Originally Posted by
Avenger442
A couple of months ago there was a question posed on the shorter blog concerning the speed of Hi Tek vs. conventional lubes. Someone had done some testing and noted that all things the same the Hi Tek seemed to be more accurate than LBT Blue. I had done some reading somewhere about Hi Tek vs. a conventional lube and commented that those test said the Hi Tek was able to withstand more speed.
At the end of my comment I posed a question wondering which was faster Hi Tek or powder coating. Slide must have seen my question and offered to powder coat some of my favorite .308 bullets, Lee C309-160R, so I could test them for speed against the Hi Tek. Thanks Slide. After several weeks of mailing bullets to each other and trying to find range time I'm glad to say that I finally can report the following.
I cast about five pounds of the Lee bullets using COWW and tin. BHN is about 13 after two weeks from coating. Mailed about 100 to Slide. Slide's bullets were coated once with a purple PC and mine had my usual three coats of HT. I used what has been one of my favorites the Gold 1035. All bullets were weight matched, 160 grain after coating, within half a grain. Sizing was checked with a micrometer before loading on both HT and PC coated bullets and it was virtually identical. All had gas checks installed.
I started to use my usual Remington cases but noticed that I had already loaded most of them and the others had already been primed except for about 20. Since my prep of the cases might not be safe done on primed cases I decided to use 20 new Winchester cases and 10 Remington. All to be shot in five shot groups according to manufacturer. All were trimmed to the same length. I uniformed the primer hole and de-burred the flash hole. Cases were weight segregated to within a grain. And the 20 Winchester cases all weighed within a grain. The Remington were a bit heavier than the Winchester but within a grain of each other.
Powder was 41.5 grains of H4895 and measured within a tenth of a grain for all loads. My favorite load for this bullet.
Now to the range:
All shots were taken in five shot groups from a lead sled to keep some of my bad shooting habits out of the equation. Distance was 100 yards.
The answer to the question about which is faster is; they are almost identical in speed. Overall average of three five shot groups of PC and three five shot groups of HT was 2530 fps and 2524 fps respectively. Six feet per second is not a significant difference.
One thing that was interesting is while the PC overall speeds, or SD, were a bit closer it didn't produce the best groups. Best group for the PC was 3 ¾ in. for a five shot group with another group 4in. overall. When you took out a flyer in that group it was 1 ½ in. Best five shot group for the HT was 1 ½ in. with another group 4 ½ in. overall. When you took out a flyer in that group it was 1 ¼ in.
I am very very happy to report that neither coating appears to have left any coating or lead in the barrel. May inspect closer, but a couple of passes with a tight dry patch to take some of the fouling out and a view with the bore light in the other end shows nothing in the groves.
Now before all you PC guys get your hackles up, I'm not saying that HT is better than PC. I might could work with the load and maybe a powder change to get the PC to do 1 ½ in. but that was not the purpose for this test. The purpose of the test and the question about which was faster was answered. All things equal, neither one.
If you want photos of the loaded bullets and targets send me an email address on the PM. I don't post photos here. May send some to Slide and he can post.