$10 epoxy coat can it be done? lets find out

[sirAIG]

They ones I coated were new cast. The bnh will change as the new boolits age. Prove it to youself. Check some fresh ones. Then check them 3-4 days later. They will be harder.....if you are using a good mix. Hard lead alloys do that. I always cast up several hundred and let them become stable before shooting. According to studies done and listed here, the hardness will continue to change for up to several months! WOW! I think there is some data on the www.LASC.US links.

Also, since cooking them got the temps back up in the boolits, the bhn is probably on the move again!

And besides, any liquid-based paint/coating will have residual softness until all the volatiles are totally gone, which can take several days, even if baked. PC is ready as soon as they cool from what I have seen, but I have never shot them that soon. I just like to give them time to settle down. Have never had ANY leading problems with my "wait a bit" method!

More power to you if you can shoot regularly! I just don't have the time. And I cannot just go out in my back yard and pop off a few test rounds as many of the guys on here can do. Living in town has it's benefits................ and drawbacks.

Good luck. Let us know how your fresh shoots do.

bangerjim

Hmm... All valid points. Im still green behind the ears with casting. But one of the things that drew me to coating bullets as opposed to lubing them was being able to do a pile of them at a time and shoot them whenever I wanted, with whatever lead I wanted. I am not hunting with them, and am not shooting anything other than 40sw (at the moment). So as far as my knowledge goes, I didnt think the hardness of my boolits would really make any difference as long as I am not getting any leading.

If that made sense - let me as this. Are you mixing the same alloy for your current coated boolits as you did with regular lubing? If so, what benefits does that serve? I shoot mostly all range lead. And honestly couldnt really care about the little bit of leading I have had using DARR lube. BUT - If I can continue to shoot just range lead with no mixing of alloys and COAT them and get no leading... Why would I want to bother with using a harder boolit?

Thanks for any insight.

[bangerjim]

Good questions. THEORETICALLY..........and others please chime in here........the PC coating is thin but harder than the lead, so you should be able to shoot softer alloy......in pistol cals. When you go hyper-sonic, that is a totally differn't thing.

I have over 450# of Lyman#2, 250# lino, 350# COWW, and various hard & tin alloys and about 500# of soft. I just throw some in the pot in rough "guestimates" and usually end up around 11-12 bnh for pistoleeees. I have almost everything in 1/2 & 1# ingots, so it is easy to mix on the fly without any fancy calcs. I have never really messed around with the change of leading vs hardness when using PC. I would not recommend shooting dead soft, but others probably have tried it! Not enough time and too much business to attend to to experiment around with that aspect of this addiction.

Bottom line, I keep around 12bnh for all my PC's sub-sonic stuff. But, again I have lots and lots of alloy to use. You could probably drop down in the 9-10 range.

Any comments from others will be greatly appreciated!

bnagerjim

[blueeyephil]

Ok, I'm spraying and baking some VHT. Also playing with PC tumble too. Tried some with glue and PC for kicks. That was a clumpy mess... lol

Piglet PC is looking pretty good. But I like the idea of VHT sprayed. Not sure if it is going to hold up though. I need to do a second coat before I try to size. I'll probably give them a day or two before I size. How long are you guys baking, and what temp?

[prickett]

So as far as my knowledge goes, I didnt think the hardness of my boolits would really make any difference as long as I am not getting any leading.
Thanks for any insight.

One advantage to using the various boolit coatings is that you may be able to use softer lead than with traditional lube. While some people wait for their boolits to harden, others of us coat then shoot immediately. As long as you don't get leading and your accuracy is ok, then have at it. I've been successful using straight COWW's and shooting immediately (in both 9mm and .45 ACP). I've not yet tried .357 Mag. Those might require some hardening time. I'll have to experiment to see.

[sirAIG]

Well, if nothing else they make for some cool looking boolits! I stood all of mine on their noses and sprayed the rest of them with gloss VHT. They were dropped this morning into water from range lead, and coated a couple hours later after putting them in the oven at 200deg for 15 min to make sure all of the water had evaporated off. I then sprayed them with VHT with 3 coats, letting each coat dry 10ish minutes in between and baked them one time at 375. After ~20min I just turned the oven off and came back 2 hours later to load them up. I am going to the range tomorrow after work, which means it will be about 24hours since they were baked. I'll report back as to how they performed! If it helps anyone - they are loaded in 40sw over 3.6gr of red dot - a proven accurate load in my handgun. Much higher and I get signs of high pressure, I dont have a chrono, so I am not sure the velocity they will be shooting at.

[jmort]

Look real good. I like the idea of spraying three light coats as opposed to the tumble coat method. Look forward to more info from everyone using VHT. Thanks for all your experimentation.

[35 shooter]

Went to my local auto zone but they didn't have the vht epoxy. Anyway i noticed a can of vht ceramic that was flame resistant to 2000 degrees. Are the ceramics too soft or brittle for this type of thing? I'm new to this coating stuff and was just wondering.

[jmort]

I'd stick with epoxy paint or powder coat.

[bangerjim]

Went to my local auto zone but they didn't have the vht epoxy. Anyway i noticed a can of vht ceramic that was flame resistant to 2000 degrees. Are the ceramics too soft or brittle for this type of thing? I'm new to this coating stuff and was just wondering.

I am so impressed with the V stuff spayed on directly to the boolits, I am going to AutoZone tomorrow and pick up a couple cans of their various temps/kinds of paints. Auto engine paint is very specialized and should fit into what we are looking for. They make a hi-temp copper! Gotta try that! It's not epoxy.......but it supposed to be hard & tough.


I am keeping track of the cost of gun-coated PC'd vs the V stuff sprayed. I use only ONE coat of the VHT because it seems to work very well. I get the feeling gun-sprayed HF PC powder is far cheaper/slug than the VHT stuff. There is only 11 oz in a can!!!!!!

I pounded a 38 and a 45 (12bnh) darned near flat on a steel plate with a 2# hammer and the epoxy did NOT flake or come off!

Will let y'all know how it goes.

bangerjim

[blueeyephil]

Ok, spent most of the day goofing off. I've got some VHT and some Piglet PC bullets. I think the PC look a bit better. I've got 9mm in both and .358, .223 and a 30 cal all PC. The 358 started off with a silver 1st coat and then the Hot Candy Blue. The 9mm and 223 are just the blue.

I cooked the VHT and PC together. When they were air dry to the touch, i put nose down in factory plastic boxes and put my oven pan covered in non stick foil. I then flipped the whole thing over and slid in the oven. I then lifted the bullet trays off. That left most of them standing. Even did that with the 223. When i took them out, I let them cool just a bit and then with heavy gloves, tipped them over and mixed them around until the cooled enough to handle. That took care of them trying to stick together.

By the way some of the VHT were my tumble attempt that I didn't like. The looked much better after spraying and baking.

Now to find time to load and go shoot.

[sirAIG]

are you guys coating the bases of the boolits?

[35 shooter]

Bangerjim i got excited when i saw all that stuff too. What hit me about the ceramic was it said to bake it at 400degrees then 600 which would be too hot for lead. But maybe 2 or 3 times at 400 then 450? You would be ht'ing the boolit at the same time for rifle shooting. Just don't know if ceramic would stand up to the hammer test. May not need too tho? Also i'm with jmortimer about naming this stuff after azshooter.

Meantime i'll try another auto zone for the epoxy.

Good luck with this guys.

[sirAIG]

i found mine at advanced auto parts, my local autozone did not have it. have yet to check pepboys..

[blueeyephil]

are you guys coating the bases of the boolits?

I did some of mine. The ones that i initially tumbled. I didn't on the ones I sprayed. Hope that isn't a mistake. But for pistol I'm thinking it's not required. I could have taken a bit more time and done it. At least one coat.

The good part of tumbling is that you get the bottom covered. I may try it again, at least for the 1st coat. I think to get good looking bullets when tumbling you have to judge how much paint to spray in your tub, and pour them out at the right time. I think I waited too long and they started sticking too much and ended up with a rough texture. So, I wonder if when I sprayed them the wet paint on top helped to smooth them out.

[sirAIG]

I am more concerned with performance than apperance, so I stood all of my 175 TN's on their tips and coated everything except the noses of the boolits. Just was curious if that was necessary in other peoples experience.

[bangerjim]

sirAIG.............

No, I do not coat the bases. Read on...........

If you just shooting subsonic pistoleeeeeee loads, coating the bottom gains you nothing....except a lot of extra work! Remember, we lube a boolit (either with grease or polymer) in/around the grease grooves so the SIDES don't get the lead scraped off traveling down the barrel. In slower loads, the base is just fine with bare lead.

All boolits lubed the standard way are basically bare base also. There is no real protection with a Star lubra-matic or Alox. Its the SIDES you need to worry about!

If you are going hyper-sonic in magnum pistoleeees or rifles, then you need to seriously look at gas checks, as with any standard slug used that way. I think some here have played with coating the bases in place of GC's but have never heard any range/leading results. Recovering spent slugs for me is totally impossible. And I get ABSOLUTELY NO LEADING with the gun-applied PC coating to everything......but the bottoms. I Cu GC my 30-06 slugs after ES gun PC'ing.

I will stick with Cu GC's where & when they are needed. But not on subsonic pistol loads. Don't worry about the bases being coated.

The appearance of the nose of the loaded boolit is of concern to me (bragging rights! )

bangerjim

[Shotgundrums]

Here they are. 240gr rnfp.Attachment 80915Attachment 80916Attachment 80917Attachment 80918Attachment 80919Attachment 80920Attachment 80911Attachment 80912Attachment 80913Attachment 80914

[bangerjim]

Here they are. 240gr rnfp.Attachment 80915Attachment 80916Attachment 80917Attachment 80918Attachment 80919Attachment 80920
Attachment 80911Attachment 80912Attachment 80913Attachment 80914

These do not work.
bangerjim

[Shotgundrums]

Foook!
Ill try again

[Shotgundrums]