1st stab at powder coating. Got questions.

[Beagle333]

Hollowpoint.... have you tried putting the HP boolits on nails or screws that are either driven through or glued to the base, then push some foil down over them to give conductivity to each? I have seen nice complete coats that way with only one spraying/baking.

[Smoke4320]

"The only down side was the extra time it took and when I pulled the cured bullets off of the tray, the thin section around the rim of the hollow point mouths tended to pull off of the bullets in some cases."
Coat the liner with pam spray and the noses will not stick . or just put down a new layer of non stick foil

[HollowPoint]

Attachment 114332

Hollowpoint.... have you tried putting the HP boolits on nails or screws that are either driven through or glued to the base, then push some foil down over them to give conductivity to each? I have seen nice complete coats that way with only one spraying/baking.

I'm in the process of buying the metal to make up a jig to do just what you've mentioned. I just have to draw it up in my CAD software and then convert it to G-Code. It shouldn't take that long. In fact it probably takes longer to drive down and buy the metal.

That's a good idea about the Pam cooking spray. I wish I'd thought of that before I did those bullets. I did use some mold-release spray but, that didn't seem to work as I'd hoped. They still came out pretty good and the targets I shoot at don't really care what my bullets look like. For some reason I just like them to look good.

I did get a chance this morning to go down and buy some white and black harbor freight powder. I mixed a little of both colors together and did a small number of Boat-Tailed-Spitzer cast bullets. They turned out excellent. They had a kind of gun-metal finish to them when I was done. The bullets were actually cast from one of the NOE 198 grain 311365 molds. I re-shaped the Gas-Check shank into a Boat-Tail by sticking the tail end into a pencil sharpener.

Why a Boat-Tail??? I've read on various posts that more than just a few guys are skipping the use of Gas-Checks all together as well as the repeated mention of "No Leading" and slightly higher velocities that can be reached with a Powder Coat applied. This tells me that getting a Boat-Tailed cast bullet without a Gas-Check to work may well be within the realm of possibility. The only way to find out is to try a few.

This time around I used some thin copper wire to suspend them from a wire frame. The thin copper wire was wrapped within one of the lube-grooves of each bullet. For as thin as that wire was, it conducted the electrical charge real well.

If I get a chance, I'll try to make it to the shooting range next week some time. I'm anxious to see if these Powder Coated bullets will shoot or not; I mean, shoot accurately; and with no leading.

HollowPoint

[el34]

There is no actual current flowing in that wire so it can be as thin as you'd like as long as the boolit weight doesn't break it.

But if you get a spark, there's your current flow. I have no idea how much but I'll bet a hair-thin wire won't break.

[xacex]

Interesting idea on the boat tail HP. I may have to try that myself with the ASBB method, and different boolits to see what I get.

[1911KY]

Ha! Danged Kentuck blue anyways. Hey Smoke, next time he orders send him that nice North Carolina blue instead. lol

Kidding aside, try NITRILE gloves instead of latex. Get the gloved fingers well powdered with the paint and when you pick-up the boolits the gloves will fill in the voids almost every time.

prs

Haha...I like some powder blue as well! I am more of a Colts blue fan to be honest. College sports don't overly interest me like most in my state!

I will try the Nitrile gloves and the powder on the fingers before. Thanks.

[HollowPoint]

Interesting idea on the boat tail HP. I may have to try that myself with the ASBB method, and different boolits to see what I get.

I don't really know if it will work or not but, it seems plausible. A while back I put alot of time and effort into designing and making myself a set of Boat-Tailed Gas-Check dies that I used with success on a couple of modified 30 caliber bullet molds.

If these Powder Coated Boat-Tails do indeed work, it will make all of my previous work obsolete or sure. Why make Gas-Checks if you don't really need them. For that matter, if we can now get our Powder Coated cast bullets to shoot accurately at 2200-2400 FPS or more, why not switch to the higher ballistic coefficient that Boat-Tailed bullets provide?

The phenomenon of "Hydro-Static-Shock" kicks in at about 2200 FPS. In my mind, this means that a Boat-Tailed cast bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2400 FPS or above should still retain the "Hydro-Static-Shock" value to just beyond 100 yards or so.

Right now the only down side to the Boat-Tails I'll be testing is the manner in which I made them. If I were to do a hardcore scrutinizing of their concentricity, I'm pretty sure it would be less than perfect. Before I put a whole lot of work into them, I want to make sure that this first batch of less than perfect Boat-Tailed bullets will fly true; with no key-holing; and no leading; and some semblance of accuracy.

I plan to start slow and work my way up to the highest velocities that deliver the best accuracy.

HollowPoint

[RP]

Food for thought the alloy of the bullet for a non GC lets say is not lino hard the faster you push it the more the base is said to deform causing poor groups. From what I have read so a plain base with the same alloy of a GC bullet would not hold up to the increase pressure of pushing them faster. I myself have not tested this but kind of makes sense. Based off of that I casted some for my 300 BO out of pure lead but with my time limits have not been able to do any testing to see if the flight is effected. Like I said food for thought not a fact as far as I know.

[1911KY]

The 2 coats of blue ended up making some good looking bullets!

[AKholicBubba]

I've gotten good at pc what I cast. I really wish i could find a cheaper hollow point mould