Powder Coating Boolits

[cylinderman]

This thread really inspired me to try something. My wife has something called embossing ink actually its like an adhesive that is transfered to card stock then powder paint is sprinkled on and then heated to leave a raised design. Well I decided to roll some bullets on the pad then picked them up with tweezers by the lube grove and dip them in the powder coat. Then I set them nose down in a metal lid I drilled holes in then baked at 350 for 20 min. White bullets were the result. They started out unsized about .311 after I sized to .309 with ease. I'm going to load them in 30 herrett cases and see what happens

[xyankeeworkshop]

Finally had a chance to try out my shiny new Craftsman PC kit on some Lee 125gr TL 9mm's yesterday. Sent four batches of 110 ea through the process upside down on the hardware cloth jig I discussed earlier. I'm still trying to get the process tweaked, but overall had great success getting the base and grooves covered fully. I had a little in the way of uneven covering on some of the noses, but I think that may be a result of some experimenting with the preheating temperature and a couple handling goofs where I needed to use a tweezers to upright some boolits that had fallen over in the trip between the toaster oven and the cardboard box spray booth. Otherwise, I just had 3 or 4 tiny little pinhole marks around the nose of each boolit where the "prongs" of the jig wade contact.

The ceremonial garage floor hammering of the first PCPb boolit was impressive with almost no breaks in the coverage at all. This stuff is tough!

I sized them to .357 with no apparent scuffing of the gloss red coating and then loaded a test batch of 100 over 4.3 grains of HP38 that I'll run through the Glock 17 tomorrow. Pics to follow.

[bryonbush]

im very interested in this... could someone point me to the direction of where to buy this stuff. i remember a while back there was a very looooong thread about this when it first came out. any help would be great.

[bryonbush]

im very interested in this... could someone point me to the direction of where to buy this stuff. i remember a while back there was a very looooong thread about this when it first came out. a sticky tutorial would be great...hint hint

[gandydancer]

Just going to have to give this a try. GD

[Bad Water Bill]

im very interested in this... could someone point me to the direction of where to buy this stuff. i remember a while back there was a very looooong thread about this when it first came out. a sticky tutorial would be great...hint hint

Go to the first page here and all of your questions and a lot of extra info is there.

[ryokox3]

im very interested in this... could someone point me to the direction of where to buy this stuff. i remember a while back there was a very looooong thread about this when it first came out. a sticky tutorial would be great...hint hint

There is a thread that combines powder coating with other methods. I personally like a separate thread just for powder coating, as that keeps all info for this method in one spot.Byron, you are listed as being in TX, so I would think you could get all you need with an amazon order for the craftsman pc gun, or the Harbor freight one. Also powder from... well many places. Harbor freight sells a few for a nice price. Ebay also has some powder, and if you look on amazon at the craftsman pc gun (user reviews), you will see many places to buy powder.

[xyankeeworkshop]

Well, I did my first run with PCPb Lee 125 grainers at IDPA last night and the results were not the best. Not a lost cause, but disappointing and in need of some tinkering.

From my Glock 17, I had some pretty severe keyholing at 5 yards and and almost embarassing inaccuracy at 15. The smell was pretty gnarly too, but that's not a deal-killer. Possible causes to investigate:

*Whether the Lee 125 grain TL boolit is a good design for a Glock bore to begin with.
*Is sizing a TL boolit to .357 after coating a good or bad thing?
*Could uneven powder coating on the ogives be causing the tumbling?
*If it is, could PCing just the base and grooves be a solution?
*Should I change my powder charge from one worked up for lead towards one for jacketed?

On the plus side, they fed reliably, were much less smoky on an indoor range, and the bore appeared to stay real clean (still need to pull the barrel again and check it under better light).

BTW, remind me not to do my 'sperimenting at an IDPA match anymore. That was dumb.

[ryokox3]

Well, I did my first run with PCPb Lee 125 grainers at IDPA last night and the results were not the best. Not a lost cause, but disappointing and in need of some tinkering.

From my Glock 17, I had some pretty severe keyholing at 5 yards and and almost embarassing inaccuracy at 15. The smell was pretty gnarly too, but that's not a deal-killer. Possible causes to investigate:

*Whether the Lee 125 grain TL boolit is a good design for a Glock bore to begin with.
*Is sizing a TL boolit to .357 after coating a good or bad thing?
*Could uneven powder coating on the ogives be causing the tumbling?
*If it is, could PCing just the base and grooves be a solution?
*Should I change my powder charge from one worked up for lead towards one for jacketed?

On the plus side, they fed reliably, were much less smoky on an indoor range, and the bore appeared to stay real clean (still need to pull the barrel again and check it under better light).

BTW, remind me not to do my 'sperimenting at an IDPA match anymore. That was dumb.

I wonder if a different size is needed to stabilize them. At .357 I believe you are in the upper range of size... though maybe you can go to .358 depending on your slugged barrel. Do you have a .356 sizing die to try? The pc boolit might want to be sized closer to jacketed.

[bstone5]

In a 9 mm glock the 135 grain powder coated bullet has shot well for me.

The bullets were sized to .356 after powder coating.

The 110 grain 9 mm bullet powder coated has shot well in a 380 Auto also.

Size the bullets after powder coating, the bullets will slid very easily thru a Lee push thru sizer.

I have never had a key hole with the bullets sised to .356, the load is in the middle in terms of velocity for the respective loaded rounds.

If the bullet diameter is near the max sometimes the bullet will tumble for some reason.

I use the Lee 2 cavity molds for both of 9 mm and the 380 Auto.

Earlier in this thread there is a picture of the 380 bullets I use, these bullets were powder coated red and also a cola can gas check was installed these bullets shot very well in a BERSA Thunder.

[xyankeeworkshop]

Looks like I'll be ordering a .356 die. and perhaps another style of Lee 6-banger if the 9mm TL boolit doesn't want to play nice. I suspect you're right about sizing closer to jacketed. I ran some "as-cast" (read "fat") lead TL boolits with 45-45-10 through and it leaded up fast.

[willie_pete]

I have had very good luck with PC bullets. Sunday I shot an IDPA match with a revolver and 158 gr. lead PC bullets. I was only down 15 points ( very good for me ) and the gun looked absolutely factory new in the barrel.

WP

[GARD72977]

I have no experience with PC bullets. Just wondering if there is any improvment is they are lubed in a Lyman sizer? I will have to run them through the sizer anyway.

[Michael J. Spangler]

why not use something like this?

http://www.bayoubullets.net/Coating.html

same stuff that bayou bullets uses. i spoke with donnie at bayou and he said a liter should be able to coat approximately 26000 9mm (knowing that there are variations in weights and therefore coverage)

[ryokox3]

Did you mean 26K per liter or 2600? If the former it looks like a great deal... well even the latter is. Still pc offers a few additional things. Nice colors, and a more hands on project. I mean if pink boolits help get my fiance to the range even better. Also I now have the equipment to fix some stuff up around the house much better than using a rattle can.

As for the bayou product, I did not see on their website how to coat using their product. Is it dip and let dry, or tumble lube method? Even without that answer I do believe will be an easier and probably better solution. For a cost per boolit and also time per boolit, Bayou likely may win out. Over time though I wonder what we may learn from pc to make it great also.

In the end I'm going to keep with the PC experiments. It is easy to stick with tried solutions, but playing here (being careful of cource) may lead to the next latest and greatest boolit. It may fail miserably, but I'll learn something in the process.

[Michael J. Spangler]

he has instructions available.
basically you thin with acetone, tumble and then bake. i double checked and he said 26000 9mm. very fast and very cheap compared to PC

[Ken73]

Considering PC has a wider range of applications (and colors) - I'll stick to PC (which is what this thread is about.) I already had the equipment and some powder, so it was worthwhile to give it a shot. Others here already had the equipment as well. If someone wanted just to get into coating boolits then I can see it as viable, but some of us already have PC equipment. The initial outlay is a little more than the other at first, but once you get a setup, it becomes apparent that it has other uses than just boolits alone. Although I am curious what the shelf life of the other stuff is?

(Not to mention, women dig pink boolits.)

[Bad Water Bill]

Lets not forger red BOOLITS are easier to see and recover.

[Jailer]

I do plan on doing some more testing soon with these in 300 blk and 308. Late doe season runs through the end of the month so it will be a couple weeks before I get to it.

[Bad Water Bill]

If a PC boolit is used for hunting some small particles might get mixed in the meat.

My question is will the PC particles be more toxic than a bare PB?

We can not afford to lose even one member here.