simple Hi-Tek coating

[TonyN]

I put a PID on my oven and love it. I bake for 12 min. By the way. I have 6 colors and have Black Cherry. Its prob my least favorite. I like Kryptonite green bronze 500 and bronze 502 the most. The gold ones like old gold and gold 1053 are also in my least favorite colors. To each there own!!

[Gremlin460]

@ 1028fps I cant bloody tell what colour they are!!





Ps Trev, Pete said he will take those pills off your hands, PM bank details and I will set him up on Sat when I go down to the range. Mike

[TonyN]

Some people like certain colors....

[Shingle]

Candy apple red sucks I can't get it to stick to boolits. This is only color I have ever had this issue with.

[Shingle]

All mine have always been weird looking green/blue color, coverage and adhesion are excellent thought that was the way it was supposed to be.

[Avenger442]

Some of us do this thing for the colors. And some of us for the lube. Some for both. To each his own. My favorite color is the one that does 2000 FPS one inch groups at 100 yards with no lead in my barrel. That is until Joe gets the Orange and Blue working.

My Granddaughter and her boy friend were with me at the range with about 40 rounds of .308 Hi Tek Gold 1035 loaded with 41.5 grains of H4895 and 20 rounds of jacketed Winchester this week end. The lead was 15 BHN. No lead in the barrel. We were shooting off hand and she out shot both her boy friend and me on the targets. I need more practice!!!! Joe, she really likes your Hi Tek bullets. They shot the 45-70, a little, trying to hit one of those exploding targets. He finally hit it using the iron sights with the last round. I'm thinking we had it a little too far out for off hand. It was only about 2 1/2" across. I might get around to posting some photos.

I got to the range the day before with the 45-70. Using Hi Tek coated Black 1035 doing some load testing. These twenty loads were shot off of a lead sled heavily weighted. I can't shoot that many 45-70 without having a sore shoulder in the morning without the lead sled. I'll have to say they grouped as good as the Hornady I sited in the rifle with. I also shot about twenty rounds of .308 Hi Tek Gold 1035 with two types of gas checks and BHNs (12 and 15). I've made some aluminum checks and was wondering if they were as good as the Hornady copper check. Test came out good with groups almost identical. And, of course, no lead in the barrels.



Shingle
I must have missed reading something in your posts. Is the Candy Apple Red coming out green/blue or is it another color that is coming out green/blue?

It is strange that the Candy Apple Red is not sticking if any other color applied to the same boolits in the same way is performing well? Maybe some photos of what you are talking about would help diagnose(the CA Red and the other color).


I love photos:

[Grmps]

I love candy apple red, works great.--Adhesion problems are usually caused by not drying the coating long enough or using to much coating. After you think the coating is completely dry, set the pan of bullets your going to bake on some spacers (I use and old oven rack) on top of the counter top convection oven for 12 min to pre-warm and insure complete drying. With the metallic colors you have to be sure the coating is well mixed, the metallic's fall out of solution quickly. I put several bullets in the container to act as agitators, as soo as the solution is well mixed I like to use a 20 mil syringe, suck out 20 mil of solution, squirt it back , suck out another 20 mil then squirt back all but what I will need.( I use 8 mil for 3.3kg in my coating machine (like a small 2 gallon cement mixer).
When initially mixing you solution, you need to let it sit at least 1/2 hour after completely agitating it to let it absorb/bond with the acetone.
Make sure your oven is reaching 400 degrees.the economical way is to use a couple of cheap oven thermometers set in the middle of the shelf your baking on, adjust the oven temp setting until the thermometers reach 400. Mark or note the temperature setting required to be at 400. A PID is the optimum way to go but the thermometer method does work. Non convection ovens work but only for very small batches.

[ioon44]

For me the Candy Apple Red is one of the easier colors to use.
There seems to be a general problem of when is the first coat completely dry and ready to bake. I find that drying the first coat at 100 deg F to 140 deg F for 30 min insures the coating is completely dry.
On a clear 70 deg F sunny day laying my trays on a dark red deck the temperature will reach 140 deg F in less than 30 min, I check this with a surface thermometer laying on the bullets.

It would be nice if we could establish what the minimum time / temperature is required to dry the coating.

[AbitNutz]

I've really drank the Koolaid regarding Hi-Tek bullet coating. It has put most of my lubrisiers into mothballs. I'm transitioning to using it on all my bullets.

What about cleaning the Hi-Tek residue out of the barrel? I use Ed's Red without the acetone because I don't shoot shotgun and have not needed to remove plastic residue.

Should I add the acetone back into the Ed's Red formula when dealing with Hi-Tek? This is my assumption that Hi-Tek is some sort of polymer that acetone may deal with better. I'm really not interested in switching off Ed's Red but I'm more than willing to modify the formula to suit.

[Hi-Performance Bullet Coatings]

Properly cured Hi-Tek does not leave a stubborn residue in the barrel that does come out with normal cleaning practices.
You can try a bit of acetone on a patch/brush and see if that helps but it is unlike to have much effect on it.

How much fouling are we talking about?
You may want to confirm your curing process and check them for wipe off.

[Ausglock]

There is Zero hitek coating left in the barrel if the curing is correct.....ZERO !!!!!!

I can fire 1000's of rounds without cleaning the barrel of my Glock17. One pass of the boresnake and it is shiny clean.

[AbitNutz]

I'm not implying that I have excessive residue at all, I don't. But anything fired down a barrel will leave some trace of itself. I'm just looking to get it as clean as I can.

I'm happy with Ed's Red performance in general but if there is some additive that may be particularly useful in regards to Hi-Tek's bullet coating, that would be terrific.

I will add acetone back into it, if only because it's the only thing I know that may have some value...I'm shooting in the dark here (pun intended) as to what may be worthwhile.

[AbitNutz]

I've started shooting large caliber rifle rounds that I'm coating...like 450 Nitro Express. 480gr at 1600fps. There's a great deal of bearing surface and the velocity is pretty stiff.

The Hi-Tek coating works great, but even jacketed bullets leave copper in the bore...no?

[Avenger442]

AbitNutz

My experience has been if we do what we are supposed to do, when applying the coating, anything left in the barrel will clean out with a couple of wet patches and a couple of dry with a cleaner that will remove powder residue. And yes jacketed will leave some in the barrel. If I remember right Joe shared that some guys in Australia coat their jacketed bullets with Hi Tek in order to keep accuracy longer between cleaning. I understand that it also makes them slicker so they go faster?

I shoot .223, .308, .44 mag and 45-70 in rifle with Hi Tek. Does that 450 NE hurt your shoulder as much as my 45-70 hurts mine after a box of loads?

You know that the pros shoot a fouling shot before shooting for accuracy. They don't shoot clean barrels. So I've stopped cleaning so often. In fact I might not clean until after a couple of trips to the range. I haven't noticed any change in accuracy.

[Drew P]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9QvEm1nFc

apparently over cleaning is a big no-no in precision shooting. What Rex shows is a basicall a curve form clean to very copper fouled and that tightest groups exist in the middle which seems to be around 30 or more shots in.

Now, this leads me to wonder how coated bullets figure into this?

[Avenger442]

DrewP
My most accurate shots yet with Hi Tek in .308 and a dirty barrel 100 yards five shots. Inch and a half groups repeatable with 2" groups just about every time.


Just thought I would add this target.

[dikman]

My thoughts are if you're worried about traces of residue run a bronze/brass or bristle brush through, that should dislodge anything short of copper fouling. I also use Ed's Red, but without the acetone as the last thing I want is acetone attacking the nice finish on some of my stocks.

[Michael J. Spangler]

DrewP
My most accurate shots yet with Hi Tek in .308 and a dirty barrel 100 yards five shots. Inch and a half groups repeatable with 2" groups just about every time.


Just thought I would add this target.

nice shots! Alloy and loads? Velocity? Thanks man!

[Avenger442]

Understand that the above are shot off of a rest that more or less takes my bad marksmanship out of the picture. Done intentionally so that the load is the only thing I'm testing.

You can see the loads and powder in the second photo. Bhn of the lead is 15-17. Haven't consulted my load log so I'm going from memory here but alloys are COWW with 7% mag shot 2% tin water dropped and COWW with 10% lino and 2% tin. Load in the top photo is 41 or 41.5 gn H4895. All Remington cases with CCI primer. As to velocity, I would have to guess since I don't have a crono. I would say between 2200 and 2700 fps. I think it was Popper that told me I might be a bit low on those velocities. I have found, what most have, that the fastest isn't the most accurate with my gun.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Understand that the above are shot off of a rest that more or less takes my bad marksmanship out of the picture. Done intentionally so that the load is the only thing I'm testing.

You can see the loads and powder in the second photo. Bhn of the lead is 15-17. Haven't consulted my load log so I'm going from memory here but alloys are COWW with 7% mag shot 2% tin water dropped and COWW with 10% lino and 2% tin. Load in the top photo is 41 or 41.5 gn H4895. All Remington cases with CCI primer. As to velocity, I would have to guess since I don't have a crono. I would say between 2200 and 2700 fps. I think it was Popper that told me I might be a bit low on those velocities. I have found, what most have, that the fastest isn't the most accurate with my gun.

awesome info thank you.
What % tin and antimony do you think that worked out to be? Water dropped?
what twist is the rifling? Thanks again!