Powder Coated Soft Lead Velocity?

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Fox

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Does anyone powder coat soft lead? I am curious as to what velocity a soft lead bullet can be pushed when powder coated, I expect it to be faster than uncoated soft lead.

Thanks
 
If the lead is too soft for the pressure you may run into issues with too much obturation that could lead to leading issues. I haven't tried it with pure lead myself but with care I'm sure you'd be fine with lower pressure stuff. As I always try to remind people, it's not velocity you need to worry about, it's pressure.
 
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B said:
If the lead is too soft for the pressure you may run into issues with too much obturation that could lead to leading issues. I haven't tried it with pure lead myself but with care I'm sure you'd be fine with lower pressure stuff. As I always try to remind people, it's not velocity you need to worry about, it's pressure.
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I have been reading on other forums that people have pushed them with gas checks well over 2000fps as the powder coating stops the leading and the gas checks seal against the pressure.
 
If your bullets are sized properly the PC should be enough by itself. I use the LEE 55grn mold to make bullets for my .223s. I don't bother with a gas check as it seemed to reduce accuracy significantly. The PC is more than adequate if applied properly. I use a 20BHN alloy and size the bullets 0.002" (including the PC) larger than whatever barrel.
 
B said:
If your bullets are sized properly the PC should be enough by itself. I use the LEE 55grn mold to make bullets for my .223s. I don't bother with a gas check as it seemed to reduce accuracy significantly. The PC is more than adequate if applied properly. I use a 20BHN alloy and size the bullets 0.002" (including the PC) larger than whatever barrel.
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Ya, so you are not using soft lead then.

I was wondering about soft lead that would readily open up on game but powder coated to reduce leading.
 
I did say I haven't used pure lead, I have used scrap from the pistol berm though. I doubt it was exceptionally hard. I only recently bought and began using a BHN tester.

I wouldn't use anything too soft for that kind of loading. Considering how easy it is to get to reasonable BHN there isn't much point. Good and reliable expansion is achievable without running very soft alloy. What mold and gun are you thinking of using?
 
B said:
I did say I haven't used pure lead, I have used scrap from the pistol berm though. I doubt it was exceptionally hard. I wouldn't use anything too soft for that kind of loading. Considering how easy it is to get to reasonable BHN there isn't much point.
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Except for the purpose of hunting, needing the deformation on impact.

I have a few things with weird bore diameters but in rifles, a soft lead that would not lead up the bore at 2300fps would be awesome, if possible.
 
Barrel twist is one of the things you have to look at

you can push a bullet real fast, not get any leading .......... But ...... can not hit a target at any distance ..... even 50 yards could be a problem

Called Bullet RPM theory
 
just having some fun said:
Barrel twist is one of the things you have to look at

you can push a bullet real fast, not get any leading .......... But ...... can not hit a target at any distance ..... even 50 yards could be a problem

Called Bullet RPM theory
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Well if the bullet length matches the twist rate then unless the bullet is too soft and skips over the rifling I do not see how the accuracy would be lost.
 
When i first started "sperminting" with PC rifle slugs I did shoot a few pure lead but at only 1300 fps or less so not in your ball park but they did not lead or peel the coating . accuracy was within my expected range of adequacy (2" or less).

I have shot many slugs of a softer allow than pure WW (1/2 pure lead & 1/2 WW), some at 1600 fps but most again at the 13-1400 range never have I noticed a lead smear in any of my bores with these (from .32 to.375 to .458 bores).
I wish I had some slugs removed from deer kills but the fact is that of the many deer i have killed with cast slugs, I have never had a recoverable slug, every one from under 80 yrds to a 200 yrd .54 muzzleloader to a 445 yrd 45-70 kill have been complete pass throughs.

A buddy and I did some testing of .458 405 gr commercial hard cast (25-28 Brinel) endways into green poplar logs with interesting results. not one of them mushroomed as we like jacketed slugs to do but the meplat sort of moved to the side creating a 'bend" in the bullet shank. When we chainsawed the logs lengthways you could see the point at which the bent slug started to tumble and the wood chip wound channel was a lot larger than entry or after the slug slowed down...no need for a mushroomed head, the bend did as well or maybe even better. Wound channel length in the logs for the 1400 fps cast slugs was 11-13 inches, about 2 inches longer than the Hornady Leverlution 325 jacketed we tried on the same day.
 
PC - .223 bullets - I use wheel weight lead, cold quenched, sized, then Princess auto Blue powder coat, baked at 400F, then re-sized the powdered coated bullets. I have developed a load, that pushes them at 2500FPS with zero leading or break up, they are 4" group accurate @100M and super cheap to make. They are plinking and fun rounds.

If you only have pure lead - order some 5lbs bars from Amazon of Tin and Antimony and start adding to your lead by weight. Lots of formulas online for ratios. My sailboat lead weight haul is all pure lead, and I make 10Lbs batches of hardened "wheel weight" lead in batches.

I cast, PC, for all my .30 cal (30-30, 308, 30-06), ..23, 9mm, round balls (pure lead for black powder), "0" buckshot, and .690 round balls for 12G
 
OttawaHunts said:
PC - .223 bullets - I use wheel weight lead, cold quenched, sized, then Princess auto Blue powder coat, baked at 400F, then re-sized the powdered coated bullets. I have developed a load, that pushes them at 2500FPS with zero leading or break up, they are 4" group accurate @100M and super cheap to make. They are plinking and fun rounds.

If you only have pure lead - order some 5lbs bars from Amazon of Tin and Antimony and start adding to your lead by weight. Lots of formulas online for ratios. My sailboat lead weight haul is all pure lead, and I make 10Lbs batches of hardened "wheel weight" lead in batches.

I cast, PC, for all my .30 cal (30-30, 308, 30-06), ..23, 9mm, round balls (pure lead for black powder), "0" buckshot, and .690 round balls for 12G
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The point was to try to see if a PC bullet can be fired and not lead up at 2000+ fps with soft lead. I have lots of access to hard lead and I can powder coat that and shoot it, but that does nothing if the lead does not actually deform, which was the intent of the inquiry.
 
Sounds like you want to have the bullet mushroom and still be powder coated. You can make a duplex bullet with a bit of experimenting, not hard to do just have to find the right amount of lead to add to 1/2 to 3/4 of a bullet nose. Here is what I did for my pedersoli 45-70 single shot. I filled the bottom 3/4 of the bullet with hard lead and let it setup, then with a buckshot mould I did one 00 buck pellet of pure lead and dropped it into a ladle to melt. With the ladle of soft lead I poured it into the mould on top of the 3/4 hard bullet. Then rested the whole mould on top of the molten lead in the pot until I could see that it melted both halves together. Then very carefully lifted the mould and let it air cool until it solidified and dropped the bullet onto some rags to cool.

Then I did the sizing and powder coating as usual. I shot it into a dirt pile at about 50 yards and the nose did mushroom somewhat. I would like to try and just powder coat the body of the bullet and leave the nose un coated but I would have to buy a powder coating gun of some kind to do that and I am not that curious at the moment. More important things to worry about and beside when you are working with nearly 1/2" slugs to begin with it really doesn't matter if the bullet mushrooms.
 
As I said in post #12 wood isnt solid enough to expand commercial "hard cast" but I think hard cast will expand very well when hitting solid bone in an animal at BP hunting velocity rounds (anywhere from 1100 to 1500 fps). I make this statement after observing thousands of hard cast slugs flatten out to thickness of a toony after hitting steel Cowboy Action targets at 6-700 fps.
 
fingers284 said:
As I said in post #12 wood isnt solid enough to expand commercial "hard cast" but I think hard cast will expand very well when hitting solid bone in an animal at BP hunting velocity rounds (anywhere from 1100 to 1500 fps). I make this statement after observing thousands of hard cast slugs flatten out to thickness of a toony after hitting steel Cowboy Action targets at 6-700 fps.
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At 1100-1500fps there is no need for hard cast or gas checked.

I would not expect a hard cast bullet to open up at all unless hitting a heavy set shoulder like a moose, the back of the shoulder blade or ribs is not going to do anything to most hard cast bullets.
 
hunter64 said:
Sounds like you want to have the bullet mushroom and still be powder coated. You can make a duplex bullet with a bit of experimenting, not hard to do just have to find the right amount of lead to add to 1/2 to 3/4 of a bullet nose. Here is what I did for my pedersoli 45-70 single shot. I filled the bottom 3/4 of the bullet with hard lead and let it setup, then with a buckshot mould I did one 00 buck pellet of pure lead and dropped it into a ladle to melt. With the ladle of soft lead I poured it into the mould on top of the 3/4 hard bullet. Then rested the whole mould on top of the molten lead in the pot until I could see that it melted both halves together. Then very carefully lifted the mould and let it air cool until it solidified and dropped the bullet onto some rags to cool.

Then I did the sizing and powder coating as usual. I shot it into a dirt pile at about 50 yards and the nose did mushroom somewhat. I would like to try and just powder coat the body of the bullet and leave the nose un coated but I would have to buy a powder coating gun of some kind to do that and I am not that curious at the moment. More important things to worry about and beside when you are working with nearly 1/2" slugs to begin with it really doesn't matter if the bullet mushrooms.
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I like the idea of a 50 cal round ball, hard cast, melted and poured in to the base, then topped with soft lead.

Not talking about 45 cal but thinking about casting soft 30 cal with a powder coat to allow for expansion as well as running up at a higher velocity.
 
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