Zinc plating of lead bullets

[atacamadan]

Hi Guys,
I am a newbie here to Cast Boolits, so apologies if I am repeating what may have been posted on before. I tried searching to find out about this but didn't get a complete answer from previous posts. I have a fellow that has a plating company and can do copper plating of lead bullets for me. He has a tank set up with zinc and suggested I try zinc plating the lead bullets to see how they go. He would charge me less for this vs Copper plating.
I understand that Zinc will NOT cause excessive wear on the barrel. Is this correct?
I am considering doing a test run of 124gn 9mm lead bullets with a 50 micron coating of zinc. Would this be sufficient?
Can you plate zinc to lead?
Some mention was made of the Prot-X-Bore bullets and that zinc actually coats the barrel and this is beneficial. Is this true?
Should I just stick to copper plating and not give this a try?
Thanks for any help on this subject.
Dan

[adanymous]

Im not terribly sure about the thickness of the copper but if you go to the coatings thread you'll find a thread where a guy has been electroplating bullets with some success. I think he was shooting for .0035 inch thickness for his best result. Not sure how that translates to UM but I think you could convert it.

Ive never heard of anything that coats the inside of the barrel and is beneficial, except maybe some sort of protectant. Any metal buildup will definitely reduce accuracy and can eventually cause a dangerous pressure situation.

[R.M.]

Zinc is a 4 letter word.

[Buck Neck It]

The berm miners are going to squawk, but would it really make any difference to them? That is such a small amount of zinc, where I live it would corrode away in about a week. Lead bullets I have shot into a stump and dug out in a couple of days already have white oxide on them.

It might be a great idea! Zinc electroplating is simple enough to do at home. I am sure that there are tricks to getting a quality job.

[runfiverun]

actually zinc will put down a coating inside your barrel, after a while it should stabilize and remain consistent.

back before the government knew everything about everything we used to use zinc in our cars engines to do this very thing, and many of those additives they sell on tv have the same thing in them.
the dot.gov know it all's had the zinc taken out of motor oils because it makes the catalytic converters less effective.
this is bad for your engine but gooder for the environment. [pick one]
several motor oils do not get the 'seal of approval' because they have zddp in them, you know the good expensive ones like ams-oil and royal purple.
anyway I have been looking at several ZDDP containing products to use as a lube additive for quite some time now.

[Janoosh]

I believe the term is "Sherardization". Lakeville arms, a Mr Harvey was the major proponent of this process and the zinc washers on cast boolits. Some said it worked, a lot said it didn't.

[62chevy]

I can see it now in 5 or 10 years we will be looking for the best solvent to remove Zinc.

[Buck Neck It]

It is already here! Hydrochloride acid. Just a splash and zinc be gone. Erase your coats that didn't turn out right, and clean your berm diggings. Quickly clean the zinc fouling out of your rifle barrel (har!).

[62chevy]

It is already here! Hydrochloride acid. Just a splash and zinc be gone. Erase your coats that didn't turn out right, and clean your berm diggings. Quickly clean the zinc fouling out of your rifle barrel (har!).

LOL Yes but how will that work on the cold steel we fondly call the barrel.

[gotlead]

help me understand what the zinc plating is for. is it so you can use a softer alloy or what

[Garyshome]

I'd stick with copper!

[bruce381]

Hey Run: ZDDP is still used in motor oil but at a lower treat rate max now is about 800ppm vs old days at 1200 or so.
Things like Boron and moly are used to replace the Zinc as far as wear protection is concerned.

Older diesel oil will still have a higher amount of Zinc like a CI-4 the newer "low ash" CJ-4 oils are doen in the 800ppm range.

[Magana559]

Any word on the zinc plating?

[Comrade Mike]

I believe you can do it. Someone just needs to give it the ole college try

[Cmm_3940]

I guess I still have to ask, why? What advantage is gained by zinc plating? You still won't be able to use your boolits at 'jacketed only' ranges, since zinc on the outside of a boolit looks just like lead. Do you expect some performance improvement? The melting point of zinc isn't all that much higher than lead... OK, so it will coat the inside of the barrel. Is this a good thing? When this happens with lead or copper, we call it fouling.​

[atacamadan]

Just found my original thead was still with comments. I am going to try zinc plated bullets tomorrow or friday. I have been going nuts with lead bullets in 9mm and keyholing so will see if this happens with the zinc ones. Supposedly the advantage of zinc is the lubrication of the barrel and sherardizing which improves accuracy.

[bangerjim]

Since your VERY old original post, powder coating has become the predominant alternate lube coating to grease. I sure would not mess with Zn!

Read the alternate coatings threads on PC and try it. Costs very little to do it. Thousands of us are now doing it withe 100% success......no leading, no grease smoke, no sticky boolits, excellent accuracy. I PC everything from 223 thru 45LC's.

bangerjim

[Retumbo]

Waitin.......

[atacamadan]

Ok. I will research that info on PC'ing. Thanks.

[Yodogsandman]

Waitin.......

Ok, I'll say it. The "predominant alternate" is copper.