Go to powder for shake& bake

Emerald Coatings in Palmerston, Ontario makes the outstanding “tool blue” powder & their clear coat is pretty good too.
EC even shows cast bullets in tool blue on their catalogue page. A little goes a long way & gives great coverage. But the biggest bonus is avoiding the messy lubing process.

Join the 5 step process: Cast, quality control, powder coat, quality control, size, then load.
 
Just got into this myself, and my first powder was tool blue from Emerald coatings. I tried swirling them cold, and had an issue with generating enough static with our usual 93% NS humidity, so warming the bullets up first worked perfect.
 
I've tried 8 or 9 colours from Emerald and Tool Blue and Tractor Red gave the best even coating.
However, I found that the coloured ones gave a thicker coating that sometimes interfered with chambering with a snug throat.
It's an issue that simple sizing wouldn't solve.
I switched to a clear coat for these rifles and it was a great help.
I keep only Tool Blue and clear now. I sold all my other powders to a friend.
I use clear on all my rifle bullets and TB on some pistol bullets.
I sometimes use Tool Blue after clear to enlarge the diameter.
I have an Enfield that likes larger bullets, so TB gets me up to .316 which she likes.
If I run out of TB, in about 30 years, I'll zip on over to Princess Auto and get some of their blue to try.
 
slug said:
However, I found that the coloured ones gave a thicker coating that sometimes interfered with chambering with a snug throat.
It's an issue that simple sizing wouldn't solve.
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It's a bit more labour intensive (but I'm retired so what the hey) but I have taken to sizing the cast bullets in a Lee push through die before PC'ing and then size them again after PC'ing. Admittedly my observations are subjective but when I size the pre-sized PC'd bullets they seem to offer less resistance in the size die than when I was just casting, PC'ing and sizing the bullets without the initial sizing. My logic is that some 9mm cast bullets might come out of the mould at say .358. If I just PC them (which can add 2-4 thou) I'm up to a .360-.362 bullet that I have to size back down to .356. Pre-sizing to .356 before PC'ing means I'm dealing with PC'd bullets in the .358-.360 range before the second sizing which would explain the lesser sizing resistance.

Oh, and I agree. Tool blue if you want a coloured PC, clear if you don't (and clear apparently gives a thinner coat than powders with a pigment in them).
 
so far I have found Princess Auto's blue works good on long rifle boolits that are stood up in a 3/8 silicone ice cube tray. If you lay them down on a silicone mat, most need another coat.

I have just received 2 ibs of tool blue and 2 ibs of tractor red to try. I will probably just use the princess auto powder for emergencies.
 
Prismatic Powders Canada is now my supplier. I used Easton powders for years but finally decided to look for a colour that closely resembles a real bullet. It got really tiresome answering questions like “Whats with the pretty blue bullets?” Or “Is that a real bullet? It looks like red lipstick.” I settled on “Copper Penny” and the questions stopped. Ha ha.
 
JimB1 said:
Prismatic Powders Canada is now my supplier. I used Easton powders for years but finally decided to look for a colour that closely resembles a real bullet. It got really tiresome answering questions like “Whats with the pretty blue bullets?” Or “Is that a real bullet? It looks like red lipstick.” I settled on “Copper Penny” and the questions stopped. Ha ha.
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i haven't gotten tired of answering that question but i've wanted a copper coloured powder to try. I'll have to pick up a pound or two of the copper penny. plus i can mess with people and add a yellow/black/silver tip to the rifle rounds haha.
 
JimB1 said:
Prismatic Powders Canada is now my supplier. I used Easton powders for years but finally decided to look for a colour that closely resembles a real bullet. It got really tiresome answering questions like “Whats with the pretty blue bullets?” Or “Is that a real bullet? It looks like red lipstick.” I settled on “Copper Penny” and the questions stopped. Ha ha.
Click to expand...
I notice that this powder is listed as a transparent top coat that must be applied over a bright silver substrate. Do you pre-coat them with another powder or does the silver colour of the bullet act as the silver substrate? What's the finished coverage like?
 
ElvisAmmo pioneered the heat treatment of cast bullets before powder coating. Humidity seeking & generating static electricity are substandard methods.
Powder immersion & cold tumbling is also substandard & labour intensive. Shaking off excessive powder adds an additional step that is pointless too.
 
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