Impact Plating Hard Lead

[7mmfreak]

Has anyone tried to impact plate hard lead with Moly or HBN? Will it work in place of a traditional lube?
Thanks,
Keith

[onondaga]

I haven't tried this, but would like to. I suspect that this would be fine for gas checked bullets but would damage the base on plain base bullets and give me fliers.

Gary

[Southern Son]

I understand that you mean hard lead, and that you can shorten the length of time that you tumble them. But I also think that you have to get good coverage on the boolit, and my concern with that is that tumbling the boolits to impact plate them could round the edges of the boolits, not only the bases as Gary pointed out, but crimp grooves, lube grooves and whatever. This could changed the actual diameter of the boolit as lead is displaced from the high points down into the grooves. It would be interesting to see if you could impact plate boolits without significantly changing them (I think that in theory you could actually tumble them long enough, and they would turn into round balls?).

[leftiye]

Usually MDS needs some other lube with it for best results. Maybe apply MDS and then lubrisize?

[7mmfreak]

I won't be using moly; I hate the stuff. If I do it I'll use HBN. I just wondered if anyone dry lubed. Do you think that WW alloy that is quenched (since it is basically case hardening) is still susceptible to rounding? Or is it tough enough to withstand a vibratory tumbler?

[eviljagtech]

I for the last 500 boolits have used WW alloy that was quenched in ice water. That had no issues running for 2 hours with the ceramic pellets the lyman moly kit comes with, and no damage to the boolit it self.

[7mmfreak]

Thanks, Evil.

[hghunter]

Howdy!

I have been impact plating ALL of my cast bullets for years, using the Lyman vibratory tumbler method. This will not eliminate the need for lube, but it does help lower pressure just a bit, allowing one to maintain a velocity with slightly less powder, or increase powder charge slightly for a bit more power. Since accuracy is the first question requiring the proper answer, moly-coated cast bullets give you a bit more flexibility in finding the ideal power/accuracy combination.

Most of my bullets are heat-treated to 18-20 BHN, but I have found that it works equally well with wheelweight.

I have a timer that shuts off my tumbler after 30 minutes. Square edges do get a bit of rounding, but not enough to be of concern. Before I bought the timer, I forgot and left the tumbler run for almost 90 minutes. The bullets were severely rounded, their best use was to go back in the pot!http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_99134e038bed871bf.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=1279)