Powder coat accuracy mayhem.

ChromeArty

ChromeArty

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So I just powder coated my first bullets today, and took them to the range within the hour. The accuracy was terrible! They were everywhere! Not the case before PC... I even had one cartridge stick, that when I went to rack the slide to clear it (difficult) the bullet stayed in the barrel and the casing came out the ejection port throwing powder everywhere.

A couple light taps with the dowel when I got home popped it out of the barrel, but what the hell happened!?

Also, what do you guys use on your "cookie sheets" to prevent sticking? I tried tin foil (those will be melted back down to am ingot. I tried just bare pan, took a hammer to knock a couple off. What ended up working on the third go was parchment paper...

Any help you guys could give me to get my PC'd bullets flying straight would be hugely appreciated!
 
Non stick cooking foil. Works great. Also when you powder coat you increase the size...everywhere. The nose is fatter and you're jamming the bullets onto the lands. Not good in a pistol. Your loaded rounds need to pass the "plunk test." Pull your barrel and try dropping a loaded round in the chamber. It should drop in with no resistance and headspace properly on the rim. Turn the barrel upside down and the do me should fall back out. I'm f they don't pass the test you either need to seat deeper or apply more taper crimp. Sounds like you need to seat deeper. This could certainly cause accuracy issues.
 
Used only Parchment paper and never had a "stick" of any kind

I have never shot a pistol bullet with PC on, only rifle so far and I size every one of them after pc'ing, if nothing else just to square up any "flashing " that may be present
 
fingers284 said:
Used only Parchment paper and never had a "stick" of any kind

I have never shot a pistol bullet with PC on, only rifle so far and I size every one of them after pc'ing, if nothing else just to square up any "flashing " that may be present
Click to expand...

I'll google "bullet flashing" haha still a newb to the casting and PC world

Yeah, the parchment worked incredibly well! .. My wife's idea ;) she smert
 
I kept seating deeper and deeper by increments until they passed the plunk test ( and reverse plunk test ) ... Also added some crimp. I think my square deal B wasn't crimping much if at all. It said that stage was all set up at the factory in the manual... But relying on that was probably foolish

Thanks again!
 
I've used parchment paper in the past but one of my favorite powders needs 20 minutes at 425F and that's getting awful close to the auto ignition point of paper. It started to turn black and curl up. I find the non stick aluminum foil far superior. I wrap my baking sheet with it and after a batch I can just brush the excess cured powder off and reuse it indefinitely until I poke or tear it. Flashing is just the fun of cured powder sticking out around the base of the boolits after baking. Running them through a sizer shears it off usually. I've found my best accuracy is when I size before coating and again after. Any thickness variations in the powder coating will not imbalance the bullet in flight but I've found, with rifles at least, the coating thickness variations can lead to uneven sizing of the lead inside the coating and that can throw off the balance at 130000 rpm.
 
If a bullet looks to have too much powder, I tap it in a corner of the parchment paper to knock off any excess. You have to watch when resizing with lubing dies. Sometimes, the lube holes can scrape off some of the coating. I run the bullet into the die just enough to resize it. NOE make base and nose resizing dies. I've just received mine and haven't covered myself with glory in using them. The Lee sizing die works very well in sizing them without marring the finish.
 
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To both Sawzall and Slug,

Thanks for the info! My mold is a .356 and I bought a Lee sizer at .358 at the same time (mostly for the alox and it was the only size Henry had). The raw cast bullets would pass through it without any affect of course. I just decided to run some PC'd through it, and low and behold there was resistance and they were pushed through! Maybe it was flashing?... But I feel it was more than that.

Anyway, I'm happy about the discovery as I'll probably end up with more accurate projectiles :)

I have about fifty unsized, but properly seated ready to go.

I will size a box and dare to compare!

Cheers!

Trev
 
Powder coated bullets should be sized after the coating process to ensure they're in spec to fit the barrel. There are a number of press mounted sizers that let you quickly push the coated bullets through to size them to the correct OD.
 
non stick pan, cost $1.50 and never need parchment or other paper again.

check the sticky, I use tea spoon of powder, if you use shake and bake you want to see little powder left in the container after shaking .001 to 002 added to bullet is enough.

I cast, pc then size to .357
 
*update*

Sized them to .358 and seated them properly this time :rolleyes:

I set a target at 7 yards for a function test and they did well!

Thank you all very much! I'd have been lost without you!
 
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