powder coating and bullet hardness

[jacobslagle018]

So in my research of .223 casting I noticed that hardness is a big factor. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if baking powder coat reduces hardness. I quench all bullets I cast in cool water while casting. Previous threads show that quenched ww alloy will be in the mid twenties for hardness. Now this is good for .223 range. Now when baking my powder coat, these will be in the oven at 410 for 20 minutes. Will this heat cause my bullets to lose hardness? If so, would quenching right after I take them out restore the hardness? If quenching will not help, would there be another way to increase the hardness of these bullets? Sorry for a million questions but thanks for your time and help everyone.

[dilly]

You're right that the slow heating and cooling will lose the temper from quenching. A solution is to requench (why bother the first time in this case) after you're done curing the powder coat.

However, I think there is still more trial and error to be done before we know with certainty the exact effects of hardness on powder coated boolits. Some people hypothesize that hardness is no longer relevant, but I'm not ready to believe that quite yet.

[Love Life]

Hardness should still very much be relevant. I use a different coating process, and hardness is very relevant in my hot rodded 10mm and 357 magnum loads. I water quench after baking and size immediately. I then let the bullets sit for a week before using for those applications.

[KYShooter73]

For my rifle boolits, I transfer them directly from the oven and gently lower pan and all into cool water.

[bangerjim]

Pre-coating quench is a waste of time as most/all of the hardness you gained will be lost in the PC baking. If you are using standard commercial powders like Harbor Freight or PBTP, you only need to use 400F for 10 minutes. I have done thousands of them like that with perfect coats and NO LEADING.

You can quench after PC baking to gain some back. But cooling from ~700F as opposed to 400F is not the same in the hardening process.

I mix all my alloys to be what I want without worrying about quenching. Saves a lot of time and fussing around.

banger

[totalloser]

Before going to powder coating, I water dropped to get hardness I required for higher pressure 9mm/.40 and though I did get the needed hardness, variation was significant. Oven heat and quench should be much more consistent. For my application it didn't matter since variations affected accuracy quite minimally and I avoided gas cutting.

.223 obviously will be a different animal, but probably the hardness issue will revolve around bullet deformation from pressure forces rather than issues of gas cutting. Which is pretty much the same story in general with PC as I understand it. Direct impingement systems (most .223 rifles ) might merit extra caution for exposure though. I have some doubts due to lead styphnate versus elemental, but still might merit efforts to coat the base.

[popper]

WD from the mould is NOT 700F, more like 450-500F. WD after baking works, I use ~45min. and tap water. I say approx. as I just set the timer for 1 hr and take them out when I get around to it. You should have a tad of arsenic in the alloy to HT.

[jacobslagle018]

Looks like I will have to do some experiments for the forum when everything arrives. I just want cheep rounds for friends to plunk with. I am nit going for crazy accuracy. Besides most people that shoot with me wouldn't hit far out anyway

[jacobslagle018]

So the mold came in today. I got some good results so far. I am waiting on gas checks to arrive before I move on. My next question is powder. Right now I have h355, variety, and imr 4895. Are any of those good options? The only store within a 2 hour drive has no powder at the moment so I hope I'm not out of luck.

[bangerjim]

I load a 223 for 22LR speeds. Nice load, good accuracy, no recoil. PC with no GC. No leading. Everything I shoot subsonic is 9-10 Bhn and powder coated.
This is NOT in a AR........I only shoot long guns and revolvers/pistols.

I use 3.5gn of TightGroup with Dacron wading. There are many other powders out there you can use if you are not going for full rifle or AR speed and performance! Check the loading manuals.

bangerjim

[runfiverun]

try 18 or so grains of the 4895.
some use a piece of Dacron to help with velocity variations.
at 25 yds you ain't gonna notice them.
the 18 gr load should operate most ar rifles.
the 335 would work also but you will have to push your speeds higher or have to deal with some dirty powder residue.