simple Hi-Tek coating

[Ausglock]

Jesus!!!!!!
I have never seen anything like that!!

I did come close by dipping the bullet in acetone and sprinkling powder over it, But never like that.

I am amazed........over and out.

[jeep45238]

Working on my first batches right now. Have the oven at the upper limits (400), and got a light tan, so temp is too high. Dropped it to 375 for subsequent coats, we'll see where that winds up color wise.

the nice thing about cast boolits is being able to recycle your lessons learned!

[jeep45238]

My first batch:



Not exactly the green it was supposed to be:



But what the hey, keep pushing and learn. To verify good bonding there's two tests that need to be performed. The first is on the initial coat by rubbing it in acetone for 30 seconds. If nothing comes off, push on. The next is the fun one- smash it with a hammer and look for separation or flaking of the coating. Mine passed both with flying colors, so I loaded up 100 of them for the kicks. Much, much smoother to run these than the same bullets using liquid alox tumble lube.


An unexpected side effect I hadn't thought of was more consistent ammo. Since the seating and crimp dies aren't getting exposed to gummy bullets they can perform their jobs more consistently. And more consistent they were - I typically have a 10-15% rejection rate on the case gauge for the tumble lube. I had 1% on this batch and touched nothing in the press but the handle- no adjustments period.


Not bad at all for the investment. Tomorrow's the acid test at the range with them. I don't anticipate problems, but if I do it's likely because I was baking them at 400F, which is the upper end of the limit. According to the instructions if the bullets start to turn tan or brown after baking, the temp was too high or they baked for too long. I'm okay with having a different color as long as I get the same performance.

[Kjeksen87]

Uhm... Is that 2 coats? Looks to me it is one coat, or too little Hi-tek used to get good coverage. My experience is that colour itself does not matter for performance. But do some testing with your setup and you will get the colour you bought. Also good tip from Ausglock is to measure the temp on a bullet in addition of the compartment area to verify that you are indeed over 180c for atleast 3 min. That will also show you if you are waaaay over for a longer time period (dark colour)

[jeep45238]

That was one, I did 3 total

[Kjeksen87]

3 should do the job and then some. Many do only 2

[jeep45238]

Good to know! I took the directions regarding really thin coats, and more coats as needed for better results to heart. Until I get them to come out the color they're supposed to I'll color within ththe lines before I start experimenting with how many coats. If I can get two coats to do it I'll be cranking these out like nobody's business.

Range test this afternoon, looking forward to it. If all goes well I'll be remelting the 2k or so of tumble lubed bullets I have. Hopefully my leading will go away with this, since it got a bit better with bigger diameters (using .358-.359 in a .357 bore). If not, I'm not married to this mold, I've since learned the hit/miss of Lee micro grooves.

[Kjeksen87]

I have shot bullets only .0005 over bore dim. With no leading. The Clue is as with all lead bullets match your pressure to BHN to obtain bullet "deformation" and good obturation. 6ml coating pr 2kg of bullets works like a charm.

[Rompin Ruger]

I've posted back a ways on my 270-SAA coated in red Copper 45 cal's with li'l gun..

.now would I be hijacking the thread to ask if anyone has some pet loads for a Glock 40SW Mdl 22 3rd gen, with 165 gr. Bayou red copper coated bullets and Power Pistol powder? Manuals say 6.6 to start up to 7.4 with that bullet in J-word...

Got the 4 die set in route and bulge buster but first go will be with virgin Starline 40 brass.

Thanks.

[Avenger442]

I had a chance to take my wife to the range for her second practice session with her SW Airlight 38. She's not bad for the second time out. Since I now have enough empty brass she will be shooting Hi Tek Bronze 500 next time.

I had a couple of mags of the Hi Tek Gun Metal Grey hollow points in 45 auto that were good at 15 yards. I found out I'm not good at 25 yards. Off hand I placed about 5 of the 7 on the 12 X 12 target. Oh well, will get better with practice.

You guys reminded me about what Joe told me about a year ago about maintaining 180 C for 3 minutes. If I remember correctly he also told me about the same time that you could cook 200C +/- 10C for the cook temp as long as they pass the tests. Most of us are using convection ovens that are intended to cook food not lead.

Not trying to start a discussion but, I disagree with the idea that you shouldn't use the round cooking thermometers. Will agree that the thermocouple might be more accurate but only in the spot where the probe is located. But, after all we are not trying to maintain to the tenth of a degree. I've been using cooking thermometers since the second set of bullets I baked. Before I installed the PID and had to watch and adjust temps. I usually cook two trays of bullets at once so I place one in each tray with probe in contact with several of the bullets. Tells me the temp in each tray which is usually several degrees different. Different heat in different parts of the oven. My PID probe is set in the middle back of the oven with the PID set on 380 F. That maintains my round thermometers in the trays about 390-400 F. Still using the first cooking thermometer I bought and have had no problems.

Sometimes I think we are making this coating process way more complicated than it needs to be. But I guess we are trying to get a hard fast set of things that work for everyone to start with. The trouble is we don't know what the circumstances are with each user. I have found the cook temp and time are particularly forgiving (plus degrees have not found a fail temp minus about 20 F) as long as it passes the smash wipe. That is unless you just got to have that certain shade of green or red. And you will have to experiment with your set up to get it. I've also found the coating of the bullets before bake forgiving to a point. You can coat in a covered container which gives you a little more tumble time, acetone or MEK flashes off slower, or uncovered. After a few times of squirting the mix in the container you can guesstimate. That having been said. Follow Joe and Ausglocks suggestions for a starting point. The most unforgiving thing I have found is that first coat. It must not be thick and it must be completely dry.

I've I have shot thousands of rifle and pistol Hi Tek and coated in the 10s of thousands now ( most of them still sitting in their respective plastic jars waiting) and have had only two fails. One when I coated too thick. One where I got some leading at the end of my rifle barrel when I tried to use 12 BHN where I should have been using 17. I'm not especially particular about the color (until Joe gets me some Orange and Blue). My Gold 1035 can be gold or slightly darker depending on if I forget to turn the fan in my oven on or not. This stuff is great. I get rifle groups that match or surpass the ammo I was using before. Almost as good as the Federal gold match in my 223 and 308. It is the only lube I have used in about three years of casting and shooting lead. I know there are other things that work but I would recommend Hi Tek to anyone and have.

Has anyone used it in the big bore guns 375 H&H or maybe 480 Ruger?

[Kjeksen87]

Sometimes I think we are making this coating process way more complicated than it needs to be..

I think you are right.

[slide]

100% agreed.

[slide]

jeep45238, You may already do this. You can put your bullets in your baking tray and set it on top of your oven for about 10 to 15 minutes. This will preheat your bullets and it shouldn't take as long to get up to temp. I think Ausglock said he used a hair dryer for a few minutes. With that new terminator oven he built probably doesn't need to do it anymore.

[jeep45238]

You're correct, I do that already. I'm messing with temps and times right now (and cleaning up a Lee sizing die, nasty nick inside and too small). I'm really liking this stuff so far. Should find out how it shoots in about an hour.

[DerekP Houston]

Ha, the tray on top of the oven is my trick for multiple batches too. This stuff is awesome when you have a bunch of bullets that need coating quick!

[Ausglock]

I've posted back a ways on my 270-SAA coated in red Copper 45 cal's with li'l gun..

.now would I be hijacking the thread to ask if anyone has some pet loads for a Glock 40SW Mdl 22 3rd gen, with 165 gr. Bayou red copper coated bullets and Power Pistol powder? Manuals say 6.6 to start up to 7.4 with that bullet in J-word...

Got the 4 die set in route and bulge buster but first go will be with virgin Starline 40 brass.

Thanks.

Glock35 40S&W
175gn FP over 6.0gn Power Pistol. Avg Vel 1013fps 177 Power factor

[jeep45238]

Tomorrow's the acid test at the range with them.

Well the coating was a success, but I've had it with this bullet and mold. I've sized from .356-.359, various charges, various seating depths, various levels of crimp (including just enough to touch the case/reduce the bell), various types of lubricants, mutiple coats of lubricants, and my accuracy is still out the door. First round fired today was a keyhold out of a squeeky clean barrel with a bullet .002 larger than bore

It seems the microgroove bullets either work or don't, no inbetween, so I'll be moving on to greener pastures once I find a bullet my pistols like. Swapping all I can right now to find something that works.

[slide]

Some love the microgroove bullets and some hate them. In my 38 special revolvers I shoot them as they drop out of the mold. They are generally around .360. Haven't tried it in any other calibers yet.

[jeep45238]

I do get better results when shooting them as cast- but the below pic is how much my beretta loves this particular boolit. Maybe if I had a smaller bore it would do better, but oh well. Part of the hobby!

[slide]

Figuring all this out is fun to me. Some guys go nuts and get highly aggravated. I got a shooting buddy that will go ballistic unless everything goes the way he thinks it should. I realize everybody is different but if he makes a bad shot at our monthly matches it ruins his whole performance. Sad, because he is a pretty good hand with a pistol or revolver.