John Ross needs .500 S&W bullet powdercoating help

[John Ross]

I have not done any load development with the .500 S&W lately, other than providing loading data to people for specific pressure levels and powders. I've been spending every available moment working on my new book, which is why I'm asking for help.

I've read quite a bit on powder coating bullets, but the stickied thread is well over 100 pages long, so I'll ask the specific question here, and perhaps someone can point to a post that has already answered what I want to know. I'll eventually get around to doing the experimenting myself, but for now, I need something plausible to include in my story.

Has anyone gained any experience at powder coating large, pure lead (or nearly so) bullets with large hollow points in the .500? Specifically, I'm referring to the Grand Canyon HP mold from Miha, with that 1 inch long HP pin.

Ideally, the bullet needs to flow and not shatter when it hits either an animal or any relatively soft target, such as dirt, softwood, water, phone books, etc.

Recommendations?

[Gamsek]

https://www.mp-molds.com/tipstricks/powder-coating-lead-bullets-dry-tumble-dt-method/

I use this powdercoating method as I find it the easiest and powders. It works from .32 to .500.
All you need to know to be successful from the first try.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/179b32907f7ad89f9c055cd889fa13ba.plist

[475AR]

I have not done any load development with the .500 S&W lately, other than providing loading data to people for specific pressure levels and powders. I've been spending every available moment working on my new book, which is why I'm asking for help.

I've read quite a bit on powder coating bullets, but the stickied thread is well over 100 pages long, so I'll ask the specific question here, and perhaps someone can point to a post that has already answered what I want to know. I'll eventually get around to doing the experimenting myself, but for now, I need something plausible to include in my story.

Has anyone gained any experience at powder coating large, pure lead (or nearly so) bullets with large hollow points in the .500? Specifically, I'm referring to the Grand Canyon HP mold from Miha, with that 1 inch long HP pin.

Ideally, the bullet needs to flow and not shatter when it hits either an animal or any relatively soft target, such as dirt, softwood, water, phone books, etc.

Recommendations?
I went the Hi-Tec coating route, but have coated several pure lead HP bullets and driven them to 900-1000 fps and expansion is impressive. With the bullet you speak of it should be massive expansion depending on velocity. How fast are you looking to run them at?

[Gamsek]

Use pure lead and tin, no more then 5% tin. I would suggest 2-3% tin for maximum expansion without fragmentation.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/53da0a99a7b112d82203db920d02d857.plist
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/5b9c2737cc9ad40e022c8a873f7175b6.plist
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/5af4a5d067cc9ee273410648e5f1b538.plist
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/40462624401df5e66ee0770a4011447e.jpg

[John Ross]

Great pics! What temperature are you guys using for baking the coating onto the bullet? Do you use a convection oven, or does it matter?

Second, does anyone have the exact length of the Mihec 600 grain T-Rex bullet? I'm not near my shop. IIRC it's a little over 1.150"

I'm looking for 1000-1350 FPS, depending on what works best.

[Gamsek]

Convection oven = better air flow but please read the complete info in the link, everything you need to know is inside.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/e705f4f9c478a914716f1bb73f3c0c9f.jpg
And if you will not buy from Smoke4320, try Eastwood FordLightBlue PC as a start.

[Petander]

Second, does anyone have the exact length of the Mihec 600 grain T-Rex bullet? I'm not near my shop. IIRC it's a little over 1.150"



Hello John,

my soft (BHN ~8) alloy gives a 1.215" long bullet weighing 614 grains with a .5015" diameter. My hard (BHN ~16) alloy gives 1.210" , 602 grains and .505" ,respectively.

Those numbers are as coated, I do Hi Tek and I just cast a bunch of hard ones a few days ago but I have not sized / loaded any of those hard bullets yet. Kinda makes me think about reaming the cylinder throats first...

Soft ones I've shot quite a bunch from a 3" barrel using Vihtavuori N110, Redding profile crimp. A little past 1000 fps, I need to check that.


Markku from Finland

https://i.postimg.cc/qqy1GRpZ/IMG-20201030-201524-781.jpg.


EDIT: found this, yes ~1200 fps VV N110.

https://i.postimg.cc/ht0r26TM/IMG-20201030-WA0002.jpg

[Warhawk]

Convection oven = better air flow but please read the complete info in the link, everything you need to know is inside.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201030/e705f4f9c478a914716f1bb73f3c0c9f.jpg
And if you will not buy from Smoke4320, try Eastwood FordLightBlue PC as a start.

Is that the “Ford Blue” powder? From what I’ve read it seems to flow better and more even than other colors.

[Gamsek]

Is that the “Ford Blue” powder? From what I’ve read it seems to flow better and more even than other colors.

Smokes Carolina Blue. Same or similar. Great one

[ddixie884]

Cool HP expansion........

[Gunslinger1911]

I have coated basically pure lead SWC's for 357, haven't gotten around to it for the 500 yet.
Around 1000 f/s had no issues.
Call me a purist, I like Smokes clear. Coats well with a minimum of fuss, looks like a shiny lead boolet when done.
Smoke will sell you 4 quarter lb bags of different colors for the lb price if you wanna experiment.
I have used convection and reg ovens, just get the coated slug to ~400 deg, cook for 20 min, yer good to go.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

The basics are pretty straightforward. I never like baking the boolits on the wire mesh so this is what I use in a heavy, shallow baking pan; https://www.amazon.com/Teflon-Sheet-Transfer-Reusable-Resistant/dp/B07H55M1ZR/ref=asc_df_B07H55M1ZR/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242118228879&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8381883236675612093&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019786&hvtargid=pla-525294599958&psc=1

I wear a nitrile glove to pick up the boolits and set them basedown on the teflon sheet. The hollow points might fill up with powder coat so you may want to plug them with something before shaking them. Maybe little wads of tissue that you could remove with a tweezers before baking. The teflon sheet can be purchased at Michael's craft store too.

[contender1]

John, I have been PCing bullets for quite a while. I have not done any .500's as I do not own any. I do have (3) .480 Rugers. I use a lot of Miha's molds too. I cast solids, HP's & Pentas.
I use a simple method of PCing, and have recovered many bullets afterwards.
I use a vibrating tumbler to PC. I dump them into a colander after tumbling for about 20 minutes. (I use Smoke's powders.) I have a plastic pan to catch my excess powder. I shake off the excess. I do pay attention to any of the HP designs, to make sure I don't have any with gummed up, or packed HP's.
I dump them onto a pan, covered with non-stick aluminum foil. Shake gently to spread around. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.
My alloy runs about 12-14 BNH.
When loading them, I enjoy the 1000-1200 fps normally.
I have had excellent results in expansion in softer mediums. I haven't recovered any from game, due to complete penetration. I have NOT shot any truly hard skinned, heavy muscled animals either, so my experience there is zilch!
PCing also acts as a bit of annealing of harder bullets,, which assists in lead flow vs. separation.

This is all I can offer.

[Intel6]

I PC all of my .500 bullets including a large "bigmouth" hollowpoint. It is not out of the MiHa mould but the NOE mould. It is their HTC502-694-FN mould with the very long HP pin installed. I usually cast the .500 bullets out of harder metal but the HP version of the "big" bullet I specifically cast out of pure lead. I have loaded and shot some of them but not in anything that will test its expansion.

You can see it loaded in a case in the pic below:

L to R:

Lee 440 bullet PC'd and loaded to upper crimp groove to denote "plinking" load

Same Lee bullet loaded to lower crimp groove to denote full power loading

NOE HTC502-694-FN cast with pure lead using the long HP pin and PC'd 580 gr. finished weight

NOE HTC502-694-FN using the flat pin PC'd 693 gr. finished weight.


270535

[Warhawk]

I PC all of my .500 bullets including a large "bigmouth" hollowpoint. It is not out of the MiHa mould but the NOE mould. It is their HTC502-694-FN mould with the very long HP pin installed. I usually cast the .500 bullets out of harder metal but the HP version of the "big" bullet I specifically cast out of pure lead. I have loaded and shot some of them but not in anything that will test its expansion.

You can see it loaded in a case in the pic below:

L to R:

Lee 440 bullet PC'd and loaded to upper crimp groove to denote "plinking" load

Same Lee bullet loaded to lower crimp groove to denote full power loading

NOE HTC502-694-FN cast with pure lead using the long HP pin and PC'd 580 gr. finished weight

NOE HTC502-694-FN using the flat pin PC'd 693 gr. finished weight.


270535

Do you mind sharing your plinking loads?

[S.B.]

Is there or has there ever been any evidence of powder coated bullets doing damage or tainting meat in harvested animals? JR(OP) it's good to see evidence you're still dong your thing!
Curious? By the way, I still own #22 but, as I get older don't shoot/hunt as much but, still a blast to own and shoot.
Steve

[DougGuy]

don't make them so big they won't go through the throats without stripping the coating.