Powder Coat 9mm bullets for 38 spcl?

[Baltimoreed]

Anybody ever tried coating 9mm lead boolits to use in a 38 spcl? Might be getting a good deal on some and am wondering about using them in my 38’s. Don’t reload 9mm. Thinking that pc might make them a little bit bigger so they would work ok for cas loads.

[charlie b]

Depends on what size the bullets and barrel throat/grooves are.

[Daver7]

I've powder coated Berry's 9mm to use in 38 S&W (.361) so you should be able to get it to 38 special (.357)

[jaysouth]

Not trying to be a smartazz, but have you slugged your cylinders? Do you have a micrometer? Only you and your gun can answer the question.

[rancher1913]

yes you can enlarge a 9mm to 38 special. I only did it to see if it would work, probably not a great idea to make a habit of it, took 3 coats to get it to where I was confident it would be ok and they did work.

[Baltimoreed]

Haven’t slugged anything but as I said I’ve found a good deal on some 9mm and being the cheap..err...frugal fellow that I am was wondering if pc’ing could enlarge them enough to use them as cas revolver loads. Yes I have a mic and calipers too.

[cwlongshot]

Are these as cast or are they already lubed and sized?


Can be quite a head ache getting bullets cleaned off well enough to be able to get a pleasing looking PC job.

Personally, And IMHO Its too much trouble If these are lubed and sized. But I have bought Commercially offered AS CAST bullets that costed beautifully.

Good luck,

CW

[Baltimoreed]

I haven’t opened them up but I think that they're lubed, thought that I would pick the lube out of a few, wash then in acetone and pc them. See how they do. They were in a group of reloading components [also a 5 gal bucket of media, can of unique] that I just got. Bought about 5500 commercial bullets with 3000 being .45, averaged to .07 cents a boolit plus there was a few other items. Went to midway usa and checked prices as close as I could and it averaged .14 cents a boolit. Think I did good for 7 gal of gas.

[owejia]

Yes .356 can be bumped up to .358 with powder coating. Smokes clear with a heavy coat will put .002 + coat on the dia. easily. Have also used traffic purple. Have done it multiple times. Good luck. Looks like you got a very good deal.

[popper]

If the hard blue crap lube, boil it off - won't hurt the alloy. Might use MEK as cleaner vs acetone. Try PC on a few with just boiling. I PCd some lightly coated with BLL (wax & LLA) and it kinda worked, they shot OK. LLA left some pinholes in the PC. Even got PC to work on OneShot coated bullets. Not the best but it worked.

[Baltimoreed]

I just went out to my truck and looked in the boxes. Surprise! They’re Berrys, they’re copper jacketed and they’re not 500 rd boxes but 1000 rd boxes which drops my per bullet cost down to .058 cents. I mic’ed a couple and they’re .3565 to .357. Might not have to do anything to them. I’ll try loading a handful tonight.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

You might be able to trade some for .38 bullets too. 9mm is popular.

[Lloyd Smale]

they might surprise you. I shot ppc for years with a clark/smith 10. For grins one day I loaded up some 115 rcbs 9mm round noses with 2.5 grains of bullseye to plink with and found they outshot my comp load. They were sized to .357 and conventionaly lubed. Didn't lead a bit either. I shot the last two years I shot comp with that load.