300BlkTalk

Pics?

OK, old and slow got around to doing photo bucket.



Both are only one coating.
The top one is shake and bake - tumble in powder method.
The lower one is dip and bake - dip in powder by hand (latex gloves please).

No, this is not the bullet profile I desire nor weight (175-180 grains depending on alloy). These are coating tests.


These look much worse than they are. Think size.



Another coat or two, then a pass in the Lyman 450 (no grease cranking) and load.
My velocity tests will be out of a bolt action 308 Win, to higher velocities than I plan on running in my 300 Blackout. If they pass as I expect, I will be looking at different molds. All in good time.
Enjoy,

OSOK

Here is a picture representing the evolution of the powder coating for me.

They all perform equally well but some look awful while others look great. For me performance is better than looks so I am looking for the quickest, easiest method and dry tumble lube is the best for me.

The green are ones that I did a day or so ago using the dry tumble method.
The blues were also done using the dry tumble but they were coated with pink using a gun first.
The small copper colored ones were done using the acetone powder coating method
The large copper colored were done using the lacquer thinner method
The loaded ammo uses bullets I coated using a powder coating gun.

School was an early out, so I was assisted by my 6 YO granddaughter in putting a second coat on my test bullets. Yea...

I don't think there was all that much improvement over my one coat. Unless something changes, I think I will go with the single coating. This is going only by looks. Test firing will be the final determination.

Unfortunately I'm looking at snow till Christmas, the granddaughters will like that, but not me. Loading and testing to follow (when the weather is more suitable). FYI, I set up in an out building with a space heater and my little toaster oven did well, per the thermometer.

Learning a little at a time,

OSOK

Looks do not really matter, you can see by the picture above that I had some awful looking bullets and I shot those at 2,400+ fps without issue.

Has anyone every noticed accuracy issues with the powder coating being heavy to one side? So far all I've tried has been close range stuff...

Magnum Mike wrote:Has anyone every noticed accuracy issues with the powder coating being heavy to one side? So far all I've tried has been close range stuff...

My stuff is minute of clay accurate out to 125 yards.

I am planning on shooting some steel with it at 200 yards to see how it works.

I think they are just as accurate as cast bullets. Cast bullets are generally not as accurate as jacketed bullets.

Dolomite_Supafly wrote:

what mold is the green one on the far left from? Looks like my (really old) H&G #20 170gr, but narrower driving bands and an extra lube groove. (See my pic on the last page, the dark green gas checked bullets.)

gds wrote:
there has been a lot of discussion over on castboolits.com about the curing process changing the hardness of the boolit. I do not know if or how much, but it would appear that many more knowledgeable then me says it makes the bullets softer.

Yes, it can make the bullets softer, but depends on the cooling rate. Curing powdercoating happens at the same temperature as heat treating cast bullets. If you were to take them straight out of the oven and quench in water, you'd harden them, assuming the alloy can be heat treated. (haven't tried it with powder coated bullets yet, but do it a lot with un-coated bullets) Allowing them to cool slower than they do straight out of the mold makes them softer, cooling faster makes them harder. If you want them as soft as possible, like for hollow points, leave them in the oven but turn it off, and let them cool over an hour or two.

yondering wrote:

gds wrote:
there has been a lot of discussion over on castboolits.com about the curing process changing the hardness of the boolit. I do not know if or how much, but it would appear that many more knowledgeable then me says it makes the bullets softer.

Yes, it can make the bullets softer, but depends on the cooling rate. Curing powdercoating happens at the same temperature as heat treating cast bullets. If you were to take them straight out of the oven and quench in water, you'd harden them, assuming the alloy can be heat treated. (haven't tried it with powder coated bullets yet, but do it a lot with un-coated bullets) Allowing them to cool slower than they do straight out of the mold makes them softer, cooling faster makes them harder. If you want them as soft as possible, like for hollow points, leave them in the oven but turn it off, and let them cool over an hour or two.

I used to water quench my freshly cast boolits. now that I powder coat I don't water quench most of them.

When I powder coat, I set the boolits up in my jig and then preheat the boolits. Powder coat them, stick them back in for 10 minutes and then pull them out and let them air cool. I keep meaning to test the hardness, of them as soon as the are cool, and then again 2 weeks later.

I remember reading somewhere over on cast boolits about the boolits hardening some over time. I have found that to be true. I am now curious if the powder coating effects that in any way. Does not really matter to me. I am mainly curious for academic purposes.