lead bullets coated with polymer paint

[Ausglock]

Talking to HI-TEK today. He said that baking for an hour will only cause the coating to turn black. then dropping them into water will not hurt the coating.

Also. I tried the HI-TEK 500 Super mold release tonight. Bloody fantastic stuff. spray it on the mold cavities and bottom of the sprue plate and the bullets fall out under their own weight. I cast perfect bullets from cold lee 6 cavity mold on the first pour.

Great stuff.

[leadman]

The range session was somewhat successful. As the velocity of the Hi-Tek coated boolits rose and hit 2,000 fps I had about a dozen flakes of lead on the patch. Accuracy had also started to slip but I thought I might as well continue so I did. The next 5 shots did not produce any leading at all so I continued until the velocity was over 2,300 fps. At this point there was still no leading in the barrel but the boolits were starting to miss the 100 yard targets. I also noticed there was quite a bit of light gray "smoke" when fired. The guy next to me asked If I was firing black powder! LOL. I do not blame this on the Hi-Tek coating but on my soft boolits. My tester is broke but these were either 8 or 11 BHN. Even with these conditions a patch pushed easy thru the bore and showed no leading.
Tomorrow I am casting some boolits from linotype and will re-shoot the test.
I also tested the Lee 180 and 200 gr 30 cal. boolits coated with Hi-Tek in my 1903a3 Smith Corona sporter and had excellent accuracy and barrel is still shiny. These were 1,550 fps max loads but some groups were under 1".

[Cue]

See my posts here using the coated bullets in my AR

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...27#post2259627

[redrockant]

A quick update on my casting coating so far. First batch with Hi-Tech came out dark brown after 11 mins. Wife told me they were over cooked. Spoke with Joe wife was right. Second batch tonight 8 minute cook emerald green beauties. Passing the shatter test and acetone test with ease. Resize to .356. off to shoot tomorrow.

[Jumbopanda]

The range session was somewhat successful. As the velocity of the Hi-Tek coated boolits rose and hit 2,000 fps I had about a dozen flakes of lead on the patch. Accuracy had also started to slip but I thought I might as well continue so I did. The next 5 shots did not produce any leading at all so I continued until the velocity was over 2,300 fps. At this point there was still no leading in the barrel but the boolits were starting to miss the 100 yard targets. I also noticed there was quite a bit of light gray "smoke" when fired. The guy next to me asked If I was firing black powder! LOL. I do not blame this on the Hi-Tek coating but on my soft boolits. My tester is broke but these were either 8 or 11 BHN. Even with these conditions a patch pushed easy thru the bore and showed no leading.
Tomorrow I am casting some boolits from linotype and will re-shoot the test.
I also tested the Lee 180 and 200 gr 30 cal. boolits coated with Hi-Tek in my 1903a3 Smith Corona sporter and had excellent accuracy and barrel is still shiny. These were 1,550 fps max loads but some groups were under 1".

With or without gas checks?

[Jumbopanda]

Talking to HI-TEK today. He said that baking for an hour will only cause the coating to turn black. then dropping them into water will not hurt the coating.

Also. I tried the HI-TEK 500 Super mold release tonight. Bloody fantastic stuff. spray it on the mold cavities and bottom of the sprue plate and the bullets fall out under their own weight. I cast perfect bullets from cold lee 6 cavity mold on the first pour.

Great stuff.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, heat treating is a no-go if using the coating because heat treating would require that the bullets be baked in the over for over an hour, which far exceeds the recommended amount of time to cure the coating. And if you were to heat treat first then coat later, the heat used to cure the coating would simply undo the heat treatment.

I guess it doesn't really matter though, since the coating is designed to act like a jacket, thereby eliminating the need for a very hard bullet.

I exchanged a couple of emails with Donnie and asked about using the coating on rifle bullets. He responded by saying that he had heard of customers shooting bullets at 2400 fps (presumably without a gas check) and 2700 fps with a gas check. He also stated that, "I would recommend either the Gold or the Red Copper it has a higher solids content."

[Ausglock]

So if I'm understanding this correctly, heat treating is a no-go if using the coating because heat treating would require that the bullets be baked in the over for over an hour, which far exceeds the recommended amount of time to cure the coating. And if you were to heat treat first then coat later, the heat used to cure the coating would simply undo the heat treatment.

I guess it doesn't really matter though, since the coating is designed to act like a jacket, thereby eliminating the need for a very hard bullet.

I exchanged a couple of emails with Donnie and asked about using the coating on rifle bullets. He responded by saying that he had heard of customers shooting bullets at 2400 fps (presumably without a gas check) and 2700 fps with a gas check. He also stated that, "I would recommend either the Gold or the Red Copper it has a higher solids content."

Ummm... No. The coating can be cooked for an hour without hurting it.
Then dump in the water to quench.

[Jumbopanda]

Ummm... No. The coating can be cooked for an hour without hurting it.
Then dump in the water to quench.

But I don't want my pretty gold bullets to turn black.

[Whizzer]

Ummm... No. The coating can be cooked for an hour without hurting it.
Then dump in the water to quench.

So then Ausglock, is this what you do for your rifle loads? I couldn't care less if heat treating Hi-Tek coated boolits makes them turn darker. Just so they don't lead at moderate rifle velocites.

I expect my Red-Copper to show up today. This weekend, I'll probably coat some Lee 150 grain 30-30's meant for a gas check that I've had sitting around for a while...then heat treat 'em and smash a few. If they pass, I'll file some flat and run them through my Cabine Tree hardness tester and see what happens. If they harden back up to the same or nearly the same as before the Hi-Tek baking, they oughta work, I'd think.

They were cast from straight wheel weights, if I remember correctly. I cast them before I'd ever considered labelling the alloy. (Slow learner, I guess. And I mispeel sertain words sometines.)

[leadman]

I had gas checks on the boolits I tested.
The next test will be with and without gas checks. I want to include some 22 cal. boolits also.
Hope Redding gets my hardness tester back to me soon. I was in the middle of testing the effects of the baking the coating on the boolits when it gave up.

[popper]

11 minutes won't anneal lead CBs very much. Not long enough and probably the lead won't get very high in temp. 350F for an hour will. WD should be good as is, or HT. Size then coat later. Tin in the alloy may cause more softening.

[garym1a2]

This does not match what I was told by HiTech when I had issues from overcooking. Quote from Joe at HiTec was
"The first impression is that you may have over cooked & far too long.
As general rule, coatings require 5-8 minutes at 190C.
At 200C it is more like 4-6 , minutes. How did you measure temperatures?
Time is dependent on good air circulation & metal loading as well.
There are a number of things that may have caused leading.
Can you please advise what alloy/Lead you are using?
"

I got good results with the Blackout run and not so good from the 9mm, the 9mm was cooked about 15-20 minutes. I have not yet tried again with the recommended profile but I had recommendations from both Hitec and Donnie on cooking profile and an hour will make the stuff I got flake.

Ummm... No. The coating can be cooked for an hour without hurting it.
Then dump in the water to quench.

[Thompsoncustom]

You guys think I need a different basket? My bullets have to be put in the oven for 15mins to pass the acetone test but they seem to be getting a touch to dark and I want the best looking bullet possible

[Ausglock]

So then Ausglock, is this what you do for your rifle loads? I couldn't care less if heat treating Hi-Tek coated boolits makes them turn darker. Just so they don't lead at moderate rifle velocites.

Sorry Whizzer. I only make pistol bullets.
I'll check with my mate that does 303 rifle bullets as to what he actually does with his. But I'm certain he uses 92,6,2, alloy 15 BHN without gas checks.

[Ausglock]

This does not match what I was told by HiTech when I had issues from overcooking.

As I don't do rifle bullets, you may have to try it and see what happens. I'm going on my conversation with Joe a few days ago.

[Ausglock]

You guys think I need a different basket? My bullets have to be put in the oven for 15mins to pass the acetone test but they seem to be getting a touch to dark and I want the best looking bullet possible

They look bloody good to me. Well done!

These are my trays.

closeup of the holes with 40 cal bullets.

[leadman]

Thompsoncustom, did you confirm the temperature setting of your oven with an oven gauge? Do you preheat your oven?
I use the 1/4" hadware cloth (wire mesh) tied down with wire to the original oven rack to allow better air circulation. I have one rack for the toaster oven that set in a solid plate and I had to drill large holes in the plate to get it to bake the boolits correctly.

[Thompsoncustom]

No I have not confirmed the temp at all and since the bullets seems to be a little uneven I'm thinking I need better air flow. Here's a close up pic you can see the difference in color.

[leadman]

The coating is a little splotchy even with 3 thin coats. I have coated some so they have a solid color on them but they size harder than the thin coated boolits. Also added a couple of thousands to the diameter. Donnie says his have areas like the lube grooves and at the base of the nose on the swc boolits that is not covered and that is ok.
As long as the coating won't rub off with acetone you should be good. Load and shoot!

[Thompsoncustom]

I should have said that the above is 3 coats with the following formula 2 ml color 2.5 ml acetone and 40 units catalyst. I stopped at lowes tonight and got some 1/4 inch hardware cloth and ya I'm sure they will shoot fine as my first batch turned out a nasty green/brown but they still work perfectly but I would also like them to look flawless or as close to that as I can come.