Accuracy and velocity with coated bullets

Is anyone with serious expectations for accuracy and velocity using coated boolits routinely for competition or hunting?

Another question is if there are any coatings that can be cured by baking under 200 degrees? Beyond 200 degrees lead alloys lose their temper and undergo hardness changes which may be adverse.

Do the same requirements for hardness apply? Are gas checks necessary.

I have some experience with paper jacketing bullets, which seems to work in an analogous fashion (preventing lead steel-contact, sealing the bore, etc.). But paper jackets are very precise in their thickness and evenness. They have proven accuracy and velocity. They are also time consuming as all get out!

I use ASBB HF red.

Where I use it for 357 maximum loads, I can do full power with no issues at all. I used PC on 200 gr Lee boolits out of a Dan Wesson revolver for IHMSA last year. I am working on a cast then swaged 160 gr boolit for this years IHMSA shoots.

I also use it for 30-30 and 30 Herrett loads with my 14" barrels for my TC Contenders. If I push these too hard, accuracy goes south. I think that the loss of accuracy at full power is not related to using PC. I hope to use a PC on 165 (home crafted mold) or a Lee 170 for unlimited class for some IHMSA shooting this year.

I use PC on 110 gr boolits for full power 327 loads in my SP 101. The PC coating does everything I want for this gun.

I use PC on 357 magnum loads for various guns. It works fine even with full power loads.

I use PC for 44 magnum loads for an old Ruger single action. I can load them to full power with no problems and no loss of accuracy.

All of the above is done with lead from an outdoor range. This is what I would call "medium hard".

Unless you are pushing a bottleneck rifle round, do not worry about the impact of baking on the boolits. If you do feel you need maximum hardness, check out threads that discuss water quench after baking. I set my PID for 390, and cook for 15 minutes after reaching 350. I have been unable to detect any softening.

All of my Lee 200 gr shooting and my 30 cal shooting (Lee 150 & Lee 170) has been done as "checkless". I do not feel that I would see any improvement with checks.

Is near MOA @ 200 & 2400 fps the answer you are looking for?

Bullet coatings (powder coating, HiTek coating, ?) are/act as a lubricant that encapsulates the lead, they are not a substitute for proper fit or gas checks.

a coated boolit of proper size and alloy can be pushed near 2000 fps without gas checks and near 3000 fps with a GC

I’ve used jacketed data for 260g .358 Win up to max with great accuracy and zero fouling.
Recoil manageability is another story.

I shoot a 260 gr boolit made by Mountain Mold Dan
pc in smokes fine pc accuracy is fantastic better than
with traditionally lubed boolits I do not hold back or use
pistol powder in these loads so they are used at 358 win
rifle velocities not luke warm pistol powder loads
recoil has never been an issue

There has been some concern that PCd boolits will cause a weight unbalance due to the coating. Tested - FA electronic scale measured a 182 gr RD boolit - 181.3gr. Added 2 coats DT PC (cooked between coats) 181.5gr. Accuracy of the scale is ~ 0.2gr. Measurements taken several times to make sure no drift in the scale. It did drift between 181.3 & 181.5 after the first coat. Put all that weight on just one side and run through angular spin math - no real imbalance (180k RPM). That said, lop-sided coating can change the center of mass by moving the heavier Pb. Another forum is discussing HV cast & boolit design. Not much discussion of misshaped boolits down the tube and the change in center of mass due to distorted boolits.

Lead hardness is not affected by heating beyond 200deg.
I have decent accuracy with plain base PC to 2000fps with clipww alloy. For HT, accuracy starts falling off rapidly after 1500fps.
I shoot IDPA, pretty much always us my bullet for sanctioned matches. Accuracy is good out to 50y, about as far as we are reqd' to shoot at speed. I managed 4 hits out of 6 on a idpa target @ 50y the other day with a 5.7sec par time from the holster. Plenty accurate for me, if I miss, it is me not the ammo.

Here is a youtube link that tests the hardening questions. Interesting results but I'm not qualified to analyze the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fbjs-lErL0

Good yutube but doesn't say how long the PC is cooked. H.T. takes time to work. Molecules move around in the solid as energy is added by heat. After they get in the 'best' position for hardness (~1 hr) quenching locks them in position. Your mould runs 450F (guys with probe can verify) so cooking @ 400F isn't that much different.

after thousands of bullets cast and lube and PC and HT.. all cast bullets no matter how they are coated or sized/lubed.. have a tendency to throw a flier. Yes.... I realize that some people are meticulous in weighing and all that. Jacketed bullets tend to be more consistent.. there I said it.. I don't even shoot jacketed handgun bullets anymore. thing is.. cast and lube or cast and coated will outshoot about anything in handguns if you disregard the flier. for real life shooting and plinking this is important. By the end of the day you are gonna kill more adult beverage cans at 100 yards with a handgun with cast and coated bullets.

On PC... In my opinion the more difficult process and extra dia/imbalance makes them less accurate OVERALL than HT coat bullets. My chrono results sorta lean toward PC adding more velocity than HT but not much if any. A major thing to me is how clean both HT and PC bullets shoot. There is no discernible difference between them and jacketed bullets.. the difference of course is cost. If you cast and coat your own you are getting bullets for almost nothing. Also.. you have a constant supply that is not dependent on the market.

lazs

Try this one
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...350-Yds-part-1