Shooters Forum banner

Bullet Coating

6K views 22 replies 17 participants last post by  454PB 
#1 ·
This subject may have been touched on before but new to the forums just joined to see if I can get some input.
I've been reloading for years and just got into casting my lead 9mm and 308's for 300 blackout. I've looked at a bunch of different techniques for coating bullets, powder coating. Tried it couldn't get it to work so I went to Wal-Mart picked up some rustoleum epoxy appliance spray paint and I've been coating with that, first batch didn't turn out so I gave the bullets an acetone bath, painted then baked at 350 for 15 minutes pulled them out then coated the base and recooked them. They didn't peel or flake off in the sizer die (.356) and I loaded up some with power pistol. It's been raining cats and dogs all week so I haven't tested for leading but did a crush test and it bonds pretty good.
Question is if this doesn't work does anyone have a coating solution besides powder coating?
 
#2 ·
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I can't see this turning out well. I think that paint is going to come off in the borte. Maybe not.

I've never seen the need for "coating" cast bullets.

RJ
 
#4 ·
Maybe I am just too old and conservative, but as I have read about and watched YouTube videos on powder coating bullets, I haven't seen the advantage over well made and lubed cast bullets. I shoot essentially all cast bullets in my pistols, revolvers, and rifles, and I do not have a leading problem. I don't even use a lubrisizer of any kind. I thumble lube with an Alox-Johnson's paste wax mix and size (if needed) with Lee push through sizers. It seems to be a whole lot of trouble with coating the bullets, baking them, etc., just to end up with pretty colorful bullets. To each his own, but I don't think I will ever go there.
 
#7 ·
I'm pretty old, and conservative, too... I believe the primary advantage is the elimination of smoke and lead vapors when firing lead bullets... especially indoors. Remember the Federal Nyclad? Same principle.
And... you don't have to LUBE them.

But... you do have to powder coat and bake them.

And... you can color-code your bullets, if you wish.
 
#5 ·
Epoxy paint works, but powder coating or Hi Tek is better. I powder coat use the dry tumble method with black airsoft BBs. Go over to the cast boolits site and pick one of the methods. Read through the stickies and give it a go. You will not be disappointed.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the input, a lot of people don't coat and just use lube but I have a hard time finding different alloys to mix to get the correct hardness. From what I've heard you can use pure lead as long as it's coated. Buying up Lyman cast lead cuts into the savings and I've used up all my wheel weights. I'm not shooting anything over 1240fps just 130gr 9mm and 209gr 300 blackout
 
#8 ·
I'm so old fashioned I still use the NECO process to molycoat rifle and revolver bullets. Wheel weight 255 gr. .411 bullets are tumbled with moly and shot until the bullets are uniform gray then strained and tumbled with shot and carnuba wax for ten minutes. Your fingers turn black from loading them but he exposed part is surprisingly tough. I'm running just under 1100fps with no gas check and don't get leading.
 
#10 ·
Powder Coating

I have started to powder coat everything I cast and I love it. It is simple, easy and inexpensive. But the real reason is I can shoot real soft lead with no mess at all. Took out my Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt two days ago and put 96 soft cast powder coated bullets through it. The went from a 350 grin at around 950 fps to 280 grain flat points and hollow points and well over 1200 fps. When done I ran a wet pach of #9 followed by three trips back and forth with a brush then two dry patches. The barrel looked cleaner than when it came out of the box.

I was able to recover several from the sand berm and liked what I saw. The hollow points really preformed like hollow points are superposed to. The flat points held together and mushroomed enough to make a difference. The big surprise was the the hollow points retained a lot more that I thought. The most I lost from any recovered bullet was 5.5 grains out of 280 grains that left the muzzle

The proof is in the pudding or rather this case the sand berm.









And the 350 grain flat point.

 
#16 ·
Agreed. I have cast lead since I started reloading at around age 14. I powder coat for several reasons. I like shooting softer bullets and getting good mushrooming on both my solid heavyweights and I like the expansion and weight retention with the powder coated hollow points. A friend was saying he was loosing a lot of the nose of his hard cast when shooting into hard berms loosing 30% or more. 9 grains is the most I lost on any of my recovered bullets. It is also easier to clean up your barrel with powder coating. After firing 96 rather warm loads the only thing in the cylinder and the barrel was from the AA7 and the AA 9 I used.

Powder coating costs less to set up. Quality powder is around twenty bucks a pound and I have yet to use up half a pound coating several thousand bullets. The oven I used was eighteen bucks new, the black airsoft BBs were not costly and I really do not remember what I spent, the non stick aluminium foil still has at least half the roll left and the tubs I use came from sour cream and yogurt rescued fro my wife's recycle bin. The Lee bullet sizing dies are about twenty bucks. when compared to buying a lubrisizer and warming plate and a die and nose punch for every mold powder coating is way more costly to start.


I hate to to bring this up but powder coated bullets and less environmentally damaging both from fumes in the air and in the ground.
 
#18 ·
Random thoughts.

I powder coat some of my cast bullets but only for those that I feel have a need.
The majority of my lead loads are boughten ones (I get them from Missouri Bullet).

My view is that proper sized and lubed bullets at 'normal' velocities don't need to be coated. Granted, I don't/seldom shoot inside and lube smoke is not a factor for me.

I do coat (shank-n-bake method) some 240 grain .430s that are pushed hard out of my .44 Mag, but few of those actually need to be coated.

My major coating is for my cut down 155 grain Lee .311 mold. Shaved the rear of the mold to removed the gas check step and now I drop 130 grain bullets. I have yet to fire one that has been lubed, only powder coated. These run great in my .300 Blackout at 2300 FPS. I have pushed them to over 2800 FPS out of my .308/7.62 rifles and to over 2500 FPS in .30-06 rifles. All with no leading or anything. The barrels are cleaner than before using them. One down turn is I have yet to get the accuracy I want at velocities over 2350 FPS. I don't think the alloy is strong enough to handle the pressures. Yet I haven't detected any key-holeing, so my theory is just a theory.

I'm certain you have found a number of methods to powder coat. I will not go into that for now.

I will add that I like 'clear' polyester powders (I use 'Powder By The Pound'). I don't have to worry about getting a full pigment coverage, the polyester flows and covers well.

To date only one of my 130 grain clear coated bullets has been fired, out of my .300 Backout, at a game animal. It only took one shot. After nipping one shoulder bone and sucking a big chunk of lung through the heart and into the second lung, the bullet was lost. The deer was in motion when hit and slid into the ground.

My current 'go-to' loading for my Blackout is with 2400 powder and the normal little white ash balls (heavy loading in a .44 leaves these), are there but few of them.

I will stop rambling.

Load with care,
 
#19 ·
Never thought I would powder coat anything but after stopping in harbor freight, I bought some of their red powder coat for just over $6. Got it home and placed some of my boy's air soft bb's in a sour cream bowl, added a heaping tablespoon of the powder and then dropped some fresh cast bullets in and snapped the lid on. Tumbled them around for a few minutes, used needle nose pliers dipped in the powder and gave the side of bowl a tap to shake off excess powder from the bullets when removing them from the bowl and 20 minutes later had nicely coated bullets. Haven't had a chance to shoot any of them yet but plan to as soon as weather permits and will compare them to the ones I lube with 45/45/10 and see how they compare. It's actually less time consuming than tumble lubing considering dry time and if they work as well as I've read, not to mention being cheaper than lube, I'll be coating more.
 
#20 ·
Powder coating just plain old works. It is clean. Clean handling and clean shooting. Yes, it works quite well for most folks but it ain't gonna replace carefully cast and sized nekkid lead bullets. It's just a different method, some like it, some don't (I do both)...
 
#21 ·
I've been powder coating for a few months. I still shoot traditionally lubed bullets as well, mainly because I have several thousand ready to load.

The biggest advantage I see is less mess, no sticky bullets to handle, you can use softer alloys, you don't have to worry about leaving a box of ammo in the hot sun or your car, and it adds diameter where required.

One piece of advise.....buy an oven thermometer ($6 at Walmart). Most cheap toaster ovens are off by 25 to 50 degrees. You don't want to under bake or over bake (and melt your batch).
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top