Shooting home painted rifle ammunition

[Survival Bill]

I got a buddy not the sharpest tool in the shed and he told me he wanted to paint his 308 ammo some cool color I told him to cool it and I would find out if that's not such a smart thing to do.
So can he spray his 308 ammo with a rattle can and fire it with no problems or will it create a problem and make his rifle go kaboom in a bad way think its a bolt action he is using.
I would think that it will ether jam or scrape the paint off the cartridge or make a mess of the barrel with that paint could be a bugger to remove..

Anyways just want to see if any of you have done it in the past or know someone that has done it and had it work or worse, I just know the bone head will try it anyways but I want at least warn him strongly if its gonna turn out bad in the end may not be a buddy for long? could be a darwin award winner....

[rancher1913]

you are thinking right. the only paint that works is powdercoating and even it is not a good idea on jacked ammo. I suppose a guy could paint just the tip, nothing that touches the rifling and get away with it.

[am44mag]

Painting the tip is pretty much his only trouble free option unless he wants to start casting and powdercoating his own boolits. If he goes ahead and does it anyways, my guess is that he's going to make a mess of his chamber when that spray paint starts sticking to it

[17nut]

Is he so eagle-eyed that he can actually see the bullet in flight?
Or is it so he can find his own bulets in the berm?

Once they enter the magazine he cant see them either so why not let him paint 1 cartridge for keepers and then make believe for the remaining?

Red, green, blue and black Sharpie looks pretty decent on a bullet and presents no danger for the rifle.

[LAGS]

To mark my ammo loads, I would have a piece of sheet metal with 20 - 1/4" holes drilled in it.
I would stand the bullets on their case heads and set the metal plate on the bullets with the tips sticking thru the holes.
Then spray the part that stuck thru the hole what ever color I wanted for the load Color Coded in my reloading log.
Basicly it was nothing more in the end once I worked up some good loads, than a Red for Hot Rounds, Green for Milder Rounds and and Yellow for the Softest rounds for plinking or the older Mil Surps.

[Survival Bill]

Is he so eagle-eyed that he can actually see the bullet in flight?
Or is it so he can find his own bulets in the berm?

Once they enter the magazine he cant see them either so why not let him paint 1 cartridge for keepers and then make believe for the remaining?

Red, green, blue and black Sharpie looks pretty decent on a bullet and presents no danger for the rifle.

I dont know! but I do like the idea of the sharpie at least that wont have much to leave behind in the chamber I may be able to get him to go for that. It will keep him busy for a while and out of trouble LOL....

[jmorris]

Is he so eagle-eyed that he can actually see the bullet in flight?

A telescope on the target and shoot at enough distance and you can see a bullet in flight on its way. A lot easier to see it from behind going that it would be from the side passing.

No paint needed.

[BK7saum]

When you say 308 ammo, is he wanting to rattle can the entire cartridge or just the bullet?

If the entire cartridge, he is asking for trouble with paint transferring to the chamber and gumming up the chamber walls if they would even chamber in the first place. Rattle can paint goes on pretty thick and I doubt the cartridges would even chamber.

[OS OK]

Put a little thinned paint on a sponge and dip their tips into the sponge, sorta like mil-surps rounds...that'll mark them for ID purposes.
No paint against the barrel or in the chamber.

I use a wide tipped Marks-A-Lot and or different colors of PC to ID a set of loads for ladders or work-ups.

Attachment 200873

[Drm50]

Sounds to me like a person who shouldn't have access to guns or loading equippment. That is the
kind of thing you would expect from a little kid.

[Survival Bill]

When you say 308 ammo, is he wanting to rattle can the entire cartridge or just the bullet?

If the entire cartridge, he is asking for trouble with paint transferring to the chamber and gumming up the chamber walls if they would even chamber in the first place. Rattle can paint goes on pretty thick and I doubt the cartridges would even chamber.

Ya he wants to rattle can the entire cartridge.. yup thats what I thought too.

[Survival Bill]

Sounds to me like a person who shouldn't have access to guns or loading equippment. That is the
kind of thing you would expect from a little kid.

LOL I talked him out of getting into reloading already he would be one that would fill and tamp down as much reddot as he could in a cartridge well we know were that story goes...

[OS OK]

Sounds like 'ole Murphy' has found himself a 'protege'.

[Hick]

I have one boolit that shoots very nice at low velocity without the gas check, but also very nicely about 600 fps faster with the gas check. I put a red dot on the tip of the gas checked boolits with a sharpie to avoid confusing the slower load with the hotter load.

[CASTER OF LEAD]

Why in the world would you wanna paint, any round is beyond me. Keep records in a load log, label said ammo in its final storage container with pertinent load info. PC is one thing,but if this person wants to "Krylon" anything and shoot it ,no matter what it is is a recipe for a huge problem on many levels. IMHO someone needs to set down with this person and properly,Teach, mentor, advise, them in the reloading process.
Bottom line label,label, label and stick to known sources for load data. Too many ways to kill , or injure themself , or others deviating from this procedure. Hot load? Write it on the ammo label on the storage device. Mid range load...... write it on the ammo storage device.
I log EVERYTHING I load. 3 ring binder and once fired write in the results and further testing or changes to the load. Easy to look back and see where ,when , and what i have tried and such. Sorry for the Rant! RANT OVER. Please be safe. The above is just my .02- CASTER

[Drm50]

When I am developing loads, I load 10 and color the back of brass with magic makers. With color
code taped to box. A stripe across case head is enough and when you are done will wipe off with
Alcohol.

[jmorris]

Why in the world would you wanna paint, any round is beyond me.

Only stuff I have that has painted bullet tips is to be able to differentiate armor piercing, armor piercing incendiary, incendiary and tracer ammunition, regular bullets just look like regular bullets.

[725]

Survival Bill -- I'd stop shooting with that guy. He's too immature to be around guns and if he is around guns, don't be around him.

[rondog]

Does this guy also have big rubber bullnads hanging off his trailer hitch?

[LAGS]

There are many of us that have shot the Russian lacquered steel cases ammo.
So if the cases are done right with the right paint then there shouldn't be a problem.
But they did it to prevent Rust.
I don't reload steel cased ammo , and don't own it long enough to think Rust would ever be a concern