I don’t get the infatuation with powder coat and hi tech

[onelight]

Interesting I thought people used lubed bullets for 100 years before any one had AC

[pergoman]

I haven't lubed a boolit in a few years since I started using Smoke's powders and the shake-n-bake method. I shoot approximately 30K rounds of centerfire handgun ammo per year and I'm happy to be no longer in the sticky ammo club. I use a Mr. Bullet Feeder to supply my Star and Lee AP sizers. Gotta tell you, the Lee is an impressive machine at any price and I use it before the Star whenever I have the right size die available. It is simply way more trouble free for rapid feeding. The coated boolits don't gum up my Mr. Bullet Feeder. You can't use traditionally lubed or tumble lubed bullets with a feeder. Since I don't have to touch the bullets or place them into one of my old Lyman or Star sizers, my fingers are safe. That's a big plus.
Some of the games I play require a lot of rounds in a very short period of time and smoke is a serious issue. Dumping 30+ rounds in under 10 seconds would be a visual nightmare with lube in the mix. Out of a PCC, lube is not a good option but with coated ammo I clean every few thousand rounds....maybe. I also shoot indoors again now that I use nothing but coated tips. After yesterday's practice indoors with 150@ 38's I had zero soot in my nostrils.
My ammo is all color coded and easy to identify one recipe from another. I use some molds in half a dozen different loadings or more. Different powders, amounts of powders, primers (only Federals for revolvers and CCI for open guns) bullet diameters, and seating depths are quickly differentiated.

[Lloyd Smale]

I haven't lubed a boolit in a few years since I started using Smoke's powders and the shake-n-bake method. I shoot approximately 30K rounds of centerfire handgun ammo per year and I'm happy to be no longer in the sticky ammo club. I use a Mr. Bullet Feeder to supply my Star and Lee AP sizers. Gotta tell you, the Lee is an impressive machine at any price and I use it before the Star whenever I have the right size die available. It is simply way more trouble free for rapid feeding. The coated boolits don't gum up my Mr. Bullet Feeder. You can't use traditionally lubed or tumble lubed bullets with a feeder. Since I don't have to touch the bullets or place them into one of my old Lyman or Star sizers, my fingers are safe. That's a big plus.
Some of the games I play require a lot of rounds in a very short period of time and smoke is a serious issue. Dumping 30+ rounds in under 10 seconds would be a visual nightmare with lube in the mix. Out of a PCC, lube is not a good option but with coated ammo I clean every few thousand rounds....maybe. I also shoot indoors again now that I use nothing but coated tips. After yesterday's practice indoors with 150@ 38's I had zero soot in my nostrils.
My ammo is all color coded and easy to identify one recipe from another. I use some molds in half a dozen different loadings or more. Different powders, amounts of powders, primers (only Federals for revolvers and CCI for open guns) bullet diameters, and seating depths are quickly differentiated.

you gave me a good idea. Color code the bullets for differnt alloys. Never thought of that. Even when i mix up new batches of hard or soft they vary some times and if i color coated them and kept a record id know buy looking at a loaded round what alloy was used for it.

[Larry Gibson]

Interesting I thought people used lubed bullets for 100 years before any one had AC

My AC in the man cave had nothing to do with the lube, was all about me.......

[Yooper003]

This is just my .2$ on the subject.it seems to read like what ever method most are using ,that is what they are sticking with. Now I am not one of the many K’s a month shooters,mostly about a 100 rounds a week from my single shot rifles. Loading ,shooting ,casting & coating are my hobbies & intertainment. Mostly I use both methods, I mean both on the same boolits. Firstly i powder coat everything I cast, sizing & installing gas checks first, powder coating ,hen sizing again. I then do the 45/45/10 lube on a lot of my boolits before I load them. Probably don’t need too, but can’t hurt, can it?

[onelight]

My AC in the man cave had nothing to do with the lube, was all about me.......

Gotcha

[Petander]

I also like when I can use soft alloy (saving WW / Lino stash), just PC-coat with proper powder once after casting.

No sizing,no GC -not even for this 8 BHN GC Mihec Larsen 44 mag bullet @ 1000 fps. Just load and shoot. Smoke's excellent Clear here.

(Rounds in the pic are not crimped yet.)



I fired these today, PC is great for quick,small batches. I also Hi Tek.

[Alferd Packer]

Been too lazy to powder Coat.
Can't see the time invested.
I just cast em, lube and shoot.
Cost added too.
I like to keep it cheap.

[LenH]

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and got a multi color pack from Smoke, got the wife a new toaster oven and took the old one for baking.
I powder coated everything I could find and shot everything I had powder coated. I played with this stuff over a couple of years. Then one day I cast nearly
a thousand .45 slugs for my Bullseye season coming up and went back and sized and lubed every one of them and never looked back. I am still on the fence
about PC but slipping those bullets through a star and being basically done with it is more appealing to me. That is my nickel's worth.

[Burnt Fingers]

I've never used conventional lube. I tried some 45-45-10....once. It leaded up the bore so bad I threw the bottle in the trash.

I've got around 20K cast boolits sitting in ammo cans in the garage. Here in Texas conventional lube would be a problem when the heat shows up.

I try and do all my casting while it's cool out. I mainly use Hi-Tek. The amount of time involved is fractions of seconds per boolit.

It only takes one pass through the Star and I'm done. But I don't have to fiddle with setting punch depth or anything like that.

[skeet1]

I guess I'm just "old school" I have always sized and lubed in one step. I use one lube for all velocities , Carnuba Red works very well. Tell me why I should change.

Ken

[Burnt Fingers]

I guess I'm just "old school" I have always sized and lubed in one step. I use one lube for all velocities , Carnuba Red works very well. Tell me why I should change.

Ken

If it works for ya why change?

I shoot defensive pistol matches and don't need the lube smoke to obscure my sight picture.

[Geezer in NH]

I have 4 Lyman 45's and 2 450's. Each set up with what I shoot. Down, up Done.

No shake and then bake then size, No spray on then bake and size. Never mind standing them up to cook and then standing them up again when I screw up and knock them over.

Stored lubed and sized if they melt , I add some paraffin wax to the lube but that does not happen in NH that often!

Other folks say they smoke to much I say as a retired pro FF that ain't what I would call smoke!

[Targa]

I had no intention of ever powder coating until I tried it last week, now I have no intention of going back to traditional lube.

[GARD72977]

you gave me a good idea. Color code the bullets for differnt alloys. Never thought of that. Even when i mix up new batches of hard or soft they vary some times and if i color coated them and kept a record id know buy looking at a loaded round what alloy was used for it.

I thought the same thing. I'm just too lazy to clean out the tumbler to change colors......

[ryanmattes]

I thought the same thing. I'm just too lazy to clean out the tumbler to change colors......

With Hi-Tek you don't have to. I have 2 different colors mixed up right now, and the stuff keeps just fine as long as it's reasonably well sealed. Squirt in whichever color you want, shake for 30 seconds, dump on a wire tray. You can change colors for the next batch.

I mix up 50 or so ml at a time and leave it in the bottle. You only use 1ml per pound of bullets, so I always have plenty left over, and I can basically pick a color when I'm ready to coat.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[GARD72977]

I do use Hi Tek on my pistol bullets. It's my PC rifle that I.would like to color code. I guess I dont want it too bad or I would make it happen

[AlHunt]

I guess I'm just "old school" I have always sized and lubed in one step. I use one lube for all velocities , Carnuba Red works very well. Tell me why I should change.

Ken

You shouldn't change. If 200+ posts in this thread haven't made the case for you, nothing anyone types in this little box is going to. Conversely, I've read a lot of this thread and seen no reason not to PC.

my bullets are still better than yours ... (just kidding, just kidding..)

[dtknowles]

There is more than one way to skin a cat. One way is better than the other but it depends on a lot of different things so what is best for one person is not best for another person and that can change as situations or applications change. I am glad that some people PC or Hytec, there might be a time where I want to try it or where it would be better for me.

Tim

[PhatForrest]

I powder coat 9mms that are destined to see a Glock 34 factory barrel. Most everything else gets a trip through the Star Lubesizer.