HiTek musing and remedy...

I haven’t posted in a while because my casting days have been on hiatus since my last move.

I decided to purchase some hitek wadcutters for some full charge loads. The supplier is well known and the bullets didn’t look too bad. I had tried some earlier suppliers in other configurations and they had worked at lower velocities. These full charge wads did not. To say excessive leading was the norm would be an understatement. I attempted every trick I could remember, but no go. I would still get leading like this from scrubbing:

In a last attempt, I hoped to salvage the bullets with a coating of BLL. Made a batch and applied one coat. At the range, I noticed some leading and thought “Oh Crap”. Tossed the guns in the bag and came home. Later, I decided to clean the pistols. Funny and to my surprise there was hardly any leading. Some powder that I may have mistaken for leading but just light leading which cleaned up nicely with a patch. I’d probably expect this type of leading from a bullet that was being pushed too fast. It likely was. At any rate, BLL was a simple solution and worked well.

CG

Good to hear you fixed your ploblem. I going try some lube next to fix my hi tek Glock problem.

Good that you found a fix. Still, there are many HiTek users here that say they have used the coating without problems up to rifle velocities.

What cartridge were you loading for? Are the casts bullets the right fit for your bore? How is the leade in the gun used? Was there any burning plastic smell when you fired the coated bullets without the BLL (the odor indicates the coating is under cured)?

Yeah, as stated I’ve used it with success in other configurations in the past.

38 special, fit is good, leade is factory- three different pistols with known accuracy & fit. I didn’t notice any odor and the bullets seem to have finished well. Pushed them to ~ 1000 FPS in a 357.

I really think it has to do with the alloy and the HiTek. This is the only case I’ve come across with a little softer alloy and HiTek. I’ve used hard to much harder alloys that seemed to do fine. I just ordered more from one of our group, so we’ll se how the next batch goes.

I've not tried it myself (I use 95/3/2 in 9mm 147's pushed only to around 900 fps), but supposedly the coatings (I think this applies to powdercoat as well?) let you get away with softer alloy than would be needed for traditionally lubed cast. Still, I can't argue that you don't have a problem. At least you have a workaround. If you have another batch coming I'd be interested in hearing how that goes.

Update...I received a batch of dewc with the red hy-tech lube from one of our members. These bullets were indeed harder. Good news is that there was just a little leading pushing them at +p velocities.

I’m still having accuracy issues over defense distances, but not sure it matters.