Spotty Coating with Eastwood Bright Signal Red

[35 Whelen]

A few months ago I ordered a bottle of Eastwood Ford Light Blue and a bottle of Eastwood Signal Red. I've been using the blue with great success then decided to coat a batch with the red. It would just barely adhere to the bullets, very spotty. So I cleaned a few of the bullets with brake cleaner and tried, no change. Denatured alcohol, nope. So I tried a few of the same bullets in blue and BINGO, normal coating.

What could the problem possibly be? The powders were bought at the same time, stored under identical conditions, applied in an identical manner as the blue (plastic tub, airsoft BB's, shake for 2-3 minutes) and in identical conditions. Could it possibly be the color? I read as post from a few weeks ago where someone was getting spotty coverage with Smoke's Red.

Thanks for any insight.

[Carrier]

I use Eastwood signal red and have had no issues. Have spotty coverage with Eastwood yellow but not red.

[Jack Russel]

I also have no problems with the red

[charlie b]

I've had a 'rough' look with Smoke's flame red. Coverage was good but it wasn't that smooth look I get from some other colors (like light blue). These days I use clear. More consistent coverage for me, and I can see any flaws that remain on the bullets.

When I worked with plastic wire insulation we also had issues with some colors. Never did figure out why. Black was more 'difficult' than some others, especially a 'flat' black. It didn't run through the extruders as 'nicely' as other colors.

[405grain]

I've tried powders that other shooters swore were the best thing since sliced bread, and it turned out that it would be the worst powder that I've ever used. I use a numbered scale from negative 10 to positive 10 to assess the quality of bullet coating powder. Harbor Freight red is crap, but it's the powder that lots of us started out with long long ago. I place HF red as zero, the midpoint on this scale. Anything less than zero is worse than HF red. In reference; anything flat black would be a -6. Anything -8 or below would indicate that a bare lead bullet would be better.

At the upper end of the scale I would place Smokes powders at a +8 or +9. Eastwood Ford Light Blue is a solid +9 for me. I haven't found the mystical +10 yet, as that would be a bullet that shoots bug-hole size groups, never misses, kills game before it even gets to them, and basically coats and sizes itself.

Now here's the wrench in the gears; Powders that work great when you first start using them. Then later they reek and leave spotty coverage. Then still later they work great again. Humidity? Casting alloy? Temperature? Solar electromagnetic storm? Here's what I think might help solve this dilemma. When I have a known good powder that isn't working as it's supposed to, I'll try taking a sheet of aluminum foil (it doesn't need to be non-stick). First I'll fold it into a pyramid shape. Then I'll wear that as a hat and see if it changes the situation.