Anyone ever use PC to increase the diameter of jacketed projectiles?

[Tripplebeards]

My special run Remington 7600 carbine chambered in 35 whelen slugged at .358” last time I checked. I have tried 180 grain hot cores, 200 grain Hornady, factory 200 grain super performance ammo, and 180 grain triple shocks. I’ve tried several powders and ladder tests. The absolute best groups were 1.5” after tins of ladder testing. That was with the hand loaded triple shocks and fsctory Hornady ammo. All the rest I didn’t even measure. Probably 2” plus groups. The gun had feeding issues right out of the box. I sent it back to Remington right before they went belly up. I asked them to replace the barrel and fix the feeding. The feeding issue was a lot better when it came back. They never replaced the barrel and said it was within spec. I finally pulled it out of the safe a few days ago after a few birthdays of it collecting dust. I took it to the range to test 3 different powders with ladder tests using 180 grain hot cores. Needless to say it was shooting horrible groups again probably 2”/2.5” plus on average at 100 yards. I haven’t tried heavier jacketed ammo in it yet. I have 220 grain hot cores and a few 250 grainers laying around. Just debating in tumble coating any more jacketed projectiles before try them to gain another two thousands diameter. Cast won’t cycle in my gun. Gave up on trying so I am going to try to increase the diameter with PCing jacketed ammo. If that doesn’t work it’s going to get sold off. Ive about had it with my bucket list pumper. I’ve watched them sell for $3500 to a grand more on GB. I’d rather keep it and make it shoot. Anyone try PCing jacketed ammo?

[Tripplebeards]

I PCd three different jacketed bullets today I'll post pictures in a little bit since apparently it says imager says I'm at Max Capacity for photos but I can upload them from a different device without a problem for some reason. I decided to change colors on them so one bullet had one coat one bullet had two coats and one bullet had three coats of PC. After the third coat of PC I made the mistake of trying to run one through my .3595" Lee die that I honed out. I found out the hard way that a warm PCd j word sticks in a sizing die. I had to take that thing out and put it in my Vise and pound it out backwards. I drilled a hole through the back of that bullet for five times and kept pounding it out. I chipped a couple threads in the dye anf chewed up the Locking nut. Once I finally got the jacketed bullet out I ground down the nut on the two sides that got chewed up. The two threads that got chipped still thread just fine luckily the inside of the die is fine which is what counts. There was PC chunks stuck all over inside of the dye and I would assume it's because it wasn't cured yet when I tried to size it. I learned never to size a warm bullet fresh out of the oven with PC. After I finally got that one out which had three coats of PC on it and was .370" to begin with sized Down to. 3595"...with a hollow hole in the base from non stop drilling to get it out. I then came back in the house cleaned out the dye and then lubed up the one coat J words and ran them through. I was paranoid so I rubbed case Lube on the first couple ones to get Lube in the dye . They all went through just fine so I went to the second set of bullets I had two coats on. They all ran through just fine. So then I was brave enough to put lube on another three coater that I stuck and it ran through just fine and all the rest did too. So I learned only to put one coat on jacketed from now on. One coat and they look pretty smooth anyways. The second and third coat is kind of bumpy but I'm sure it won't affect accuracy that much. All three different bullets went through with Force when I size them down to .3595". I never did measure those bullets before I powder coated them so I grabbed each box and measured them. Speer 220 grain hor cores were .358", hornady 200 grainers were .357", and the 250 grain hornady Spire points were .357". I also hada few 250 grain Norma that I didn't PC but measured. They were .3565". No wonder why my 35 whelen that slugged at .358" hasn't been grouping worth a darn. I'll have to measure the 180 grain hot cores that didn't group worth q darn. I would expect to get better groups with .3595" PC j words now that they will be larger than slugged diameter.

Below is my picture of all three j words. The one on the left are Speer 220 grain and have two coats. The one in the middle is the Hornady 250 grain spire point and have one coat and the one on the right are the Hornady 200 grain spire points and have three coats. I’m holding one of the 200 grain Hornady spire points with 3 coats that I had to drill and pound out of my sizing die because I tried to size it while it was still fresh out of the oven. They are all sized at .3595”. The more coats the more force it took to size them needless to say. It took a good amount of force just with one coat of PC. So it grew over 3,000th’s with a good thick tumble coat of PC. The three coaters grew from .358” to .370” before I sized them down to .3595”.

[Barry54]

I think the 220s are discontinued, so cherish the ones you have left.

Looking forward to your range report!

[Tripplebeards]

Yeah, they are. I think I have 200 of them. They’re the only ones that probably will work in my gun. I’m guessing. I think I’m gonna load them all up with either H4895 or Varget in a .5 grain ladder test.

I would assume my 35 whelen (that slugs at .358”) should slug around .357”? Both my 35 Rems slug at .357”. I find it odd that both boxes of Hornady projectiles measure .357” and my Norma at .3565”. I would assume manufactures claims of .358” projectiles are a “guesstimate” on their part… or I just have some out of spec projectiles?

It doesn’t shock me. A few years ago I had some 180 grain hot cores that were my wrinkling and crushing my 35 Rem case necks when trying to seat. And some of them were almost .360”. Speer had me send them back at the time and confirm they were out of spec and replaced them months later when they finally got them back in stock. I would assume both my Hornadys are under spec. The Norma I couldn’t care less since I only have about a dozen or so.

[Walter Laich]

I learned never to size a warm bullet fresh out of the oven with PC.

respectfully, I normally size as soon as bullets are cool enough to pick up.
all lead
sizing to what the mold says it is, i.e.: .452 bullet mold sized in .452 sizing die

the warm lead is easier to size and it gives me something to do between the baking time of the current bullets in the oven.

[Tripplebeards]

Bare boolits have never given me any problems sizing warm. IMO it was the "thick" 3 coats of PC with "3d" looking blotches that imo gave me trouble. Once they cooled down the boolits went through my sizer just fine...with some force and case lube. Some of the warm uncured PC did come off in the sizer when I drilled and pounded it off. Zero PC came off when sizing them after they cooled to room temperature.


I loaded them yesterday. I tried a test loading without billing the case mouth and found out it scraped the PC right off. I ended up flailing all the case mouths, seating, and then crimping with a lee factory crimp collet die turned down approx a quarter turn



After belling, seating, and crimping.




All the test ammo is loaded to 3.100" and with ladder tests of H4895. I'll try to get out tomorrow to test. Coated 200 grain Hornady spite points, 220 grain Speer, and 250 grain Hornady Spire points. If the 220 or 250 grain shoot good I'll try the same load with out PC to test again since I've never tried either of them in my gun yet.

So when PCing Jwords they have to have the mouths bells or thr PC will scrape off just like cast boolits.

None of three Jwords have a smooth coat of PC on them. I wanted to get some thick coverage on them. If it tightens my groups I'll try and bounce the extra off next round. I did try but I had bare looking spots of color. I'll just coat with clear PC next time around if it works for alot smoother and even coverage. One coat of thick PC was more than enough to grow them over 3000th thickness because pushing them through my .3595" took some arm wresting. I could have seating them quite a but further out but figured I didn't want to "stick" any at longer lengths with a larger diameter PCd j word. I also didn't crimp my test load to see if they cycled in my pump. I did try each one after seating longer without knocking the bells down after seating and they chambered with a little force so inseated them pretty close to published OAL data with the loads I tried. Figured after the couple of first couple of shots I'll know pretty quickly if it tightens up my grouping. If it does I'll habe to clean the j words next time before tumbling so they coat mote even and smoother. The traffic blue 250 grain Hornady Spire points on the left only have one coat...and look the nicest. The other 2 have 2 coats and blotchy looking and feeling. Imo ot probably won't affect 100 yard accuracy. I'm sure a nice even coat of clear PC will keep them more stream lined for longer range accuracy providing this experiment works to tighten groups with Jwords.