Powder Coating Boolits

[Bad Water Bill]

A quick question for those that have shot PCs at targets?

Do those that are painted to the tip of the boolit shoot any more accurately than those only painted past the part actually making contact with the bbl?

[retread]

Just recieved my new PC gun today with 6 lb. of powder. Tried to talk my wife out of her old toaster oven (she has a new one in the box that has been out in the garage for about 2 years) but the aswer was "no, I am going to use the old one as long as it lasts". So what does a boolit head do in a case like that...go out and buy a new one for the reloading shop! I have read where some of you are preping the bullets with acetone. If I am not sizing before coating and using freshly cast clean bullets, is it really necessary?

[wwboolitmaker]

Nope....just cast and powder coat

[retread]

Thanks for the comeback. That was my feeling. How can you get much cleaner that fresh cast.

[willie_pete]

I generally don't see any difference in accuracy in .38's and 9mm. I've painted them both ways; bottoms up so the base is coated and the tips are clean and bottom down where the bottoms are clean and the top is coated.

WP

[xyankeeworkshop]

I don't think cleaning freshly-cast boolits with acetone, etc. is necessary - especially if they're water-dropped. However, I do think it'd be a good idea to wear latex or nitrile gloves while handling them or setting them up for spraying lest your oily fingerprints potentially cause some powder adhesion problems.

[bstone5]

I powder coat the bullets some times up side down sometimes pointed end up.

There has been no difference in accuracy or leading of the barrel.

I generally clean the bullets if they have been around a while, if they are fresh from the mold, I just powder coat, I wear the cheap nitrile gloves from Harbor Freight just to keep my hands clean from handling the bullets and all of the plates and aluminum foil to cover the plates.

I have powder coated several thousand bullets, it has become the standard practice for all cast lead bullets used in hand guns.

The powder coating removes all of the lead, if I push the bullets in the jacketed velocity range I install a cola can gas check on plain base bullets - bevel base or flat base.

Powder coating works well and the time is about the same as runninng the bullets thru a lube unit.

It takes about 20 minutes to powder coat 150 bullets in the small counter top convection oven used to cure the powder coat.

[bmiller]

How fast have you pushed your cola can checked bullets?

[bpratl]

Is powder coating eliminating bullet lube or are the bullets still lubed during sizing?

[wwboolitmaker]

I just powder coat, size, then shoot.

[willie_pete]

I just powder coat, size, then shoot.

Same way here.

WP

[RayinNH]

I've found this discussion quite interesting. I'm going to see if the board of directors will approve of these on the indoor range at the club. They have a policy of jacketed or plated bullets unless using an airgun or .22 caliber.

My powder coater was at the shop a couple days ago and I asked if he would plate a half dozen boolits for me to show the board. The board of course will have questions. A couple questions I have for you that have used these PC boolits, are they any smokier to shoot than a jacketed bullet? Does the rifling eat through the coating to the lead or does it just create rifling marks in the coating...Ray

[wwboolitmaker]

I dont know about jacketed but these dont smoke much at all. This pic is borrowed from another forum.

[SharuLady]

With PC HP's will they still expand since the PC is so tough to crack? Am assuming the inside of the HP is not PC'ed

TYIA,
Ruth

[xyankeeworkshop]

I've found my PC boolits to be far less smoky than traditionally lubed boolits, but still a little smokier than jacketed. The PC does smell somewhat...interesting. Not too bad though.

As far as exposed lead after firing, I think wwboolitmaker's photo says it all. They tend to stay as encapsulated as an FMJ does. Heck, the one's I've tested with a 4lb sledge on the garage floor stayed pretty well encapsulated until they looked more like pancakes than boolits.

[Rich22]

This thread has come at an excellent time for me. I recently started a thread on here in which I was searching for a lube that was. Easy to apply, fast to apply, would work for both 9mm and 300 Blackout, would be hard and non sticky so can use in a bullet feeder. From what I am reading on here this does all of those things and really well. I have a compressor, extra toaster oven (monster one at that), this is REALLY making me want to fire up a gun. What would be the best place to get the gun and supplies from? I have a fairly local Harbor Freight. To whoever started this thread, thank you very much and the same to all those that have contributed. You guys just may have solved my last big problem as far as getting started casting.

[Ken73]

What would be the best place to get the gun and supplies from? I have a fairly local Harbor Freight.

The HF gun is just fine; I have one as well but I don't use it for PC'ing my boolits as I do that in my "office" with the door open and fan going to blow the dust out. Get a box of cheap dust masks while you're there, this stuff isn't good to breathe in but is merely "dust" as opposed to a toxic vapor or gas. I use the little portable/compact Sears gun because its.. well.. portable and compact and there's no compressor necessary. For these small jobs it's perfect. It's also considerably cheaper (about 1/2 the price) of the Harbor Freight unit. You can get additional powder cups (I bought 4 just for the heck of it) from Summit Racing but if you do, you'll want to make foam plugs so no moisture gets in and gums up the powder. (Pretty easy to do.) I'd also keep around some of the "do not eat" silica gel moisture absorber packets to toss in there as well.

Powder can be bought at HF also, but they only have four colors; black, white, red and yellow. Columbia Coatings, Powder by the Pound, Eastwood, and Caswell Plating all have powders at reasonable prices online. Some are "top coats" and some are base coats, just like regular paint. Either will work just fine but I tend to use either single-stage or top coats on mine (YMMV.) As a note, I ordered from Columbia and some of the powders were drop shipped from elsewhere, and just came in a bag, not a nice jar like the others. I went to Hobby Lobby and they had some mayonnaise sized jars (new, clean, plastic) for $2 or so and were on sale so I snagged a few of those to put the bagged powders in those.

Caswell has some plating goodies too, so you could even nickel plate your 300 BLK cases (think black boolits with nickel cases!)

[Ken73]

Is powder coating eliminating bullet lube or are the bullets still lubed during sizing?

As far as I know, everyone in this thread is just using the powder coating, no lube. The powder coating is (to me, at least) the modern equivalent of a paper jacket.

[retread]

Got my setup going today. Worked fine but I need to work on a way to catch the overspray. Hate the waste.

[xyankeeworkshop]

Retread,

Those look just like the miniature lipsticks I'm doing. Are you spraying the boolit base too?

Like you, I hate wasting all that useable powder. I hate getting it all over the garage even more.

I have not done it yet, but my thoughts on catching overspray are to build a +/- 18" square box with scrap 3/4" melamine board and cut a hole in the back for a filter and fan to draw the powder through the box. A lazy susan to turn the tray of boolits is on the list too. I've been wondering also if an "overspray catch tray" at the back of the box made out of some aluminum channel could be grounded to the gun to attract and hold a fair amount of the material.