PC'ing small caliber boolits?

[TheFirst]

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on PC'ing small caliber boolits. I used to do 7mm for my 7mm rem mag, and those were tough to get into the oven standing up, but Im now working with .224 boolits to do some tests in an ar and although I havent attempted it yet, I know theyre going to be an absolute bastard to get coated, standing up on the pan, and into the toaster oven. Is there anything to keep them standing up without ruining the PC? Maybe some kind of glue that will stick them down but not end up stuck to the boolit after cooking? I might have to do some tests as when my grandpa died recently, I ended up with a drawer full of unopened, different kinds of super glues. Ill watch out for the fumes.

If you have any better ideas, please let me know!

Thanks,
Jamie

[RogerDat]

Smear of wax? Or would the wax coating the bottom cause problems? They do make wax that is soft at room temps. Saw or screw lubricant wax is one I have around, comes in cardboard wrapped tube, stick screws in it so the threads don't bind going in or cut a slot in the end of the stick as a lube on band saw blade. Don't know where one would get it since I have had a couple of sticks that have lasted at least a decade.

I was wondering the same thing about how one gets tall skinny bullets to all be standing when they get to the toaster oven. Domino effect could take down a bunch if even one falls. Be a pain to try to set them inside after they were covered with powder.

[TheFirst]

That is brilliant! It would just melt out hopefully when it heats up. And about the domino effect, you are damn right there. Doing the 7mm boolits, it would take me like 5 tries to get them into the oven all standing up. Every time any of them fell Id have to drop them back in the powder bucket. It was awful.

[bangerjim]

Wax and grease on the bottoms has been proven by many to be a VERY BiG mistake. The stuff wicks up into the powder and prevents it from sticking at all.

I re-melted a couple hundred boolits playing around with wax/grease/etc! So have others.

Forget it and move on to using fender washers under NSAF. I use that and it works for GC'd smaller boolits. For 223's I just shake and dump on hardware cloth. If some have lay marks in the worng places, I just remelt them. I usually do 4-500 at a time.

banger

[ipijohn]

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on PC'ing small caliber boolits. I used to do 7mm for my 7mm rem mag, and those were tough to get into the oven standing up, but Im now working with .224 boolits to do some tests in an ar and although I havent attempted it yet, I know theyre going to be an absolute bastard to get coated, standing up on the pan, and into the toaster oven. Is there anything to keep them standing up without ruining the PC? Maybe some kind of glue that will stick them down but not end up stuck to the boolit after cooking? I might have to do some tests as when my grandpa died recently, I ended up with a drawer full of unopened, different kinds of super glues. Ill watch out for the fumes.

If you have any better ideas, please let me know!

Thanks,
Jamie

I use aluminum plates with silicone gromets, boolits nose down in the gromets or I use split cases in a loading block with the boolits loaded nose down. Both processes cure the oversize bore rider problem that PC some times causes.

[prs]

I wonder if you could get away without standing them up. Put them in a wire basket, bake and before they cool too much use gloved hands to shake the basket. Similar as to what the HiTek dudes are doing.

prs

[Edward]

Try a dab of Lucas sticky 2 on base of .223 it will run out/any grease should work .

[Gunslingerdoc]

For 224 bullet or long 30's I use hardware cloth and just coat the bases - 1/8" for 224's and 1/4" for the 30's. Just poke them in nose down, spray and bake.

[RogerDat]

Wax and grease on the bottoms has been proven by many to be a VERY BiG mistake. The stuff wicks up into the powder and prevents it from sticking at all.

I re-melted a couple hundred boolits playing around with wax/grease/etc! So have others.

Forget it and move on to using fender washers under NSAF. I use that and it works for GC'd smaller boolits. For 223's I just shake and dump on hardware cloth. If some have lay marks in the worng places, I just remelt them. I usually do 4-500 at a time.

banger

Well I'm good with the idea of someone else taking a whiz on the electric fence to prove it is not a good idea. Thanks for that.

So you use washers under Non-Stick Aluminum Foil to keep them upright for smaller batches But then for larger batches or smaller bullets you use mesh and just re-melt the rejects and re-cast? How do you define "Wrong places" for lay marks?

[KennethF]

For 27 and 30 cal. boolits I have taken plastic .45 trays w/ the 50 square grids that factory amo comes in and drill holes in the centers of each grid using a 11/32" - 3/8", sharp, brad point drill bit. Drilling must be at very slow RPM and light pressure to produce the roundest, cleanest hole possible. Do this drilling to several of these salvaged amo containers. Place these trays upside down, square grid down, on your oven trays on top of the non-stick material, non-stick foil or parchment paper. Pick up coated boolits with your hemostat or similar tool, I use long handled/curved jaw type from HF, and place boolits in each round hole. When the trays are filled, place the over trays in the oven, on the racks and carefully lift the plastic trays off the boolits. When setting up your oven make sure it is somewhat level. With 30 cal. boolits I can lift the plastic trays off the boolits with the oven racks pulled out of the oven to better reach the plastic cartridge boxes, than carefully slide the racks into the oven. I do not know if the oven racks could be slid into the oven after lifting off the cartridge boxes when working with narrow based .22 coated boolits, maybe if need to. I have not tried to place .22 coated boolits standing up into the oven in this manner, but can imagine that it could be done using the clear plastic trays that .22 rimfire cartridges come packaged in. Those with 4 round plastic posts on the bottom of the 50 hole tray, and filling this with coated boolits on the oven tray and then lifting the plastic tray off the boolits after the oven tray has been placed into the oven. If this method will work with .22 boolits, the posts on the bottom of the rimfire boxes would need to be shortened a bit.
While I am here I would like to debunk the notion that only plastic containers with the no.5 in a triangle on the bottom of the container should be used, or work the best. I have broken at least 5 Rubbermaid plastic bowls swirling and bouncing boolits in them. In my experience, shaking boolits up and down in light weight plastic containers only cracks them so that the powder pours out of the cracks and does nothing to make the boolits coat better. This morning I used a 4 cup glass Pyrex bowl with a tight snap on rubber lid to coat boolits, no shaking up and down, no broken bowl, no spilt powder and my results were even better than using plastic, breakable, #5 containers.

Ken

[bangerjim]

Well I'm good with the idea of someone else taking a whiz on the electric fence to prove it is not a good idea. Thanks for that.

So you use washers under Non-Stick Aluminum Foil to keep them upright for smaller batches But then for larger batches or smaller bullets you use mesh and just re-melt the rejects and re-cast? How do you define "Wrong places" for lay marks?

"Wrong place" = bare lead on the tops of the grease grooves.

Doing the shake-n-dump, I many times get an 80% OK rate.

For ESPC, the fender washers (with the right size hole) work perfectly for 223's and 30's with GC shanks. They fit snugly down in there. After 3-4 sprays, I change the foil to avoid any serious flash at the bottom. GC's then are pressed on AFTER the coat.

You can try the grease on the bottoms, but several of us messed around with it and ended up with total re-melts. That grommet idea above sounds good if you can find the high-temp grommets. I have no idea what they cost. Mabe ipijohn can advise us?

There are about as many ideas for boolit coating/baking racks as there are designs of boolits! Find one that works for you and go at it!

banger

[Idz]

For gas checked bullets I punched a piece of sheet with holes the size of the shanks and stood the bullets up. Tapping them when they came out of the oven broke free any that stuck to my tray. After PC baking I installed the checks and they covered any areas where the PC came off.

[ipijohn]

"Wrong place" = bare lead on the tops of the grease grooves.

Doing the shake-n-dump, I many times get an 80% OK rate.

For ESPC, the fender washers (with the right size hole) work perfectly for 223's and 30's with GC shanks. They fit snugly down in there. After 3-4 sprays, I change the foil to avoid any serious flash at the bottom. GC's then are pressed on AFTER the coat.

You can try the grease on the bottoms, but several of us messed around with it and ended up with total re-melts. That grommet idea above sounds good if you can find the high-temp grommets. I have no idea what they cost. Mabe ipijohn can advise us?

There are about as many ideas for boolit coating/baking racks as there are designs of boolits! Find one that works for you and go at it!

banger

I use something similar to these for .223.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2152R-Pack-O...a0d937&vxp=mtr

[Greg Skinner]

I powder coat all my boolits by shaking in the Cool Whip container for a minute or so and then standing them on their bases on the tray with non-stick foil beneath - that includes .22 and .30 cal rifle boolits without gaschecks. However, I have found that rather than trying to carry a full tray to the toaster oven and risk the domino effect, it is easier and safer to set the boolits in rows on the tray on the toaster oven rack pulled part-way out. Then I just carefully slide the rack all the way in to the oven and bake. They never tip over this way and all my boolits come out perfect. This process takes just a little bit longer than dumping on hardware cloth, but I like the results.

I don't usually gas check and I have shot the .22 out of K-Hornet and 22-250 up to about 2100 fps with reasonable accuracy (1-2 moa) and no leading. These rifles both have 1:14 twist ratio, though. The 1:9 twist AR is not as accurate at those velocities.

[Sticky]

I use something similar to these for .223.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2152R-Pack-O...a0d937&vxp=mtr

I like this idea for doing 223 boolits, found some on McMaster's website for similar pricing as well...

5/16" hole if you want to 'mount' them and a 3/16 thru hole..

http://www.mcmaster.com/#1061t24/=vze6sq

I think I will try them just sitting down on the tray (I use Greg's trick of setting the tray on the rack and sliding it in when they are all set) and see how that works without having to drill a buncha holes in a piece of aluminum sheet.

[benellinut]

This is all new to me so I don't know if these are good idea's or not, you guys tell me. Can you use a stainless steel mesh with holes with the size that would stand the bullets on their nose and bake them like that? Also this video below is something I saw on youtube the other day, this guy drills holes in a wood block, covers the wood with Alum Foil and pushes the base of the bullets through the foil, the bullets fit tight in the holes. He then coats the bullets with a PC gun and puts the entire block in the oven. My thought would be to make small blocks the size of something like a tray that .45 ACP rounds come in, drill your holes, cover with foil, stick 50-60 bullets in the block, take a container with the plastic BB's already mixed with PC that you have used to tumble coat in the past, turn the block with the bullets nose down and swish the bullets around in the BB's to coat them. If the PC would stick that way it would be easier then spraying and easier to handle smaller blocks the one big one. Your thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87K3vHgNSvM

[Gunslingerdoc]

He's spraying a ton of PC on those boolits...way more powder than I use! His results look good though.

[benellinut]

He's spraying a ton of PC on those boolits...way more powder than I use! His results look good though.

I thought it looked like a lot but I haven't PC yet. It looks like he's doing it in his office!

[Beagle333]

I don't know if you could tumble a whole loading block full of bullets in the BB's, but you might try it and let us know. It sounds farfetched, but this whole idea sounded farfetched two years ago too!
You might be onto something.