Dang you people...... Cleaning off 45/45/10 to PC them now

[Kevinkd]

So I bit the boolit (so to speak) and got some High gloss black and kawasaki green from Powderbuythepound to give it a try on some 9mm (lee 356-120 mold) and they work incredible. Its so easy its just stupid.

My H&K has a poly glock style barrel so I'd prefer a coated boolit. I've coated, sized to .357 they slightly bulge the brass and I get a 1 out of 10 wont chamber so I have to size to 356 instead. All good and pretty darn accurate with W231 and 800x so far.

I've probably got 250 lbs of lee 230gr tl and 158gr tl boolits that I normally use in my 1911 and S&W 686 without a hint of leading. The main issue is the lube getting in dies, the SMOKE is insane and handling them just is messy.

SOOOOOO.... I've thought, hmmmm maybe I can strip off the 45/45/10 and PC them.. (I know, blasphemy LOL), but why not. Its so simple and works so darn well. I'll have to figure out what size to size too (since I never size either of these two boolits, just cast, tumble lube and shoot), but I can try a few hundred of each to see how they work out.

Any thoughts or ideas how to completely strip them? I'm thinking varsol, but it would take alot and would it clean them good enough?

Ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks and have a great day

[shoot-n-lead]

I have used acetone to strip them...worked very well.

I let them soak for a couple of days.

[farmerjim]

If you have trouble with leading at .356, and chambering at .357 send it off to Doug Guy for throating. He fixed my M&P9. Some are able to clean lube off a boolit for the powder to stick, but I don't know about one with that mule snot in it. Give it a try on a few of them and if it works go for it on the rest.

[shoot-n-lead]

If you have trouble with leading at .356, and chambering at .357 send it off to Doug Guy for throating. He fixed my M&P9. Some are able to clean lube off a boolit for the powder to stick, but I don't know about one with that mule snot in it. Give it a try on a few of them and if it works go for it on the rest.

That is what I cleaned off of mine...alox tumble lube.

[OS OK]

When I first started I thought of doing this...soaked them in a jar of gasoline for at least an hour and the lube slowly came to the surface and then rinsed them with acetone...they came out clean...they PC'd fine, but it was a lot of work.

[Kevinkd]

Thanks for the ideas.... Will give that a try this week with a hundred or so. See how it goes.

Thanks again.

[Bzcraig]

If it were me, I throw 'em in the smelt pot and deal with the smoke one more time! Cleaning that many boolits makes my head hurt thinking about it. And as mentioned send that barrel to DougGuy, he's now done a few for me, it is money well spent and not that expensive.

[Motor]

Xylol Xylene. Basket in basket like a deep fryer. It will remove dried A-Lox in about 5 minutes. Let soak then gently agitate with strainer basket. Read all the handling cautions. It's sold in home stores like Lowe's.

Motor

[Alan Bycroft]

A bit OT, but seeing your comments about the leading and sending off to Doug Guy....my 9mm Shield leads up very easily despite my pc. It slugs at .356 and i size my Lee TL356-124-2R boolits to that, then pc, then size again. I'm either going to try not sizing them or size up to .357 to see if it stops leading. Suggestions? Comments? and who is Doug Guy?

[merlin101]

A bit OT, but seeing your comments about the leading and sending off to Doug Guy....my 9mm Shield leads up very easily despite my pc. It slugs at .356 and i size my Lee TL356-124-2R boolits to that, then pc, then size again. I'm either going to try not sizing them or size up to .357 to see if it stops leading. Suggestions? Comments? and who is Doug Guy?

Doug Guy is a member on here that does work (great work from what I hear)
I'd step up to .357 and bet that cures your leading problem.

[OBIII]

Acetone. Safer than gas. I have tumbled them in acetone with good results.
OB

[Beagle333]

I swish em around in some gasoline and then when dry, swish em around in some acetone to get the gas residue off. They PC just fine then.
Probably not the safest, most environmentally-friendly way, but it's what I do.

[w5pv]

I got disgusted with trying to clean them and put them back into the smelt after re casting they looked brand new and pc'ed with the result that I was looking for

[Kraschenbirn]

Boil in plain water, let dry on a clean shop towel (paper or cloth), and rinse in acetone. I use a fish fryer basket to hold the boolits and skim all the lube I can from the surface of the water before removing the basket.

Bill

[Motor]

Alan. A lot of guys including myself size all our 9mms .358" Most 9mms have lots of room in the chamber and will easily accept ammo loaded with .358" boolits.

Even before I changed to PC (I used A-Lox) the .358s worked great in every gun they would pass the "plunk test" in. For me that was every one I have loaded for.

I've heard that CZ's are tighter and may not like larger boolits. But other than that I haven't heard any other complaints. Another plus to sizing .358" is you can load the same boolits in your 38/357 if you want.

Motor

[adam_mac84]

I am interested to hear your results! I am getting into casting, currently reload plated. Never was too thrilled about the smoke, but am hoping PC cast is my ticket. The sizing changes will be interesting to hear back about as well. I am hoping i can PC some .356 and have them pass the plunk test! Would be awesome to not have to size

[Motor]

Very few people use PC without sizing and when they do it for a specific purpose.

The one instance that I do it is for my 91-30 7.62x54R shooting sub-sonic Lee 160gr 2R TL.

I use the little extra diameter that the PC adds for the .313+ groove diameter of the Russian rifle.

If your mould is dropping .356" there is a chance a PC'ed boolit will pass the plunk test and work ok without sizing but I don't really see why you wouldn't run them through a .358" bullet sizing die. Of course you'll size them after PC.

As far as shooting goes, I find shooting PC is as clean and smoke free as shooting j-word bullets.

Motor

[Kevinkd]

Thanks all for the comments.

Yeh, I've PC'd some .158 tl boolits and sized to .358 and my smith 686 loves them.

This was mainly the 9mm that I had an issue with. I cast using very hard alloy (1/2 lino with other hard), PC'd then sized to .357 and the occasional would just be too large to chamber smoothly. So I ended up sizing to .356 and all good. I think they spring back alot so the 356 is perfect.

My main question was about the 45/45/10 and using PC on them.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, I'll be 'cleaning' a few this week to see how it goes. I would just re-melt, but I've got ALOT and I think the time would be best spent trying to clean and PC.

[Motor]

I used to cast my 9mms around 15 BHN but since I started powder coating 12 BHN is working fine. In fact I've settled on 12 BHN for everything from 38spl to 500 S&W and have had no problems at all.

I did have 2 pistols that used to give me fits with lubed boolits and both of them are trouble free with 12 BHN and powder coating.

Motor

[sandman228]

soak them in mineral spirits ,stir occasionally . then boiling water with dawn dish soap ,then rinse with plain boiling water . ive done this a few times to remove alox or 45/45/10.