I've lurked here from time to time. I only got into reloading almost 1.5 years ago, and I've done very little casting. I'm mainly a pistol shooter, and recently I decided I'm going to try to make it to IDPA twice a month. The local match I shoot at is indoors, so I'm not keen on using traditional lube. So far I've only been shooting jacketed and plated bullets in a match. Therefore, most of these will be shot inside of 10 yards, with pretty much none of them shot even 20 yards, and they will be shot relatively quickly. In other words, I don't need a 3" group at 50 yards.
Anyway, I've been reading about PC for the last couple of weeks and decided to try it out myself since it seems like the best of all worlds. I've read quite a bit about PC and it seems to solve many problems without any real downsides. I got some HF red and a cheap toaster oven. I had seen YouTube videos where people put the boolits in some sort of plastic container along with the powder and put the container in their vibratory tumbler. I've also read many accounts of simply shaking the container by hand (or swirling in a Cool Whip container). I just tonight read about adding black AirSoft BBs to the mix. I don't have any AirSoft BBs but I went ahead and tried out the vibratory tumbler method.
Here are the results of my first attempts. I chose 10 at random and lined them up, putting any imperfections on the part that contacts the barrel toward the camera. That big white streak down each one is the flash (you probably figured that out). As you can see, I have very tiny areas that aren't covered on some of these. Also, you'll notice the noses are frankly scratched up pretty badly from using a needle-nose pliers to grab each one. I plan to get a set of tweezers that vary in size and shape to use instead of the pliers. My question is this: "Will imperfections like these (where they meet the barrel) cause any issues?" Might I get leading from those tiny imperfections?
You may notice that there's some excess coating at the base of some of these as well. I'm not sure what that means. Is it clumped on too thick on some? Will the sizing/loading process shave that off or squash that down to where it doesn't matter? I'm inclined to specifically pick out 20 that perfectly coated with no extra and 20 with a bunch hanging off the bottom and compare how they shoot side-by-side. My gut tells me that I won't see much difference at all at 10 yards, but who knows.
You can probably tell that besides being new to this site, I'm new to casting and definitely new to PC as well. I hope this question about tiny imperfections such as these hasn't been asked too many times. I don't care how they look, I only care how they shoot and whether or not I'll be cleaning lead out of the bore (which I found I really hate doing). I'm willing to experiment but I'd like to keep with the DT method vs the ES method for now.
One more thing: Do I really need to stand them all up on end? I have been doing that, and boy is that a pain. I've read accounts of pouring them out on some sort of screen (to collect the excess powder that falls through) and then giving the sheet a shake about 7 minutes into the cooking so that they don't stick together. I would think they would come out looking much worse than these, but who knows. If they still don't lead the bore then I'm all for saving the 10 minutes that it takes to prop up 100 boolits.
Sorry for the long-winded first-post. They won't all be this long, I promise!
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Originally Posted by el34
You probably won't get glass smooth without spraying but they should shoot great. Any exposed little specks of lead that you see are actually lower than the surface of the powdercoating. The lead won't be rubbing on the barrel because it is in a very shallow depression. I think they will slide through the sizer much easier when coated than bare lead. I just sized some 16bhn down from .2845 to .278 and they were quite a tight fit but they went, so I think yours should size down pretty well.
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