PC Gone Wild

[el34]

Had to do it. Blanco's white epoxy powder over PBTP Starbrite Teal. These are loaded, 175gr TC, 4.3gr HP-38. I'll try them in the Beretta just to see if they stick.

[harley45]

I hadn't thought about coating the brass, that looks pretty good! Do they go thru the dies pretty well?

[el34]

Do they go thru the dies pretty well?

I sized/deprimed them, and then expanded with the smallest flare that would work with these boolits. Then PC'd, followed by primer seating and charging. I only used a mild crimp on the boolit seater, no FL squeeze. The PC didn't flinch though, I had thought the bit of expansion from seating and then the crimp would make it chip off but it didn't.

This was just for folly. I had to wiggle/twist/ them into the shell holder so I don't know how the gun's extractor will do. And without FL sizing they might not chamber, haven't tried that yet either.

I've got a few more color combinations in mind, just don't know if I'll goof with it more. Probably will just for the novelty.

[fcvan]

I ESPCd some steel cases the other day, mostly by 'accident.' I used some steel .223 cases to cover some skinny bolts and keep PC off of them. Picture a double layer tray, lower tray has bolts, upper tray sits on bolts. Anyway, a very thin coat ended up on the cases covering the bolts, the tray was covered in NS foil. I'm not suggesting PC steel cases for loading but I'm definitely going to make some inert training rounds.

[Blanco]

See what happens when you leave one of these nuts alone for too long. Now everyone will be PCing their cases.
Oh the horror!
I kinda like that green, of course Green is my favorite.
Hmmmmmm
How much of that green do you have ?

[kungfustyle]

.....?.......?.....Why not.....only thing is you are supposed to think those things up during too many snow days.....

[el34]

How much of that green do you have ?

Enough to do a bunch of your stuff! Next week I'll be done with a big project, and thought you might like to come over and make some white boolits if you'd like. Or any color.

.....?.......?.....Why not.....only thing is you are supposed to think those things up during too many snow days.....

Oops, I got it off schedule. Ain't snowing here in TX. Maybe it's the heat affecting the brain cells.

[Blanco]

Maybe it's the powder affecting the brain cells.
Fixed.......

[bangerjim]

OMG..............what's next...........cats breeding with dogs???????????????????????????

HA................ha.

banger

[el34]

OMG..............what's next...........cats breeding with dogs???????????????????????????

HA................ha.

banger

Hey, if they were totally HF flat black you'd call 'em magnificent!

And sometime soon I'll show you what's next.

[dilly]

There was a post a while back about chemically staining your brass to different colors. Anybody remember that?

[Artful]

OMG..............what's next...........cats breeding with dogs???????????????????????????

HA................ha.

banger

[dilly]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...in-brass-cases

There's a link to a way to stain them a bunch of different colors.

[bangerjim]

Thanks for that link to patinas! I will use that a lot in the antique markets I deal in.

I would be very leery of using any stain/dye that uses any chemicals based on ammonia, as we are dealing with those very thin brass cases and ammonia will degrade brass and weaken it. On thick castings as those formulas are designed to be use on......no problem. But be cautious on thin brass casings.

Just a head's up.

bangerjim

[bangerjim]

Good cartoon!

banger

[HollowPoint]

They look pretty bad-a$$. I'm wondering if the heat involved in the curing of the PC is enough to anneal your brass from top to bottom and possibly causing a case rupture?

If not, and you have to full length size in order to get the brass to cycle in and out of your chamber, will the slight compression change the interior dimension of your brass? If so, might this increase pressures if you're loading to max pressures in your existing cartridges?

I'm hoping that none of this is the case because PC'ing your brass would keep it looking good for a long time. I have loaded rounds that I've had on the shelf for some time and the finish on the brass now looks like they are antique pistol cartridges.

HollowPoint

[Huvius]

They look like the eraser end of a pencil.

[el34]

Hollowpoint, those were some excellent points. I found a great article on annealing cases-
http://bisonballistics.com/articles/...rass-annealing

Basically, annealing case mouths is great. But annealing the rest of it is way bad. However, it takes 600F or hotter to do so, and the author says to stay below 450 to be sure the brass is on the safe side.

FL sizing would reduce the ID by about 0.004, assuming 0.002 PC thickness. I'll do a bit of math to see what that does to internal volume and compare it to seating depth fluctuations. My OAL is larger than the load data says for that load. Before I shoot 'em I want to get the numbers though. Thank you for pointing out those realities- ammo ain't toys.

[HollowPoint]

That's excellent news on the annealing part; and even if you do get a reduced interior volume on your cases after you full length size them, it's just a matter of a slight decrease in powder charge and you should be back to whatever pressures you're shooting at now.

Thanks for getting back to me on this. It looks like I have some testing to do.

HollowPoint

[Spawn-Inc]

so what happened with these?!