Powder coating Lee R.E.A.L. bullets?

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Has anyone tried this?

Have the chance to pick up a nice Traditions Vortek 50cal. ML and was thinking it might be a fun plinker using cast bullets. Was looking at the Lee R.E.A.L. slugs for their cleaning effect but was wondering if powder coating them would work or cause issues loading them?

I'm not entirely sure if they are meant to be used with a bullet lube or used dry even.

Any help would be appreciated!
 
I haven't tried powder coating them for my .58 Zouave but it shoots well with bullets cast from wheel weights and some Bore Butter as a lubricant/
 
I'm hoping that the powdercoat may help in keeping things clean and act a bit as a lubricant on the rifling. Planning on using Blackhorn 209 or Triple 7.
 
powder coating may make them a bit more of a tighter squeeze/chore to "seat" but other than that should work fine for stopping leading of the bore...but one thing you won't have is the advantage a good BP lube will offer, that being a hard crusty residue instead of a more softer easier to clean fowling.
 
Lee reals work well in my experience. Make sure you use pure lead (learned this the hard way) and a buffer. I use a home brew of beeswax and olive oil for lube and 35gr of Cream O Wheat. Works like a charm....and the COW seems to clean as well. One spit patch between shots to remove the fouling, load and shoot. Can do many many rounds like this with no issues. Down range the reals have performed well with groups under 1.5 using a scoped TC Omega. Yours may vary.
 
I've been using them resized to .454 " ( each band is slightly larger from the rear to the front of the bullet ) then just painted with enamel paint .

I've only tried them in my rifle ( rossi 1892 copy in 454 casull ) using 45colt brass , loadings from 6 to 9 grains of trail boss , loaded to a oal the same as 454 casull .

they work really well , accurate enough to remove the head on a grouse or rabbit , no apparent leading . 7 grains of trailboss seems to be a good compromise in terms of velocity and "quietness" .

they where around 250 grains for weight .
 
i don't have any black powder experience but if i got into it i would powder coat the bullet then put a black powder lube on them. i find it a bit harder to seat powder coated bullets vs lead, plated or jacketed bullets.
 
Would using Triple 7 and the cleaning ability of the R.E.A.L. bullets allow me to shoot longer strings of fire before requiring a good scrub? My understanding is that the Triple 7 is much cleaner than burning black powder. Or is that just wishful thinking???

Sounds like powdercoating maybe more for the user than the rifle itself?
 
In my limited experience, the crud ring will get you at seating the bullets eventually. REAL bullets will not eliminate this issue. So you may be able to go 4 shots without a spit patch to remove the crud maybe, maybe not. Never used 777 so cant comment, but with Pyrodex you can keep things working well with a spit patch every shot, or every 2 or 3 before you will need to remove the crud. You can shoot all day with this regimin before doing your daily clean out. Also, 777 does not eliminate the need to clean after the days shooting, no sub does other than maybe blackhorn 209. My 2c.
 
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