Hunting with Powder Coated Boolets - Yes or No ?

[Survival Bill]

I want to get into powder coating my cast boolets but I do not know if they are any good for hunting deer/moose/elk so I am asking here to get your opinions on this as this may change my mind about powder coating if they are no good for hunting and are only good for punching holes in paper.

[RP]

It is just a coating to lube the bullet as far as it stopping the bullet from expanding that not going to happen. Depending on what your shooting cal weight and critter you may want a softer alloy which the coating will help you with and keep the barrel from leading. Never shot a moose or a elk so I do not know what is needed to punch threw them but if your cast bullet is working for you PC bullets will do the job also.
Just keep in mind they tend to be slicker down the barrel so a adjustment may be needed on your reloads so I would test well before season came in.

[Beagle333]

It doesn't affect the boolit hardness or expansion very much when it impacts something. It's only a thousandth of an inch of melted polyester, which is only twice the thickness of Saran Wrap (which is polyethylene), and it just makes the boolit very slippery.

[6pt-sika]

To each his own and more power to those that want to PC , however it's not something I have any intrest in trying .

[Doughty]

Survival Bill,

Here's a thread that might interest you.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...lets-will-kill

[waksupi]

The critters I've killed with them seems to die just fine.

[dragon813gt]

Have people been able to dial in accuracy w/ ease like you can w/ conventionally lubed bullets? Last I read the accuracy w/ rifle bullets wasn't good at all. There were a few outliers but special equipment was used to get the accuracy.

[white eagle]

absolutely
just killed a doe with a lucky off hand shot
my 16-1 alloy was powder coated with Smokes
hunter orange pc deer staggered at the shot almost dropping

[dragon813gt]

I'm taking accuracy on paper. Not a lucky shot. It's pretty easy to get close to MOA accuracy, staying w/in certain speed restrictions, w/ conventional lube. The last time I went searching people weren't able to get this type of accuracy w/ powder coat.

[white eagle]

the shot was lucky because I never shoot off hand
you just aint running with the rite people
there no speed limits in my neck of the woods
own a flip phone to I bet

My lucky shot was made with a 358 winchester at 135 lasered yards not with a handgun,260 gr Mountain Molds Boolit

[Beagle333]

If you don't like powdercoat, don't use it. Lube isn't going away. I don't think powdercoat is going away either though.
Some people only shoot cast boolits and some only shoot jacketed bullets.
There's room for both, and luckily we still live in a country where we can choose either or both freely. Happy shooting!!

[sixshot]

There's still some mystery surrounding powder coating & a lot of second hand talk from people who have no idea what they are talking about or even used them. Trust me, they are here to stay, use them or don't but that's why they make chocolate & vanilla, so we have a choice.
I've been using powder coating for over 3 years now & have taken several animals with it in my sixguns (don't own a rifle) and for me at least it's WAY better! But, it is different, you do change the hardness when you anneal in the toaster over at 400 degrees for 10 -15 minutes so keep that in mind. You can also over come the annealing by water quenching right out of the oven if you think it's necessary, I don't but some will, especially some rifle shooters.
It's every bit as accurate, sometimes more so, very clean, won't plug the porting in muzzle brakes, etc, your cylinders never get dirty from lube because there is no lube, nothing in the barrel except for powder residue. I've taken several animals including 2 deer & an antelope this year using my Ruger 357 maximum & my Ruger 44 magnum, one shot each, at 64, 93 & 123 yds, what's not to like about powder coating?
If you don't like it fine, stay with your stick shift, non air conditioning, 2 wheel drive truck. If you want to live in the modern world at least give it a fair look before swearing it off, really! There has to be a reason almost every commercial caster is now offering coated bullets!!!

Dick

[dragon813gt]

Typical responses. Can someone point me to a thread about accuracy of powder coated rifle bullets that are loaded w/ regular dies and techniques. Pistols are a lot different from rifles. The flip phone comment has me laughing because I'm young and embrace technology. I don't want to look at claims or hearsay. I want to see results. Just like those that were posted when guys started chasing high velocity w/ conventional lube.

I'd have no problem switching to powder coat if it performs. But I haven't seen any evidence that it does in rifles. Like I said, pistols are completely different.

[runfiverun]

Dragon even naked lead requires special load techniques to break through the wall and maintain accuracy at velocity.
it's not that it cannot be done it's that nobody is trying because they been told they can't do it.
if you stay in the parameters of can't you never will.

to the OP.
if you want to see how a PC bullet will work for hunting.
take one of them and a plain one.
set them side by side down on the back step.
drop a sledge hammer down on them both.
look what happened...

[NoZombies]

Typical responses. Can someone point me to a thread about accuracy of powder coated rifle bullets that are loaded w/ regular dies and techniques. Pistols are a lot different from rifles. The flip phone comment has me laughing because I'm young and embrace technology. I don't want to look at claims or hearsay. I want to see results. Just like those that were posted when guys started chasing high velocity w/ conventional lube.

I'd have no problem switching to powder coat if it performs. But I haven't seen any evidence that it does in rifles. Like I said, pistols are completely different.

I didn't even know this was a concern for folks. I'm regularly shooting ± 1MOA with powder coated in rifles up to 2200 FPS. I actually found it easier to find an accurate load as the powder type and charge became the main variables while taking lube out of the mix. I say up to 2200 FPS because I haven't attempted to push beyond that. I might work up faster loads this spring, but right now I'm playing with big slow projectiles.

[outdoorfan]

to the OP.
if you want to see how a PC bullet will work for hunting.
take one of them and a plain one.
set them side by side down on the back step.
drop a sledge hammer down on them both.
look what happened...

R5R,

This is of great interest to me. Care to elaborate the difference between the to? I haven't tried pc'ing as of yet.

[Smoke4320]

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please don't tell my rifles that PC will not shoot accurately .. Right now they don't know this..

I have over the last 2-3 years posted many targets in many calibers that approach or as above are actually mid range jacketed velocities
last pic is the 358 win 200 grns at 200 yds ...4 shots to the left then I adjusted the scope for a center shot
I don't go to any extremes to load that ammo .. std dies std case prep (I do ream all flash holes) and std bullet sizing (using either lee or NOE push thrus)
have done the same in 223, 7 TCU, 30 and 357 herrett , 300 blackout, 308, 357 mag, 358 Win, 45-70 and 458 Socom... Oh and my 50 cal BP rifle .
every caliber above has taken a or multiple deer except the 223..almost all were bang flop except 2 and they went no further than 20-30 yds

being a long time long range competition shooter I have the discipline to wait and take the money shot. Also my guns wear higher quality scopes
so to increase chances of a precision shot (check the parallax differences between a hi quality and low quality scope)
as stated apply here before ...Holes kill.. holes placed in the heart kill quick.. holes placed in the upper heart region seem to kill REAL quick
PC'ed Bullets can shoot accurately and do so at speed
and if you like I can post lots of pics of both rifle targets and dead deer . I am in NC we are allowed 6 deer a year on a std big game license and can purchase extra doe tags easily..
there have been a couple years were I have hunted to help other families out to get thru the winter.. free meat goes a long way when you are unemployed or hurt and can't work

[David2011]

Surfing a few days ago I found a test that compared two loads in .45 ACP using the same boolit, each load with both conventional lube and PC. The tests were shot using a Ransom rest. The data was collected in a scientific manner and showed a small accuracy edge to PC with both loads. Sorry, I didn’t save a link.

[Survival Bill]

Thanks for the feedback everyone sounds like it is not the issue I thought it was going to be with bullet expansion I like to DIY/Experiment with stuff so this will be right up my ally..
I know it may be overkill as well but I will also try Powder Coated some with GC on them just to see for accuracy testing even so I know its not needed.

I know this is all relatively new and to me it really is bleeding edge tech for cast lead bullets and Powder Coating them so not much in the way of facts for using them for hunting but that link Doughty gave shows it works and it works well..

I will be working out loads for deer/moose hunting season and you can be darn sure I will let you all know how it goes for me.

I will be using 30-06 with 180gr and 200gr and keep the first few shots at game to a max 100 yards until I know how it works for me after that I will test the range limits.

[Survival Bill]

Smoke4320 if you have pics handy i sure would love to see em! do you have any pics of recovered boolits as well just to give me a bit more to go by for expansion..