Powder Coating

Powder coated about 400ish today in signal orange and about 700ish in yellow green.

Orange was definitely not as nice as they were my very first ever done.

Finished.
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Coated and waiting for baking.
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Cooling.
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Tazzy said:
I usually use red or blue coating and get good coverage. I tried a little sample of yellow and I'm not sure whether I need a second coat.
Maybe the yellow is just a little more transparent?
What do you think, shoot them or coat again?


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The pistol bullets in a pistol length barrel should be no problem at all but the rifle bullets in a longer barrel might need a bore inspection during a string. I have used bullets that looked that way with no visible problems at all.
 
I use the Candy or Transparent colors They seem to coat the best. I also bake them on parchment paper it releases the best. Wish I could figure out how to post pictures. (sorry Im new here) I have some beautiful colors to show.
 
Destructor said:
I use the Candy or Transparent colors They seem to coat the best. I also bake them on parchment paper it releases the best. Wish I could figure out how to post pictures. (sorry Im new here) I have some beautiful colors to show.
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Check out "Postimage.org" for posting pics. I'm new at posting images but managed to figure this one out. :)
 
Couple new colours.





Both of these were done by shaking in the container and then dumped out onto a wire basket and baked. No standing individual bullets upright.
 
One thing to all you guys thinking of getting into PC - I ordered my Tool Blue powder from Emerald Coatings. It was around $10 for a pkg, but shipping was pretty close to $10, so I figured I might as well order 2 pkgs. Shipping is almost the same, so it's a lot more cost-effective, right? Well, at about 1/2 tsp. per 200 or so bullets, I figure I have enough to last me 7 or 8 generations.
 
f55 said:
Tool blue slugs anyone.

Tool Blue weigh 482gr, diameter .681
Standard weigh 481gr, diameter .680


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At first glance, they look like pellets! First thought that crossed my mind was why would someone want to PC pellets?

Just out of curiosity - I had a few bullets that the PC coating was very thin near the tip and on the ogive. The coating on the base and bearing bands was really good, so I figure that they would be OK, but does this happen to you guys too?
 
Papaclaude said:
At first glance, they look like pellets! First thought that crossed my mind was why would someone want to PC pellets?

Just out of curiosity - I had a few bullets that the PC coating was very thin near the tip and on the ogive. The coating on the base and bearing bands was really good, so I figure that they would be OK, but does this happen to you guys too?
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The mold used is a copy of lyman 525gr which is the shape of pellet.

As to the coating, didnt notice if it was thinner at the tip but as long as the bands are coated i guess your good to go.
 
One thing mentioned at the range by a bunch of guys who PC... is that the black PC looks like Black Talon ammunition by Winchester.
 
I'm finding that my .30/30 style bullets have the bore riding nose coated also and that required deep seating of the bullet in my Sharps rifle. I suspect that it has a tight chamber. Its accuracy wasn't very good. I have a tapered sizing die that produces a slight bevel in the nose and that allows a properly seated bullet to chamber easily. It was made by an American fellow named Don Eagan, who, sadly, is no longer with us. I have one of his nose pour moulds which is a work of art.
 
With an ES gun it is possible to avoid coating the nose by placing bullets upside down in a tray with purpose-built holes to fit your bullet nose, spray just contacts the shank.

It is pretty much impossible to shake & swirl without coating the nose but the bullets can be gripped with tweezers in a lube groove and wiping the coating from the nose before cooking. I do this with gas check bullets (30-30 as well) that I want to check after cooking, otherwise the coating is too thick for the checks to clip on most of them. Even tho the tweezers may remove some of the powder from the groove it doesn't matter or effect the performance.
 
I havd a Lee 9 mm. mould that casts at .361 inches which is way too large. Powder coating adds another 2 thou to it. When run through a .358 sizer, it scrapes off some of the PC and it takes a fair bit of effort. I find that oiling my fingers and putting a fine coat on every third bullet, or so, reduces the scraping and effort required, greatly.
 
Here's a group I fired on the local 200 yard range. Actually, 192 or 196 yards, depending on your info source. The bullets were powder coated in Tool Blue, and resized to .309. This was in a heavily modified JRA 03A4 Springfield clone in .30/'06 with 2 & 3/4 power scope. The bullet was the RCBS 30-165-SIL with 42.0 gr. of WC852 and the group is 10 shots, 2 & 7/8 inch CTC.



On a slightly different note. I tried some powder coated .30/30 bullets in my Ruger #1 in .303 B. I wanted to see if the increased diameter would work well. I got a four inch, ten shot group whereas I can get a two inch group with properly prepped .303 bullets. So that idea was only a mediocre success.
 
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