Why didn't I try Hi-Tek before!!

[AbitNutz]

Man, if I hadn't been so set in my ways...I tried Hi-tek for the soul reason of trying to get cast bullets to run through my bullet feeder. That was a mistake. So far, this stuff is far superior to traditional casting, sizing and lubrication, it isn't funny. They also happen to run through my GSI bullet feeder perfectly.

It's been an epiphany for me. This is the way cast bullets need to be treated and I doubt I'll ever go back to traditional sizing/lubing again.

[farmerjim]

Hi-Tek is good stuff. Fast, cheep, and works great.

[AbitNutz]

I ordered a mold from Magma for my Master Caster. It's the old H&G #68 design, SWC, BB but No-groove. For some weird reason I thought that the lack of grease grooves were not only a good idea but pretty much required...no idea why. Then I sent it to Hollow Point Mold Service and had it turned into a hollow point. I did that for a couple of reasons. 1, I like hollow points. 2, I wanted to lighten it up to offset the lack of grease grooves. 3, I wanted to make sure it was base heavy to ensure my GSI bullet collator fed it bottom down as much as possible....and so far, it does all of those things.

It also shoots really well out of my 45 Longslide. It feeds great...H&G #68's usually do and despite me, it's pretty accurate.

Man, anyone who has a bullet feeder and wants to run cast bullets, Hi-Tek coated bullets are the way to go.

[Echd]

I use the MBF feeder and also have found Hitek to be a godsend for mass production.

[Ausglock]

Welcome to what Australian shooters have been enjoying for over 20 years. Clean, in-expensive reloading and shooting.

[dilly]

I personally do powder coating more but to me it sounds like it's easy to do it all faster with Hi-Tek for a big batch.

[DerekP Houston]

I personally do powder coating more but to me it sounds like it's easy to do it all faster with Hi-Tek for a big batch.

that's the appeal to me, faster than pc'ing and I don't have to pick up each boolit and stand em up.

[B. Lumpkin]

The only bummer is having to use 2 coats for HI-tek. Even then, it is faster than PC for me.

[pcmacd]

Can we see a photo of the bullet?

[castalott]

Mea culpa here... I tried Hi Tek a year or 2 ago and failed miserably. Put it up and 2 years later was ready to throw it away and said. "Once more..." Reread all the instructions and started in. Thinned the stuff down.

The first coat, even after baked, I could barely tell any was on it. ( Here were my multiple mistakes earlier- too thick, not dry before baking, not baking completely done).

The second coat had splotches of color and yes most of the bullet looked like there was something sticking to it.

The 3rd coat looks like everyone else's pictures. Nice even coat...very durable. Shoots well in 222 Remington at 1975 FPS. No leading or fouling in my gun.

Now I have tried most everything lube wise... pan lubing, RCBS sizer, Lee Alox (with the 4 or 5 mixes that work really good) , ( still have 2 ) star sizers ( and a Phelps), powder coating, and of course the Lee sizer dies.

My favorite system today is Hi Tek with Lee sizers.

A few observations , good , bad, and indifferent

The Hi Tek eliminated leading in my pistols. It will remove leading there from something else. But lacking time and replaceable lead , I buy my plinkers now. I still have this in reserve...

I don't coat my 30 caliber (think rifle) plinkers. Run them thru a Star and grease them then or Lee coat them and they work fine at 1100 FPS. Higher velocity stuff I am going to work on sometime and I am sure it will be PC or Hi Tek.

Whew! A long post- sorry

Dale

[AbitNutz]

Mea culpa here... I tried Hi Tek a year or 2 ago and failed miserably. Put it up and 2 years later was ready to throw it away and said. "Once more..." Reread all the instructions and started in. Thinned the stuff down.

The first coat, even after baked, I could barely tell any was on it. ( Here were my multiple mistakes earlier- too thick, not dry before baking, not baking completely done).

The second coat had splotches of color and yes most of the bullet looked like there was something sticking to it.

The 3rd coat looks like everyone else's pictures. Nice even coat...very durable. Shoots well in 222 Remington at 1975 FPS. No leading or fouling in my gun.

Now I have tried most everything lube wise... pan lubing, RCBS sizer, Lee Alox (with the 4 or 5 mixes that work really good) , ( still have 2 ) star sizers ( and a Phelps), powder coating, and of course the Lee sizer dies.

My favorite system today is Hi Tek with Lee sizers.

A few observations , good , bad, and indifferent

The Hi Tek eliminated leading in my pistols. It will remove leading there from something else. But lacking time and replaceable lead , I buy my plinkers now. I still have this in reserve...

I don't coat my 30 caliber plinkers. Run them thru a Star and grease them then or Lee coat them and they work fine at 1100 FPS. Higher velocity stuff I am going to work on sometime and I am sure it will be PC or Hi Tek.

Whew! A long post- sorry

Dale

I agree...best way to go is a Lee sizer with the press mounted upside down. Or something that you can drop the bullet down into. I use an old 3-ram Pacific Super Mag mounted upside down off a steel plate. I can do three bullets at once, using 3 Lee sizing dies.

[Ausglock]

Ummm.... have you checked that each of those Lee Sizer dies are the exact same dia?
They do vary a lot from die to die, even if they are stamped 356. I have 3 that are .3555, .356, .3572 respectively.

[AbitNutz]

Shockingly enough they are all exactly .451.

[castalott]

I can only measure the boolets ( not the inside of the die itself) but usually they are off a little. Always thought it was me.... they all run small...

Dale

[fredj338]

I am an old guy, slow to change. It took me a lot of reading to come around to coated bullets. Either HT or PC, both are superior to conventional lead as far as less smoke, less sludge in the gun & comparable accuracy out to 50yds. I won't toss my Star just yet, but it get used less & less.

[AbitNutz]

The only reason I tried it and became a believer was because I was forced to try it. I needed to try and get something besides jacketed bullets to run through my GSI bullet feeder. The GSI is a fine piece of engineering but cast bullets are a nightmare. I needed a lot less expensive bullets to run through it than jacketed, otherwise I was going to have to remove it.

I decided to try HI-Tek coated bullets because I tripped over their website and it stated that it let cast bullets run through bullet feeders. "What this means to you? No messy wax lubes that smoke, gums up your reloading dies or bullet feeders." That one line and the hope of saving my bullet feeder made me try it.

I ordered a bullet mold for my Magma Master Caster. It was a H&G #68 200 grain SWC BB smooth no-groove design. I sent it to Hollow Point Mold Service and had a nice large hollow point put in it. I cast up a bunch, which were perfect from the start, sized them to .451 and test ran them through my Dillon 650/GSI. They ran like gold. Then I coated them with Hi-Tek. They ran even better!

Then I tested them in a Kimber 45 acp I had. They were super accurate and ran through the gun perfectly. Unfortunately, I ran into a hiccup in the gun I needed them to work in. It had nothing to do with the Hi-Tek coating but the bullet design I was committed to. The kart barrel was not throated for this type of bullet. In fact, it was not throated for any bullet.

I sent the barrel to DougGuy today so he could cut one of his killer throats into it. I can't wait till I get it back. This pistol is a longslide widebody Para-Ordnance, that has a Magnaported Kart 45 acp barrel. It's been modified to shoot a steady diet of 45 super. It has shot thousands of 45 super level rounds with nothing but happiness. I look forward to continuing that using a bullet feeder only with A LOT LESS EXPENSIVE BULLETS! Thank god I'm not going to go broke feeding it anymore.

[Coopaloop86]

I use Hi-Tek on all of my rifle boolits with zero leading, even when pushing velocity thresholds.

[ioon44]

I personally do powder coating more but to me it sounds like it's easy to do it all faster with Hi-Tek for a big batch.

I tried the PC first then went to Hi-Tek, I found the over all time involved per 500 bullets is less than with PC.

[leadman]

The Hi-Tek is the faster coating for larger batches of boolits. It also allows a slight gain in velocity over a wax lubed boolit when velocity is close to the strength of the alloy.
I ran the Lee Bator 22 caliber boolit cast of linotype and heat treated to over 3,600 fps with no leading. Accuracy had started to open up after about 3,000 fps but was still just over 2". This was beyond jacketed velocity.

[jmort]

Question for the Hi Tek users, does it add dimension to bullets as does PC? With PC you get +.002" more or less. What about Hi Tek?

[Beagle333]

Hi-Tek adds less to the diameter. Think of it more as a stain than a coating. Some of the colors with more solids (such as red-copper) add a little more (close to .002") than other colors. Some add as little as .0002"
PC is always going to add .002"±, because it is a true coating.

[jmort]

Thank you for clarifying that. I have never done Hi Tek. PC has been very good to me and I especially like the added dimension. Saves screwing around with molds that are less than optimum size wise. They can be put to goods use with PC.