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How do the PC'd bullets shoot? Do they leave a residue in the barrel? How do they measure up performance wise to the teflon coated bullets? |
I've never seen or shot any Teflon coated bullets so I have no idea about how those bullets preform. As to how the PC'ed bullets shoot the two targets I posted are pretty much the norm I get an they leave no residue in my rifle or pistol bores an I get no smoke like you do with the commercial wax lubed or tumble lubed bullets.
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My mate an I have experimented with cast bullets quite a bit, but we have taken a different tac...we went softer using LEE's ideas. |
I've been casting my own rifle and pistol bullets off an on for the past 30+ years. I pretty much cast everything form either clip on Wheel Weight or a combination of WW's and scrap roofing lead these days an shoot them air cooled,water quenched or heat treated in the toaster over depending on the required velocity and pressure my loads generate. I'm pretty much using 50/50 on all my 9mm and 45 ACP bullets these days as well as some rifle bullet and save the WW's for the higher velocity/pressure loads and use a gas check as well when needed.
As for PC'ing bullet for me it's just another form of lube that has a few added benefits in my case such as easy of long term storage an much cleaner hands and dies. I still lube several pistol and rifle bullets using my RCBS Lube A Matic and LARS 2500+ lube as I think they shoot more accurately with some loads. Before I pretty much used my own homemade tumble lube on everything. Regardless I or how I lube my bullets I've never had any leading issues.
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Is the Powder Coating something you can do at home, or do you need to send the bullets out to be done? |
You can buy cast lead bullets already coated most commercial casters that offer coated bullet us the Hi Tek coating which you can purchase an do at home as well. The process I use uses polymer based powders that as used by commercial powder coating operations which they also sell to the public in small quantities usually by the pound. I've coated thousands of bullet and still have powder left over so it goes a long way.
I coat all my own bullets at home using this process. You will need a plastic bowl with a snap or screw on lid of some sort I use a old cool whip bowl and use the shake an bake method,other will just put there powder an bullets in a vibratory tumbler and let it run till there coated.
Some people use black plastic air soft beads mixed in with the powder,I've done it with an without and can't tell much of a difference as to how the bullets are coated. An environment with low humidity that helps create static electricity is your friend when it comes to coating bullets when I can't do it out in the shop on hot humid or humid days I coat them in the house an toast them out on the back porch.
You will need a toaster over. You can buy a new one fairly cheap or see if you can pick a used one up at a local thrift store for a few dollars. People bake the bullets in different way but I line my toaster tray with non stick aluminum foil and stand my bullets up on the base using a pair of large tweezers,it's slower but I like the results I get.
As to powder many use the Harbor Freight powders Red works best for shake and bake followed by the Yellow. The HF Blacks seem to work much better if it's sprayed on with an ES gun as will the Red an Yellow the HF white is pretty much useless for PCing bullets.
There are many companies online that sell powder coat by the pound or you can get it form Smoke over at
castboolits.gunloads.c...ng-bullets He has good powder,prices and shipping it's where I get my powders.
All my coated bullets are baked at 400 degrees for 20 min. if you buy online from a mfg. they will state what temp and time to bake there powders at for it to cure properly. It's a good idea to preheat your over before putting the bullets in an use a oven thermometer to verify your oven temperature.
Also of note if you water quench your bullets straight from the mold before coating the PC curing process with negate the first water quenching so you will need to re quench them after removing them from the toaster oven even then they still want reach a final BHN as close to the original quenched BHN due to the time and temperature of the curing process but it will be fairly close an they will harden a bit more over time. Some good video on bullet hardness an quenching can be seen here
www.youtube.com/watch?...8wPDuOtvBB
Some other rifle and pistol bullets I've coated. These we some experimental colors I played around with I pretty much use Yellow-Green or OD Green with a bit of white added or Safety Orange. Eventually I will end up just using a clear coat after I use up all my colors.