Boolits Designed for Powder Coating

Just got my new mold from NOE this weekend. It is the HTC452-230 boolit mold designed for hi-tek of powder coating. No lube grooves on these bad boys. After heat cycling and preheating, the keepers rained from this mold. Very happy with it and just wanted to share it with ya'll because I haven't seen a lot of talk about them. I resized them to .452 and they loaded and shot beautifully out of my 1911, one pass through with a bore snake and the barrel was clean. Check these molds out if you coat exclusively. Now if I can just get a mold like this in a H&G68 pattern. Pictures below.
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Those boolits sure do look pur-dee! If I decide to keep my CZ 97B, I might have to pick up that NOE mould down the line.

I have a similar one from accurate that treats me well also!

I am drooling. I have a 9mm that needs PC bullets without lube grooves. Can't afford new molds so I am going to carefully ream and polish out the lube groove areas in my molds. At least one of them. I think that plain lubed lead boolits for Autoloading pistols is a thing of the past. Once people see how well these non grooved coated bullets work, It is hard to imagine anyone not using them.

oh I can see it.
you still have to make them, and you still have to size them.
powder coating just slows down the process by adding another step in between the two.

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Originally Posted by runfiverun

oh I can see it.
you still have to make them, and you still have to size them.
powder coating just slows down the process by adding another step in between the two.

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My non lube grooved bullets gave me a tangible accuracy edge over bullets with lube grooves.

However, laziness got the best of me and I'm back to greasing with a star. No more shake and bake, pliar picking, setting on mesh, baking........and then sizing. Same for HT except no more acetone use.

I can think of at least one time no lube grooves would be great. Neck tension on a 357 sig is key, not so easy to do with a lube groove. But I hate to tear up a NOE mold to get rid of them. Guess should just buy them that way as only thing I use lube on is what I cast for a conversion cyl in an 1858 remington.

What are these molds going to do to the lube groove market?

Good looking bullet but I don't get the idea that one needs a grooveless bullet to coat. I am not getting rid of any of my molds, just coat instead of lube. They were good shooters with lube & still good shooters coated.

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Originally Posted by fredj338

Good looking bullet but I don't get the idea that one needs a grooveless bullet to coat. I am not getting rid of any of my molds, just coat instead of lube. They were good shooters with lube & still good shooters coated.

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I don't think the idea is that you have to have a grooveless bullet to coat, it's just that it was designed from the ground up to coat. I am not near good enough with my pistol to say for sure that it is more accurate than a traditional bullet. I can say that it did feel different from coating and loading a traditional cast bullet. Smoother somehow, plus the bullets just fly out of the mold without tapping at all half the time. I don't that its going to replace traditional grooved bullets, but if you are buying your first mold and plan to coat exclusively I think they are worth a look. They worked great for me.

PS, I plan on making a killing selling all the extra lube grooves that I have left over now. I think I can corner the market.

I was shooting red(horrible freight) and black coated bullets so I don't know which one was the culprit but I was getting some etching at the cylinder and and chamber area so I went back to greasing with Ben's Red and cured my etching problem.Bottom line I will stay with the Ben's Red.

Just ordered the NOE HTC309-153-SP for my Blackout. I found it by accident because the listing is down at the bottom of the page instead of where the regular molds are. I hope it works as well as yours.

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Originally Posted by foesgth

What are these molds going to do to the lube groove market?

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Well if I was holding any stock in lube groove companies I'd unload them pretty quick! :groner:

I am not buying a powder coat mold...and I use powder coat exclusively, now. But, should I ever want to start back with conventional lube...I want my molds to drop bullets that I could use.

Nice CB's and mold but as I have H&G gang molds as well as a number of others I won't be in the market for another NOE mold anytime soon. But I do like that these molds are out there an work well.

I have done a fair number of PC'd pistol CB's but they added no advantage for me as I have good success with loads using lubed CB's through my Star sizers. PC with rifle is a different story. This has added a new dimension to my loads and shooting.

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Originally Posted by shoot-n-lead

I am not buying a powder coat mold...and I use powder coat exclusively, now. But, should I ever want to start back with conventional lube...I want my molds to drop bullets that I could use.

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My point exactly, I like options & a grooved bullet lets me do what ever I want. I imagine they would be a bit easier to cast though.

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Originally Posted by fredj338

My point exactly, I like options & a grooved bullet lets me do what ever I want. I imagine they would be a bit easier to cast though.

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More groove grabbing bearing surface, easier to cast, higher density aft.

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Originally Posted by Drew P

More groove grabbing bearing surface, easier to cast, higher density aft.

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There is plenty of bearing surface on lube groove bullets.

If you want pc bullet molds fine...but what we have been using works pretty good, too.

Well I was convinced about 9 months ago that the success people were having with hollow based no grooved semi-auto pistol bullets with PC that it would be THE thing. Certainly for me. I have two molds for my 9mm. One is a Lee .358" 117 grain round nose with two grooves. That means not much bearing surface. A perfect candidate for losing the grooves. Especially since it is a single cavity and I only paid $18 for it. The other is a Lee two cavity 124 grain .356" tumble lube grooved round nose. I read that people have had problems with bullet flight with that mold. (I know that being .356" is probably the biggest problem) So I bought it with the idea of reaming out the grooves. I am also going to try and swage a hollow base into these guys. Don't know if that will be successful because I plan on using 12bhn alloy which might be too hard to squish. But in my dreams I am making beautiful "big pellets" that fly straight and never get the gun dirty. The thread that convinced me of this is: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...simple-swaging If you look at it pay special attention to what Forrest r and Wolftracker have posted. Anyway I am a noob and pretty zealous about this. I see now that good ol' lube grooves are here to stay. Especially if they are in the high performance high priced molds. I wouldn't want to mess with a nice brass mold either. But hey, that's what cheep aluminum Lee's are for aren't they?

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Originally Posted by shoot-n-lead

There is plenty of bearing surface on lube groove bullets.

If you want pc bullet molds fine...but what we have been using works pretty good, too.

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if "pretty good" is good enough, then that's all good and well for you. I prefer to strive for the next level.

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Originally Posted by Drew P

if "pretty good" is good enough, then that's all good and well for you. I prefer to strive for the next level.

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Strive all you want...and my will still shoot as well as yours...tough pill to swallow...but, oh, so true.

Since mold makers sell molds specifically targeting "lubes" it makes sense for them now to make molds targeting "powder coating." Smart vendors will offer such. I've suggested this to Lee. Since my Lee 124 boolits are working with very soft lead, I'm ok for now, but having more surface area available to bite the rifling might be a good thing. Curious if anyone here has noticed improvement after grinding off the "micro grooves."

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Originally Posted by shoot-n-lead

Strive all you want...and my will still shoot as well as yours...tough pill to swallow...but, oh, so true.

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Sounds like a challenge to me. Send me some and I'll send you some and we can do some real world testing.

I just ordered this mold, it's back in stock!

https://www.mp-molds.com/e-shop/mold...no-lube-groove

I powder coat all my bullets and have the NOE 9mm Hi-Tek design, but don't really feel compelled to search out any more PC designed / groovesless molds. There are lots of traditional design out there that work already. If anything I'd prefer slightly smaller versions of some of the traditional designs so that when I powder powder coat the final diameter ends up at .358/.359 which would make sizeing slightly easier or optional if in a hurry.

I don't think more bearing surface just for the sake of more bearing is necessarily a good thing.

I have a straight sided mold and I will say the boolits do rain from it easier than most of my others.

I Love my flat side boolit molds!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been playing around with making my own straight sided molds. Started with 60 grn plinkers in 30 and then made several for my 327 (55, 90 & 110 grn). They really do cast much easier (drop right out) with very low reject rates. I use the shorties (60 gr 30 and 55 gr 32) for offhand practice at 30 ft. Off bags, the 30s will stay in one ragged hole at 30 ft from my 10" TC Herrett barrel. Between the two guns, I have sent many hundreds of the shorties down range with BLL for lube with no lead buildup at all.

These are by far the easiest high volume boolits I make.

For heavier 327 loads (still just target shooting, but I need some bang - flash - smack as practice for shooting my 357 max offhand), my ASBB HF Red coating allows me to load as hard as I want with no leading.

I also played around with some 0.224 stuff but could not get it to work in my old 10" 222 barrel.

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Originally Posted by Drew P

if "pretty good" is good enough, then that's all good and well for you. I prefer to strive for the next level.

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I don't think it is a next level just diff level. There is no evidence that a grooveless bullet is more accurate. Shifting weigh to the rear, not really as the bullet is shorter. It's just another way to skin the cat. A bullet with grooves will have slightly less pressure than a solid bullet, less actually bearing surface. So just diff.

I have a .40 cal slick side from another mold maker. Most of the time cast, cut sprue and turn upside down. bullets fall out. don't even have to open the mold blocks. and they PC up really nice. not getting rid of my grooved molds but it is another way to skin the cat.

All my rifle moulds are semi-grooveless, all pistol are normal grooved. They all do great and all are from Accurate (rifle are custom designs). I only coat or T/L. I can use a softer alloy for HV rifle as no grooves to collapse.
Edit: I have the same 168gr GC mould in 'grooveless' and standard for my 308W. I will state I can use a 'weaker' alloy for the 'grooveless and get same accuracy. Difference is about 1% Sb. That's at jacketed fps. So yues there is an improvement but is it worth the cost of 'new' mould - up to you.

My new toy. A 165 gr for my 30 Herrett and IHMSA. I made this one the easy way, I used a Lee "blank" mold. I will probably do the other cavity as a 100 - 110 spitzer for chickens / pigs with the 30 Herrett.

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Originally Posted by finstr

Well if I was holding any stock in lube groove companies I'd unload them pretty quick! :groner:

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I followed your advice and put all my funds from the lube groove companies into buggy whips!

My primary interest is in handguns and I have a number of 9mm & 45 APC loads that out of a Ransom Rest will print under 1.5" at 25 yards using PC bullets with lube grooves. Maybe a non-grooved bullet could tighten that up some, but I don't shoot any better than that and I can't see retiring a mold like my H&G #68 just to buy a new mold.

However, what I believe we need is some under size rifle bullet molds designed for PC bullets that take into account the build up of the coating. With existing molds to size the band and then body to fit the chamber, you have to move a lot of metal, which does not benefit full power loads that are accurate at distance.

https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/..._campaign=0317

Found this test, a bit limited, but, groved bullets came out w smaller groups.

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Originally Posted by Drew P

Sounds like a challenge to me. Send me some and I'll send you some and we can do some real world testing.

I just ordered this mold, it's back in stock!

https://www.mp-molds.com/e-shop/mold...no-lube-groove

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Did you receive it, and how do you like it if so?

I would like to see more mold manufacturers making molds that are about .002" smaller than standard ones. For example .450" instead of .452", which would allow very minimal sizing after Powder Coating.

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Originally Posted by djgoings

I would like to see more mold manufacturers making molds that are about .002" smaller than standard ones. For example .450" instead of .452", which would allow very minimal sizing after Powder Coating.

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I've found that Frankford Arsenal mold release spray will do exactly this for all your molds and allows you to go back to full size anytime you wish.

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Originally Posted by Moonie

I've found that Frankford Arsenal mold release spray will do exactly this for all your molds and allows you to go back to full size anytime you wish.

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Very sorry to revive such an old thread, but...

I have a mold that is throwing 0.005 over size. It should throw .358, but is throwing .363. If it was just two thou smaller, it'd be usable. Does the Frankford Arsenal Mold Release Spray really give you a full two thou smaller bullet? This would truly be wonderful... I love the mold, but the fact that it requires two-step resizing is keeping it on the shelf gathering dust.

Philier, it would be worth a try. When I want to make sure I get an easy release for molds or castings or just to keep the sprue plate and mold clean I use "ANTI-SEIZE TECHNOLOGY 17041 Graphite Spray Dry Aerosol Lubricant, (Net Weight:12 oz.) I purchased it on Amazon. It appears they no longer carry this product, but I would think another vendor selling liquid spray graphite would work as well. I have never measured the build up and doubt it would go .002" unless you do multiple coats.

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Originally Posted by Dragonheart

Philier, it would be worth a try. When I want to make sure I get an easy release for molds or castings or just to keep the sprue plate and mold clean I use "ANTI-SEIZE TECHNOLOGY 17041 Graphite Spray Dry Aerosol Lubricant, (Net Weight:12 oz.) I purchased it on Amazon. It appears they no longer carry this product, but I would think another vendor selling liquid spray graphite would work as well. I have never measured the build up and doubt it would go .002" unless you do multiple coats.

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Thanks, Dragonheart, I may just give it a try. I do have some graphite-in-suspension spray I could use. But I've been a bit concerned about the possibility of closing off the vents if I use enough of it to noticeably decrease the boolit diameter.

Nothing lost by trying it, though.. mold is just gathering dust anyway.

I have a Mihec 358-140 NLG mold. After heating up the boolits release from the mold in a heartbeat. It is amazing how much easier they fall out without the grooves.Attachment 252250