My first attempt at PC

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I've always had good luck with 45/45/10 in other calibers, but just couldn't make the 9mm Lee 120 TC shoot in my Sig 2022 without leading. I tried water dropping, beagling, 38 S&W expander, and very light loads with no success, so I figured I would give PC a chance. $15 later I had a toaster oven, some HF Red, a mesh basket, and a #5 takeout container.

For my first attempt, I figured I would just go with the thermostat on the oven and see what would happen. Well, melted boolits is what happens, so back in the pot they go. Attempt #2, turned the thermostat down to 300 and only went 15 min. Results were much better, but my coating was way too thick after just a minute or so of swirling. Boolits would not plunk, so saved them for the wife's .38. Attempts #3/4 were with a lighter coat and were pretty decent, but those little boogers are still pretty tough to break apart and I swear a few warm boolits even rejoined after separating them the first time. Attempt #5, I wanted to see how light I could go on the PC, but I rushed it a bit as rain was coming in and didn't let my freshly cast boolits cool enough before adding powder, had to cull over half of them that clumped up.

I loaded up 90 of the good ones (some still warm!) and shot the all with no leading and what appeared to be very usable accuracy, having no trouble consistently hitting an 8 inch plate at 20 yards. All said and done, I think PC does have merit, but I still need to perfect my system. The 9mms are strictly for volume shooting, so I don't want to spend any more time on them than I have to, so I would avoid any sizing, standing boolits up, etc if at all possible. I never tried a quench, but was wondering if the boolits separated as easily as they appear to in this video or if it is just a bit of editing at work.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtQZtiVY_8

Here is a pic of a few loaded boolits.

[OS OK]

The 9mms are strictly for volume shooting, so I don't want to spend any more time on them than I have to, so I would avoid any sizing, standing boolits up, etc if at all possible.

I'll have to just walk away from this one with my head shaking . . . I'm too old and OCD to 'comprehend'!

[rancher1913]

to my way of thinking, if you are not sizing then you are looking for a squib.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

to my way of thinking, if you are not sizing then you are looking for a squib.

A sqib? Or a failure to return to battery?

These are range plinkers guys, banging steel at 25 yards max, not competition, not hunting, and not self defense rounds. Even so, practicing clearing a malfunction every now and again is a good thing! Especially if it saves me an hour or two at the bench.

With a little bit of work, my tumble lubed boolits functioned 100%, as cast. Why shouldn't I strive for the same from PC?

[adam_mac84]

to my way of thinking, if you are not sizing then you are looking for a squib.

Not being snarky... but why would this be? Too big for bore? Not enough power to get it out? I would assume if it went into battery, should be all good. Saami goes up to .3585 if I read it correctly. Are you saying if it PC up to .360 for example would lead to squib?

[runfiverun]

I think he meant a non chambering round.

I do the thin coat.
I stand them all up.
I size them all afterwards.
I watch the temp closely even though I know what it will be with an oven full.
then I let them cool down for a minute before dumping them in a bucket of water.

the powder coat process actually slows me down and I don't have any problems with my cast loads.
but if I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it the best I can.

I would suggest you look at the throat in your pistol.
your issue sounds like Btroj's.
we shoot the same gun, with the same mold, the same alloy, the same size, and the same lube.
he had consistent issues with leading while I had none.
after trying the hardness thing and adding a coat of tumble lube and everything else
he finally pulled his barrel and looked in it and could see why.
a trip to Doug Guy to get the throat cleaned up and no more trouble.

[Motor]

If your boolits are staying under .359" and are consistently passing the plunk test I don't see why they would "need" sized for your stated use.

I use shake and bake with HF red PC and rarely get more than .002" increase in diameter.

One think I can agree with 100% is that PC WORKS !!! Like the OP I had a couple pistols that simply would not shoot cast boolits without leading. After a lot of work I got them to work ok with very specific alloy hardness and very specific loads. After switching to PC these guns no longer require ANY special attention and shoot as clean as if shooting J-word bullets.

Motor