Finaly, A process that I am happy with!

[badbill2]

After several days reviewing this Thread and being overwhelmed wit the diversity and ingenuity of the comments, I have to say that I listen better than I talk. I have no problem with Casting but recently became interested in the PC Boolits. I attempted several of the processes and theories which were explained and came to the conclusion that there are those who are successful, those who are failures and those who were as confused as I. My goals where set pretty high in that I wanted PC Boolits which would be relatively easy to make, not to stick to the foil or leave excessive fillets, coat the entire boolit in one application, prevent excessive waste of the powder, and produce a PC Boolit which would be accurate. I tried the "Strings, the foil, the spray cabinet, the nails the jigs etc. I am happy to say that the process that I have developed seems to meet my needs. I do have a few questions that I am hoping that I can get some input. I use a fabricated piece of 1"x1/8 steel which fits the trays of my oven with 1/4" slots cut have way across the width of the steel to support the inverted boolits hung from 1 1/2" metal screws which are attached by drilling a 1/8" hole in the back of each boolit. This allows the boolit to be placed or removed from the rack with a pair of pliers or you can slide out the complete rack to cool. I accomplish the preliminary coating by taking the boolit with the screw attached and warming it up to a temp that will provide adhesion without too much build up. Take each screw and dip it into your powder, blow off the excess and place the boolit back on the rack for cooking. When complete, remove the boolit and or tray for cooling. Can these bullets be correctly sized as they are all about .005 oversize without harming the PC?? Will the small 1/8" hole drilled into the base of the bullet be a factor in accuracy if it is not positively centered?? I would appreciate anyone's input. What a helpful Forum. Thanks, badbill2

[Oreo]

A hole in the boolit is going to be a problem unless its perfectly centered and symmetrical.

The pc is reported to pass through sizing dies just fine.

[D Crockett]

BadBill2 wish I could see pictures of the way you are doing this but my question is why are the bullets hung up side down is this part of the drying process ?? if so is there a way to reverse it to where the bullets are just sitting on a tray with the nose end up ?? like Oreo said the hole is going to be a major problem D Crockett

[badbill2]

I hang them upside down to let the powder dry without any surface imperfections. They come out great and I'm happy with all the results but I kind of figured that my 1/8" hole x 1/4" deep in the base of the boolit may be a problem with accuracy? I'm not sure that I could get the hole perfectly centered. They are 230 and 340 grain boolits, but it would still make a dfference? Guess I could go to hollow points? I will shoot some next week anyway, to see the pattern. Thanks for your input. It's one of those things you already know, but were looking for someone to say it's OK!!

[Oreo]

Yea, doing it your way you'd need something like a hollow point or even a hollow base. There still may be trouble in threading a screw into the hollow cavity if it distorts the bullet/cavity too much.

[badbill2]

I played around with my drill press and made a jig to securely hold the boolit upside down and inserted a tip of a center punch in my jig and tap the naked bullet down to indent the back of the boolit just enough to center my 1/8' drill bit.turn it back up and drill it a 1/4" deep. Made several and it seems to perfectly center the small hole. I'm OK with this. The weight of the cut out is about 4 grains which would probably be close to the weight of the PC. I don't think the charge will no the difference. Going to try it out today. Your point well taken. I don't use hollow points but I believe there could be a problem with distortion.

Thanks for your input. Have you noticed that the consistency or compounds that HB uses in their "Matt Black Powder" reacts different to the temperatures? I have had to lower my pre-heat and cooking temps and time to achieve a perfect bullet.

[Wayne Smith]

By drilling a hole in the back of the boolit you are pushing the balance point forward. One of the advantages of the HP and a reason they are more accurate is because this pushes the balance point backward. You are accomplishing the opposite. How will this affect bullet stability?

[badbill2]

I wouldn't argue that factor, however I would assume that the balance point of a bullet depends on it's style, type and overall weight. All will shoot different in a different gun. 4 grains on a 340 grain LRN boolit seems like a minimal variable, but we'll find out. The reson I enjoy this so much is that there is always something popping up.

[Freightman]

let us know about the range trip and take pictures sounds interesting

[dverna]

It also depends on how you define accuracy. At pistol ranges, hand held, with the size bullets you are using, you may not notice much of an effect. At 200 yards, 2000+ fps, with a bullet under 200 gr, shooting off a bench, results will be different.

Don Verna

[badbill2]

No doubt about distance. I really enjoy casting and reloading. Hold my own with a rifle but pistol shooting at any thing beyond 50 ft. is out of my league and I think I'm too old to improve. I kind of justify my accuracy to shooting deer and hogs within 100 yds. with open sights. That 6" plastic plate is my judge. So far so good. The PC is new to me and I am very close to having a process that is fairly quick, very economical and produces Boolits that you can brag about. Sizers for my new loads will be in next week and that will be the proof of the pudding. If the Lee sizers will adjust for .004 oversize, I think I will be in good shape. by the way, I said before that I have tried just about all the discussed methods and so far this is where I got to. The "piglet" method was my last endeavor and it was a bit too messy and I just couldn't get the quality I was looking for but like someone else said " experimentation will breed nothing but knowledge.

[dverna]

badbill2

You are looking at it the correct way. What is important is what works for you and meets your needs.

Many people do not consider that. They think everyone should do things their way and get their underwear in a knot over silly stuff. Heck, I used to be just as ignorant.

But even when I knew everything, I realized that feeding my varmint rifle was a lot different than loading my Bullseye gun.

I recenly made the same mistake with a gentleman on accuracy on a rifle. He was getting 3" groups at 100 yards and I, in my arrogance, thought that sucked. But that was as good as he got with Jacketed - so I was the dufus.

Don Verna

[badbill2]

I'm a happy man tonight. Got my boolit sizers and they sized up my 45's and 45/70's perfect. I was really concerned if they could do it because my process did oversize them around .004 but they did good. Next test is the range.

[badbill2]

Wish I knew how to show pictures! Range results were excellent. No difference in accuracy from my basic cast or factory. I could only shoot at 50 yds. but my iron site 4" group was about as good as I can shoot. Bore was clean and I estimate about 3,000 bullets per 1lb HF PC. Still working on the "Black" PC as it must have some different composition from the other colors.

[Tech2]

If you want to put the hole in the center of the boolit every time you spin the boolit and fix the bit. It draws it to the center.
Hold the boolit in some form of a Collette chucked into a small drill press then take an old drill chuck and mount it to a metal plate. I would use a center drill, install the center drill in the plate mounted chuck then center it under the main chuck. Put a boolit in the Collette , adjust the drill stop and get to work. Or you could use a small lathe.

[popper]

Badbill - just get a HF pin nail gun and pop em in the nose or base. Bend the end in a hook & hang over the oven rack. Much less labor.
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