Ready to try powder coating again- looking for the best powder

[ghh3rd]

I gave powder coating a try a long time ago using the BB method and found it cumbersome. I bought a small amount of Hi-Tek and although my boolits passed the smash test some of the coating was scraped off during sizing, which didn’t happen with my powder coated boolits.

Since my original attempt to powder coat I’ve seen much simpler methods like not using BB’s at all and just dumping all of the boolits into a tray in a pile and baking them without worrying about separating them. This method seems surprisingly successfully at getting evenly coated boolits and appeals to me .

I’ve seen some videos by Elvis Ammo and he seems to really really crank out tons of nicely coated boolits with the dump in a pile and bake method, but i haven’t been able to find out what powder he uses.

I want to give PC another try, and wondered what everyone has found the best powder is. I was using Harbor Freight red “back in the day”, but i’m sure there is better out there now.

Randy

[Outback32]

I like Eastwood I got Ford light blue and mirror red. That was before I knew of this forum. There's a vendor in here smokes powder. He's suppose to have good powder also. You can't go wrong with Eastwood or smoke

[Outback32]

Although I stand mine up on end I don't just dump them in a tray.

[jcren]

Smoke's powders are excellent. I also stand mine, but as long as you remove the excess powder I don't think you will have a problem.

[glockfan]

eastwood ford light blue. it cover the boolit very even in one coat. adhere very well with the S&B method.

[Walter Laich]

another vote for Smoke's

I've taken to mixing colors mostly to see what it does.

Would say darker colors keep the lead from showing through. The bullet is coated but some folks like them not to show the thin spots = darker ones are much better in doing this

[Boolit_Head]

PM Smoke and don't look back.

[mdi]

Harbor Freight red worked pretty good for me, but not their black. I checked out the Coatings and Alternative sub forum and purchased some Smoke's powders. Works quite well...

[ghh3rd]

Any smokes color seem to cover better than others?

[fredj338]

I also go with Smoke's powders. I trust when he says they will shake & bake. I can't figure out how you guys that dump in a tray keep them from sticking together??? I use the cartridge box jig method & stand them up, pretty fast.

[ghh3rd]

How do you pick them up without rubbing the powder of them?

[Pawpaw757]

I wear nitrile (sp?) gloves and dump them in a tray made from 1/4" hardware cloth. After baking, I pull out the tray and give it a good shake to break apart any that are stuck. Haven't seen any negative results yet.

[ghh3rd]

Nitrile gloves I’ll like a good idea… I remember trying a very large pair of tweezers that I had once and everywhere I touched the bullets lost some of the powder.

[MyFlatline]

I debated about voicing my thoughts but here goes. If you want fast and easy, buy jacketed bullets. If you want minimal effort, use tumble lube, if you don't mind a little more effort, then powder coating is great. It does not do it by itself. Most folks started with HF red, then graduated to the better powders but keep in mind, even the better powders involve some effort. If you dump a glob of bullets on a pan and bake, you will have a glob of baked PC'd bullets. You get out of what you put in. This is a participation process..

Please do not think I am bashing but see so many posters that think there is no effort involved.

[Grmps]

Any smokes color seem to cover better than others?

signal blue, Carolina blue, traffic red.
Ask smoke, he will tell you what's working best right now.

[Jruby38]

I have shake and dumped thousands of boolets on a parchment paper and bake on a cheep toaster oven. Some way overthink it.

[MyFlatline]

I have shake and dumped thousands of boolets on a parchment paper and bake on a cheep toaster oven. Some way overthink it.

Thank you for the kind words

[murf205]

Another vote for Smokes powder. I've tried H F powder and it is nowhere near as good. I'm a shake and bake coater and I use a pair if needle nose pliers to remove the boolits and set them base first onto non stick aluminum foil and roast them at 400 degrees for about 20 min and take them out and let them cool over time. It IS more time consuming but it is what we do! These are Smokes powder in Carolina Blue. I use a push through sizer after they sit for about a week. Just my routine, YMMV

[ghh3rd]

I want fast and easy for my plinking pistol rounds that i shoot by the hundreds . I labor meticulously over my rifle or handgun rounds that I shoot for accuracy at long distances.

Once, when I ran out of my supply of Lee 310 grain bullets for my 44 Magnum, I ran a small experiment. I took all my culls… those that were ‘ugly’ and destined to be remelted and loaded them. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did.

If you go to YouTube and watch a couple of Elvis Ammo’s videos, he uses the shake and dump method, and his bullets look pretty darn good.… Goodnuf for me.

Thanks

[ghh3rd]

Hey Murph those are some beautiful boolits! Thanks for sharing your process with me. Now that I’ve got more of my family interested in shooting, I’m looking for a quick and easy way to make lots of bullets. I’m sure at times I’ll be taking extra time to stand them up and put them on parchment paper or non stick foil when I want a batch of perfect boolits for me to do my best with at the range.

When I tried powder coating a long time ago, I stood them up but experienced some powder flashing on the bases. Of course, back then I was using harbor freight red and maybe the higher quality powder helps with that. Have you had any issues with that happening?