Red pc boolits-my ''first time''-from santy

Did my first PC Boolits from Harbor Freight yesterday.. Red, ln honor of Santy!! Bought the spray gun too in case the 'shake n bake' method didn't work.. Got a $19 Bella toaster oven from Lowe's and $2 worth of machinists mesh from local hardware store.
Back at home l make the mesh tray first. Next l select 90 250gr 44 Keiths l had cast earlier this month. Drop them into a #5 Tupperware along with a teaspoon of Harbor Freight RED... A minute of shaking and the boolits get dumped onto wire tray and into the oven @400F for 20 minutes. They came out splotchy/stippled, not fully covered. So l repeat the process. Second time around they come out fully covered, but still a bit stippled.. After cooling l miked them with my digital calipers. They came out .4365!! Wow, almost .008'' of coating. Finally l allowed them to cure/cool app 8 hrs. Next l sized them with my Lee .429 sizer... My Mitatoya caliper reads .4285''!! l had squeezed those boolits .008''!! No scuffing or flaking on the boolits from sizing at all.. That Harbor Freight RED is really tough stuff... lts off to Shooters indoor range tomorrow.. Will report back afterwards.


Merry Christmas

282

Warm the bullets up first. Just set them in the trey on top of the oven. They just need to be warm enough to hold. That helps alot the PC coating to be more even and stick better.

One thing i noticed aswell. Using the BBs helps also get a thin more even coat. I think it has more to do with a buffering action. Enstead of a bunch of metal bullets bouncing off each other the BB buffer and cushions that affect.

I dont need BBs dor my pink and purple coatings but it helps tremendously for my green coating. If i dont use the BBs with the grean it gets thick and caked on and splotchy. The BBs help the green be thinner and more oven and come out beautifully.

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.008" I am surprised you were able to get them through the sizer. A good powder will give you better results in a single coat, but you have to start somewhere.

I also started with HF Red so I could do a little practicing before deciding if I wanted to powder coat. The finish looked like orange peel, but it worked. After a few months I switched to Smoke's powder and found it gave a much better finish. After that I tossed the HF powder and will stick with the better stuff. It's much better to enter a new market at the low end and then work your way up after finding out the ins and outs. Things will only get better as you practice.

Back from ''Shooters'' indoor range. l was pleasantly surprised with the session with one exception.. l had problems with extraction with some of the cases.. lts my standard load for these boolits using 2400 pdr. Min load from Lyman manual. Also same brand case and primer. Never had that problem with conventional greased/lubed boolits.. Accuracy was about the same as with conventional lubed boolit. l cleaned the gun thoroughly before going to Shooters today.. l will check case length after resizing.

Dragonhart... l was surprised the coating held up under .008'' reduction too. l had no difficulty sizing them because my Lee sizer is mounted on My RCBS Rock Chucker press.. l also got some Airsoft BBs today to assist in applying an even powder coat.


282

I'm working my way through a lb (coats a lot of boolits!) of HF Red before I try a better powder. Best trick I have for getting a thin coating is to shake the boolits vigorously once they are in the mesh tray (pre bake) until you have a nice thin coat. A little lead showing through is okay, I have yet to shake off too much. On the other hand, I have coated some much too thickly.

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Originally Posted by sw282

Back from ''Shooters'' indoor range. l was pleasantly surprised with the session with one exception.. l had problems with extraction with some of the cases..
282

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If you are having extraction problem I suspect you charge is too light to properly function. I use the same load data for PC as I would for any jacketed bullet. You will notice about a 5% gain in velocity using PC with the same powder charge.