Zinc & Powder Coating

[sixshot]

On another forum I mentioned that we always try to stay away from zinc when casting bullets but now that we are powder coating our bullets perhaps there's a way to use zinc to our advantage. I've never seen this discussed anywhere so I thought I would bring it here & see if some you guys that might know a bit about blending metals, etc. We know that zinc has a much higher melting point but if we go there and alloy the zinc with our other metals can we make a good cast bullet? With powder coating maybe there is a way we can keep from throwing away some of the zinc & use it as a hardener & make good bullets by powder coating them, what say you?

Dick

[Traffer]

From what I have seen and read. With zinc it is either very slight amounts in the lead or 100% zinc. A guy on youtube did a bunch of experimentation with all zinc bullets. He had pretty good success he calls himself "elvisammo".
But everything I have seen that is about concentrations of zinc from like 3% to 99% are a failure. The problem is in getting them to cast. Once cast they could be powder coated and used but let us know if you figure out a way to get them to cast.

[LAGS]

I cast Zinc WW's into Slugs to Lap some of my molds to larger Diameter.
I made a special plate to replace the Sprue Cutter, and cast a stem on the back of the slug.
Zinc Will Cast, but you have to get it very HOT and your mold has to be pre Heated very hot to start with.
I have also cast Fishing weights with it.
But.
For all the trouble heating up the mold, then letting it cool down, not to mention the Sprue cutter wont cut off the sprue because it is so hard, ( unless you cut it off before the Zinc is fully Hardened ) and then it smears Zinc all over the top of the mold and sprue cutter.
My Late Cousin had a Cannon that he use to cast slugs for it.
Both Round Balls and conical slugs .
But for all the trouble, it to me is a waste of time trying to do any kind of Production Casting like boolits with pure Zinc.
And Zinc as a Hardener just wont work and cast a good Boolit .
But I have cast trigger guards, and Butt plates out of Zinc , as well as Holding Jigs for using on my drill press.
I just do Sand casting then shape the parts to what I want.
So, IMO, don't just throw that Zinc material away.
It can be used for other things.