question about plating lead CB boolits

[milsurpaddict]

Has anyone ever nickel plated a lead boolit. I am not sure you can or if it is harmful to the barrel? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

Long ago, Speer made a 52 grain HP that was plated in some kind of silver metal. Never was able to find what it was but they sure did shoot ! ! ! !

They called it the "Silver Match" and it was the most accurate bullet I used in my 220 Swift. At
Swift velocity, didnt worry much about expansion. It did. Just ask what was left of the local yote population around Austin, TX.

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullet

[rmatchell]

I would be interested in this also, I have a decent about of scrap nickel. I have also wondered how to plate lead guess I'll look into it lord knows I need another project.

[olafhardt]

Pure unalloyed nickle has a hardness similar to mild syeel I would expct it to ba mpre abrasive tnan lead

[runfiverun]

nickel is chrome look at an old car bumper.
it's slippery,it used to be cheap too.
then eeeepa got involved with the waste chemicals.

[randyrat]

Nickle and chromium are 2 different elements----Nickle is softer than Chromium.I would use nickle before I tried Chrome. Chrome lined barrels are really hard

Try sending your boolits out to be Nicklized.

I think they use electricity in an electrolyte and some kind of charge to coat the object. I don't know if it takes heat or not.

[runfiverun]

copper plating is done by elecricity slowly flowing through a heated copper sulphide solution towards the boolits suspended in the solution.
something like 1.5-3.0 m/a DC is used at home.
the same way chrome/nickel is applied just on a smaller scale.
i don't know the solution for nickle.
i was just pointing out that chrome/nickle/copper plating is done pretty much the same way not that chrome and nickle are the same material.

[Shiloh]

nickel is chrome look at an old car bumper.
it's slippery,it used to be cheap too.
then eeeepa got involved with the waste chemicals.

Nickel is an elemental metal, so is chromium.
They are not the same.

Shiloh

[DrCaveman]

Slippery eh? Sounds worth investigating. Has anyone out there actually done this? Is there a sub forum where experiences/suggestions can be found?

Not that lubing is difficult... But I have recently been subjected to an indoor range with "plated only" rules and since I have several free passes, it would be fun and opportune to give this approach to boolit lube a whirl...

[olafhardt]

Runfiverun, copper plating is done out of copper SULPHATE solutions not copper sulfide, other copper salts are also used. Nickle is also electroplated and electrolessly plated. Brownells sells electroless nickle plating kits. Most chrome is done out of chromic acid which is horrible stuff. Elemental chromium is harder than a file and could tear up a bore. To obtain the great lubricity of chrome demands extreme surface preparation. Plating is a learnable skill, so is brain surgery. I spent a lot of years as an enviornmental consultant to platers and I would't try to set up a home plating shop.

[Sasquatch-1]

Check with some of the swagers to see if any use large amounts of nickle plated cases for jackets. They may be able to tell you if they have seen any damage done by the nickle. I have fired a few through my 44's but not enough to give any reliable information. Here again this does not help with the plating question but may help with any question about damage.

[fcvan]

I have copper plated boolits but have not even looked at nickel. I reviewed some YouTube videos, read and researched, and had decent results. I'm working on a small barrel electroplating unit to see how that works out. My primary goal is to copper plate Lyman 225-415 boolits for shooting in sell .223/5.56 rifles. So far, the lead and copper plated boolits work great. Frank

[bowfin]

I think nickel would not be a good jacket. Cupro-Nickel, an alloy of copper and nickel has been used. But any peeling or nickel due to poor adhesion (you might have seen that nickel plating flecking off on old, turn of the century revolvers) would do a number on the rifling, I believe.

[Eutectic]

I think nickel would not be a good jacket. Cupro-Nickel, an alloy of copper and nickel has been used. But any peeling or nickel due to poor adhesion (you might have seen that nickel plating flecking off on old, turn of the century revolvers) would do a number on the rifling, I believe.

Quality nickel plating (read plating well bonded) is usually done over copper plating first. Chrome then becomes a three step plating. 50 plus years ago GM tried to put chrome bumpers out there without pre-plating first and I'm sure some of you 'older' posters have seen the 'flaking' Chevy bumpers of old....

Eutectic

[olafhardt]

.I was once considering cobalt plating shotgun bores to make them steel shot capable. Cobalt is super strong and super hard. It might even be adequate to restore demascus barrels but I don't know. I found an outfit that provides plating kits for all sorts of metals.I think the name is Caswell IIRC.