A friend of mine has taken to doing this and really likes the results so far. He tumbles them in a small container with the powder and air-soft pellets, then bakes the coating on in an old toaster oven. He sizes after the coating is fully cured and has had no problems with the coating coming loose and they hold the size very well. He has recovered several fired bullets that have shown no separation of the coating and has even smashed them with a hammer with only minor damage to the coating. So far he is very impressed, claims he gets no leading and has noticed no deterioration in accuracy. Has anyone else tried it? What sort of results have you gotten?

I know Dick Thompson and Jeff Hoover have been trying this pretty extensively over the last year or so and have had similar experiences. According to them they have found no real draw backs to it beyond getting over the nonlead looking bullets. Hoover has even run them in his rifles fairly fast, 2200fps ish will no ill effects beyond smaller groups and faster velocities. Hoover has offered to coat a batch of bullets for me and then to return them for testing but I don't have enough unsized bullets that I want to test to try it yet so I need to get the pot heated up I guess.

So far I know of no real draw back to doing this but it will be interesting to see if any come to the surface over the next couple of years. The closest thing I have been told to a negative issue is that in the baking process the bullets all soften to about 10-12 hardness no matter how hard they were when you start. But since hey are powder coated they don't lead he barrels at all so is this really an issue?

Try this link to the CB forum, this section is devoted to coating in various ways:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?184-Coatings-and-Alternatives

I have been tempted to try it but haven't gotten around to it yet. The extra steps is what turns me off. I have been casting/sizing/loading/shooting for so many years I'm not sure I want to add the extra steps for large numbers.

Or 'Slowhand' anyway. He had a peanut butter jar full of colorful cartridges last October. I expect he'll be along shortly. If not, I can ping him for his input.

Admittedly an unreasonable bias, but the colors turn me off. If we could come up with a dull silver or a golden copper, I'd give them a whirl. I even have a bit of trouble with the red FTX tips looking like a rack of lipsticks. There's probably a name for this and I'd bet it's hard to pronounce...

for about a year now. Have not tried them yet but he seems to do a fair amount of business. Guess I will pick some up next time to try out.

an old cartridge like the .45-75 WCF...

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Sincerely,

Hobie

do you mean something similar to what these folks make?

http://www.precisionbullets.com/

nm

and it looks like you can get several shades of black, along with gray, silver, copper and even clear.

One good thing about powdercoating, you can get powder from somebody in just about any color of the rainbow.

That not all colors of powder stick to lead bullets the same. If you are a garage guy tossing bullets in a plastic pail with plastic BBs to get the static electrical cling to bond the powder to the bullets something like bright red from Harbor Freight sticks much easier than say flat gray does. Now if you spend a few dollars and buy a powder spray gun any color will work but they are certainly much more involved to coat that way. There is a strong electrical charge coming from the end of the nozzle that will zip that crap out of you if you are not really careful, plus you have to wear heavy rubber gloves and a resporator mask when using a spray gun. Big pain.

I've been buying coated bullets for a year and a half from a commercial seller. Up until recently they were a blue grey, maybe even purple color (of course I'm colorblind) .

I knew at a glance from a distance what they were. Recently they switched to a copper-ish color, now at a glance or from across the room I can't tell what they are, jacketed? Plated? Nope, coated.

Another bother was the chronograph. When I tried the new color I was also trying a new powder. I ran 45 in a row through the chrono of the blue ones and all 45 read. Then I switched to the new color and only about 60% read. ???

for him... Semi Wadcutter do look like Crayolas...But who cares?

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

I have tried it in a couple of caliber. So far I not really that impressed. The accuracy in my Baer was about 50% larger with the PC bullets over the same bullet lubed normally. One advantage is you can cast a soft plain base HP and not have to worry about leading.

If I ever get some free time I plan on testing them in the 9mm. I have been able to get my 9mm s to shoot with cast but it takes work and some playing around . I am hoping I will see better results with the PC in that platform.