter73]

Glad I could help out. I've reloaded for years, but only cast for about a year. Learned everything I know right here. I hated loading and shooting commercial cast. Gunked up dies and guns. Started reading about coatings, and hope to be shooting cast in every caliber I own before long. So far, I've never lubed a single round.

[Rainier]

You were a great help and I thank you! I agree with you - over the last couple of years I sorted out various tumble lubes and found you can get them to shoot 40-50% cleaner in my experience.
"So far, I've never lubed a single round." Sure wish I could say that - I was taking stock of what I already have cast and/or loaded and it's gonna take a bit to shoot it up the greasy boolits I have. In my search I found a box (probably close to 3000) cast, tumble lubed and sized to .358 just waiting to be loaded for my Vaquero's. Seems to me way too much work to try and clean them off so, I'm debating between shooting them or dropping them back in the pot and starting over - the pain of it all :) and I won't mention the 9mm and .45 boxes that just makes it more painful.

[Springfield0612]

You were a great help and I thank you! I agree with you - over the last couple of years I sorted out various tumble lubes and found you can get them to shoot 40-50% cleaner in my experience.
"So far, I've never lubed a single round." Sure wish I could say that - I was taking stock of what I already have cast and/or loaded and it's gonna take a bit to shoot it up the greasy boolits I have. In my search I found a box (probably close to 3000) cast, tumble lubed and sized to .358 just waiting to be loaded for my Vaquero's. Seems to me way too much work to try and clean them off so, I'm debating between shooting them or dropping them back in the pot and starting over - the pain of it all :) and I won't mention the 9mm and .45 boxes that just makes it more painful.

Rainier,
I feel your pain. Right before I got my HF ESPC equipment I did a 2 day casting craze while my wife and kids were out of town. I did .45, 9mm, .32 ACP, .30 cal. Lubed and checked all of them. 1000's of boolits. Now I look at them sitting on my bench and then look down at my ESPC machine and I'm kicking myself. Not to mention the 1000's of 9mm and .45 ACP I all ready have loaded up. I guess we need to go do a good dedicated shooting weekend so I can start over with the ESPC. I ESPC because I cast, I cast because I reload, I reload because I shoot. It's a horrible cycle! But I love it.

The positive is that I realized that I undersized all the .30 cal for my .300 Sav M99. I'm going to clean the lube off of those ESPC them and they should be a perfect fit!

Also you're just acrossed the water from me!

[Rainier]

Yes, it is some ugly to contemplate - sadly, I put up a fair number of .38 spl this summer. It doesn't pain me too bad to be forced to shoot them but it's getting complicated to replace the primers.

Glad to hear you can sort out the .30's - having a batch of undersized boolits isn't in the book of good things

"Also you're just acrossed the water from me!" when I first read that I was thinking Seattle - wrong "water" you were referring to the slightly larger pond :) give a heads up next time you grab a ferry and we'll hit the range or have a brew or maybe both :drinks:

[xacex]

I have been dating and packaging loaded cast boolit ammo for a few years now with a vacuum sealer. I strive for 1000 rounds of my best loads for each pistol, and about 500 for each rifle. What I do is just rotate through using the oldest ammo first which in my case is about 3 years old.

I load the P/C stuff now, and like to play with tweaking the loads to the best I can get so I end up loading about 50 extra per batch to play with. By the time I am completely switched over to P/C boolits my loads will be the best I can load. It may be three years before I am switched over for all calibers, but I am still switching all of them over. The only ones I left out of the melting pot that were lubed were boolits I don't have the mold for anymore. Eventually those will probably get melted down too in favor of the powder coated boolit.

Even if you cast and lube 1000 boolits that you will never use you learned something. I learned not to gas check and lube boolits for storage that cant be re-hardened or annealed like P/C boolits can. Hey, and you can still lube a P/C boolit if you want to play with gooey wax and junk.

[fcvan]

I bought some fender washers today for 35 and 22 caliber. I had to find ones that would allow for the boolit shank and the non-stick aluminum foil. I believe I have the right stuff, I hope to try tomorrow. I intend to spot weld the washers to my metal tray so that conductivity is constant for each boolit but am not sure that is much of an issue. I had previously epoxied gas checks to a piece of metal and that worked ok for about 10 or so runs. After that either the gas check popped off or the powder coating became very thick on the tray. I am sure I will come up with something rather efficient using the fender washer idea. Thanks again to Rainier for the awesome suggestion.

[Rainier]

fcvan - No worries, it was just me being lazy trying to sort out a way to keep the boolits stable. I simply cover the baking sheet with non-stick foil and place the washers on it, put the boolits into the washers and coat. I haven't had a problem with conductivity using that method. It also, makes it nice because I water quench after PC so the washers and all just slide into the water. I've got about 15 coats on one side of the washers and the build up seems to be a bonus because each new coat just adds weight to the washer helping stabilize them.
Good luck and let us know how it works for you.

[Beagle333]

Got a box of fender washers today...... now if it would stop raining..... :mrgreen:


(Bangerjim... the 10' roll of AL flashing was more than the 100ct box of washers, and my Lowe's didn't have/wouldn't sell any smaller amount.... so I went this way for the first try. But I do have the HF punch set. Maybe if this doesn't work.....) :wink:

[starmac]

Kyshooter I thought I had posted it, but in case I haven't< I smashed one that was 29 below and you can't tell the difference between them, the coating held up but the gas check came off the first whack with the hammer. So far that is as cold as it has been here this year.

[hubcap52]

Any special tricks to cleaning the PC off the washers after you have used them several times?

Should be able to heat/burn it off. Do it OUTSIDE.

[KYShooter73]

Should be able to heat/burn it off. Do it OUTSIDE.

Ya, that is what I do with my pistol boolit hollow point jig, then a wire wheel.