Powdercoating In Barrel

[Capt Keith]

The powdercoat has fixed any leading issues, but now I have streaks of powdercoat in my barrel. Anything I should be concerned with?

[Adam20]

First thing i would check is bullet sizing, i would not want to deal with powder coat built up in bore.
Lets see if we can help you fix the problem.
What gun are you using and barrel condition, what alloy, what loads and velocity. sizing of bullet.

[Carrier]

Yup it’s either the powder you are using, not baking right or both or bullet size. That happened to me with a 686 before I started powder coating myself. Bought some pc bullets at a gun show, loaded and had red streaks that was a devil to get out. Turns out it was harbour freight powder. None of the Eastwood powder I use leaves any trace.

[charlie b]

Use something with acetone to get out any powder. I usually use Ed's Red solvent and it will soften/dissolve any residual PC.

[farmbif]

knowing very little about powder coat but have experience with many kinds of paints, like Charlie says, acetone--dissolves any kind of paint ive ever encountered, but drys very very fast in summer heat. wonder if lacquer thinner would cut though/remove baked on powder coatings?

[FLINTNFIRE]

Sounds like a curing issue not a size issue

[Capt Keith]

Ok, here are details. I’m shooting a .457 Airforce Texan air rifle. It is shooting a 200 grain cast boolit (soft lead at 9 BHN) at 900 fps. All boolits have been sized both before and after powdercoating. The powdercoat is Smoke’s, and all smash tests have been good. The streaks aren’t much, primarily a little color in the grooves.

[Carrier]

Ok, here are details. I’m shooting a .457 Airforce Texan air rifle. It is shooting a 200 grain cast boolit (soft lead at 9 BHN) at 900 fps. All boolits have been sized both before and after powdercoating. The powdercoat is Smoke’s, and all smash tests have been good. The streaks aren’t much, primarily a little color in the grooves.


I only have experience with gunpowder fire arms and powder coating. No clue what an air rifle with powder coated bullets would do but am interested of what the outcome is.

[charlie b]

I wouldn't worry about it then. Just clean it out after a shooting session.

[slim1836]

Have you run a bore scope down the barrel? Just curious.

Slim

[Smoke4320]

As said above it's usually a cure or sizing issue.. usually someone trying low temp cure via YouTube instructions.. looks good not so good in practice I. Our application
If it is powdercoat residue bore tech Eliminator is the only product we have found to get it relatively quickly

[Smoke4320]

PS. If minor streaking you are probably fine. More shots will remove that and or move to different area. What you want to really look out for is a buildup ie is the streaking getting worse getting ...building up ...getting thicker
Hard for me to convey everything here.. I type bad and slow. If you want to discuss in detail please call me 10 am to 6pm EST in the shop. Will be happy to drill down to find the solution

[Smoke4320]

I have the same airgun
Mine like the RCBS 45 300 and the NOE 460 350 hp sized to 457

[charlie b]

It is still weird to hear people discuss large caliber bullets for airguns :)

[slim1836]

They make them about 7 miles from me and I've yet to stop and visit.

Slim

[Forrest r]

Smoke is spot on as usual.

Before I went to a pid controller the pc would sometimes be under cured from the heat being off along with me being in a hurry and doing a minimum cure time. Now I use the same pid that I use for casting to control the toaster oven and I use 20 minute cure times for every batch.

World of difference!!!!

I use bore-tech eliminator also, it flat out works.

[Conditor22]

Bake the PC for at least 25 minutes at 400° in a preheated oven.

Test the oven with a thermometer to make sure it is actually reaching 400° adjust the setting until it does.

[dahermit]

Sounds like a curing issue not a size issue

Yes. I ran into that with a not-cured-long-enough batch of bullets coated with Carolina Blue. Baked them a little longer and it never happened again.

[hoodat]

My first attempt at PC didn't work too well. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing -- happened to be at Harbor Freight, and picked up a jar of white PC. (only one they had)

I used the shake and bake method (Elvis- YouTube) coated a batch of 125 gr. sized at .357". Loaded them with a fairly moderate load for my 9mm. (Beretta 92FS)

Welllll--- I took them up the hill and banged away for awhile, and caked my barrel up sump thin awful. :-(

The stupid thing about this story, is that instead of testing a couple dozen, and seeing how they did, I loaded up about 300 of them. It was a load that I'd used before with Alox, and I didn't figure there would be a problem.

The crusty barrel cleaned up pretty easily with just a bronze brush, so I guess that's gonna be with me for my range sessions until I get these burned up.

My next PC adventure is gonna be preceded by a talk with Smoke and purchasing some of his powder. jd

[popper]

I started with the HF white and red, spraying - worked fine. IIRC the white was more brittle than red. I don't bother with HF anymore.

[charlie b]

Good decision.

I was a bit more cautious when I tried HF white powder back in the beginning. I could barely get it to stick, but, at least I only loaded 10 rounds. Didn't get any bad lead in the barrel so I was lucky.

Then bought some Eastwood Ford Light Blue and was hooked. Now I order from Smoke.