jaysouth

when was the last time they legislated common sense? It ain't as common as it used to be. A hoe or shovel is a fearsome snake killer. More efficient and discreet than a gun, but hey, we're gun guys right? 12 gauge skeet load of #9 is almost as efficient as choppin' hoe.

Jacketed velocities with no gas check or lube. No futzing with endless alloy mixes or 'hair of newt' secret lube formulas. Better fashion statement too. Guess who is going to attract more attention from the ladies? Ever tried 'come up to my place to see my LLA' for a pick up line?

Caster, What color is that yellow and where did you get it? I have the harbor fright(not sp) yellow but it turns olive green on my bullets. I have almost a full pound of it that I will give to a good home, ditto red if someone comes and gets it. I am thinking of shooting it when the wind is blowing downwind at the range. It is not good for anything else.

Some pictures of bullets that I have coated with Powder by the Pound coatings. This one is a neat red called Golden Pink Pearl: This is a green that I can't remember the exact name of This one is called signal orange. First coat of purple glitter 2d coat of purple glitter, I am thinking that a dark undercoating is necessary to bring this one out. My wife is jealous, she wants a nail polish this color. When I post the pics of the next color I picked out, I will warn you to don welder's goggles before you open the file. It's a hot pink selected by Brittany.

I visited their facility down in Nolensville today. When I walked in I was greeted by a young lady named Brittany. When I told her that I needed some coatings for bullets she related to me that she had received a call earlier in the day about how to powder coat bullets. This was the first time that she had heard of what we and others had been doing. She was amazed when she bought up the long running thread on the subject here. I also gave her a link to castboolits.com. I bought a pound of nice red powder and Brittany gave a sample of another color. They are located in the Johnson Industrial Park a block south of Martin's BBQ. 2011 Johnson Industrial Blvd 615 886 7600 They have all the colors on the website on metal swatches in the office. If you are looking for a special color to make a fashion statement with your bullets, Brittany can give some good advice. Good Folks

Has anyone here used this product? I have used Dacron filler that is used to make pillows as a filler for high velocity .308 rounds using ball powders which did not fill the case. You can also buy it in bulk where they sell fabrics. A couple of bucks will buy you a lifetime supply. It will improve accuracy in max pressure loads by filling the case. Most stick powders used for such high pressure loads are usually case fillers or slightly compressed for best accuracy. However, in sub-sonic loads with fast burning pistol powders, I have not seen a need to use fillers. In the past I have used Red Dot, Unique, Bullseye, Green Dot, 231 and Blue Dot for 1,000-1,200 fps with cast bullets. These fast burning powders are not positional sensitive. The addition of fillers do not seem to affect accuracy one way or the other. Because your rifle is unique to all others, you need to experiment to find the right load for your gun in the velocity range you are looking for. The target below was shot in a .308 1:12 twist with 8 grs. green dot. Velocity would have been about 1100 fps. with no recoil. If a better shot than I were shooting this load in this rifle, the results would be impressive indeed!

I cast and powder coated a bunch of .357 and .309 bullets today. I hope to get to the range this week and report back. I am not quite sure why I powder coated bullets to be shot in a .38, but it might bring on some interesting results. I have a new chrony that I need to learn to use, so the next range trip will be twofer for me.

My go-to load for .30-06 subsonic is 9grs Green Dot. It gives me about 1200+ fps with a 165 cast bullet. Click on 170 gr. under 30-06 and scroll down. As a rule, the faster the powder, the less position sensitive it is. Check out the group sizes at 50 yards. http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

If reloading becomes a chore for you, add a hundred bucks per hundred rounds for frustration.  If your only consideration is cost, maybe you should get a part job to buy factory ammo.  I started shooting 60 years ago.  In the ensuing years my soul has been subsumed by the black hole of shooting, reloading, gunsmiffin',  wildcatting, casting, paper patching and now, powder coating.   Given the time and money I have invested in my hobbies, I could be a par golfer enrolled in a nice private country club and traveling to senior tournaments across the country.  But then I would have to associate daily with preppies and yuppies. (my mountain kin and swamp rat relatives would not approve!)   My ashes will be buried in the box that my Dillon 650 arrived in, cost be damned! 

I tried the denatured alcohol.  It did not work at all for me.    Last night I ordered some powder from PBTP.  No more coating experiments until the powder comes in.   Anyone want a pound of HF red?  If you had to walk further than across the street, it would not be worth your effort.  It will get hidden in a garbage bag and go to the landfill.

Dolomite, I am curious, what other board are you talking about. Thanks

I was able to go to the range today and test out the powder coated bullets. The only thing that I learned today is that they are reasonable accurate and I have a good chance of working up a very accurate load approaching jacketed velocities. There was no chronograph set up and I can only guess at the velocities by interpolating published data in the Lee Cast Bullet manual. All were shot from my Vanguard S2 at 50 yards with a Leupold 3-9 set on 6 power. Rifle was shot from a supported rest. To each target, I have attached the file card that I put in a plastic bag when loading the cartridges. Also attached to each target is a soiled patch being pushed through the bore after five rounds. A lot can be learned from watching and saving patches. The biggest thing today is that there was no powder coating left in the barrel and that the barrel was free of leading after 30 rounds. First up is a very accurate small game load at about 1100 fps. As you can see there was a lot of soot in the barrel, likely from low pressure of the load. Next is the target for the 18 grs. of 2400. Not very accurate, but I suspect it was due to inconsistent powder coating and operator error. Finally, the target shot with 3031. I would estimate the velocity at 1800 fps. A little bit cleaner than the loads with 2400 and more recoil. As you can see, I have a long way to go, but there is promise for powder coating cast bullets. All the bullets shot were sized to .309 after the powder coating was applied and cured. The biggest issue, however, is expansion. In the coming day, I am going to cast some bullets of very soft lead to see how well they shoot with powder coating. A pure lead bullet going 2,000 fps that did not lead and was accurate and expanded well would be a woods hunters perfect round. I would love to hear any comments, especially suggestions about how I could do better.

Here again are the .309 160 Lee cast loads that I powder coated with Harbor Freight yellow powder coat paint and cured a couple of days ago. Yes, they look green to me too, a very putrid green. [URL=http://s4.photobucket.com/user/jaysouth/media/P6200040_zpsc63ed9f0.jpg.html][/URL] Today I loaded some up in .308. Those of you with sharp eyes will recognize that the 18 grs of 2400 and 29 grs of 3031 will not produce true jacketed bullet velocities, however both loads are in excess of the generally accepted leading threshold of 1400-1500 fps for cast bullets. [URL=http://s4.photobucket.com/user/jaysouth/media/P6240014_zps6b3715a8.jpg.html][/URL] I will shoot these in my dedicated cast bullet gun, a Weatherby Vanguard S2. I have had it a year and shot many many hundreds of cast loads out of it but NEVER a jacketed bullet load. I have developed a 165 gr. Ranch Dog cast load that shoots 2 MOA out of this rifle and 4 inches out of my hunting rifle, a Remington 7600P with a red dot sight. Using this 1900 fps load, it has taken four deer with four shots between 20 feet and 50 yards. My chore list will get caught up in a day or two and I will get to the range and give you a report.

I have used HS-6 successfully in .38 Super.  It burns at about the same rate as Unique (if indeed that means anything) but meters like it was water.  Winchester small primers or CCI magnum small primers get good ignition.   Some gun dancers (IDPA, itsapig, etc) swear by N105, AA7 and VV 3N38 for major power factor in .38 Super.  No personal knowledge with these powders but Professional gun dancers are never wrong.  Just ask one.  Guns and leather in Hendersonville had AA7 on Saturday.

Thanks, I'll check out BassPro in a couple of days for different colors.

After carefully reading Dolomite's postings, I ran to Harbor freight and gathered up some leather glove, a respirator and red and yellow powder paint. I ran an extension cord out on the patio and hooked up mamma's toaster oven. While it heated up, I cut a piece of hardware cloth and found the acetone. Donning safety glasses, respirator and gloves, I mixed up some PC with acetone using Dolomite's formula. First the red. A total bust. It would not dissolve. I added a couple of bullets to aid in agitation and break up the clumps of powder. All the powder clumped to the four bullets. Not quite knowing what to do, I tried again with the same result. Then I moved on to the yellow. Powder dissolved and I threw in a hundred bullets of unknown alloy I got in a trade. I had always intended to melt them in the next smelting run. After shaking and agitating for over five minutes, enough acetone evaporated to dump them on my screen and put in the oven. After curing in the oven for 12-15 minutes at approximately 400 degrees, I removed them and they came out green. They cooled and remained in the sun for the rest of the day. There are some imperfections where the powder coat picked up some impressions of the hardware cloth and the lube grooves did not fill with PC. Tomorrow, I will measure and size if necessary and load some up. I am pleased where I am after my first attempt, but more practice is needed. I have to solve the issue with the red powder not dissolving. I may return it for another jar to see if that makes a difference. If this works, it sure simplifies bullet casting. No more worries about precise alloy content or endless fiddling with lube formulas. It seems almost too good to be true. Thanks again Dolomite!

After reading this thread, I dashed to Harbor Freight and bought a respirator, some leather gloves and powder paint. I 'borrowed' a toaster oven out of the kitchen (I may have to buy mamma a new toaster oven) and started on my quest for powder coated bullets. After a couple of rocky starts, I finally baked off some PC bullets. Pictures and narrative of mis-steps to follow. This may save me from paper patching and/or buying a new RCBS lubricator/sizer.

If you heard it on the internet, it has to be true. Garbage in and out at the speed of light. I am a hopeless scavenger, I pick up any loose brass I see. When I see a glock firing pin mark, I scan the base to see if it has the bulge that the internet says all glocks will impart on fired brass. In thousands and thousands, I have seen a few marks, but no dangerous bulges. When in doubt, use your gut reinforced by sight and feel. Let the internet and gun shop commandos live under the rocks that they make up in their minds.

Zip/231/HP-38 appear to be one in the same, I have used this powder for years in the 3.3-4.0 range for 124 cast in an STI 1911 and 4.4 with copper condoms in a Glock. Outstanding performance and accuracy.

Dolomite, Thanks for a very informative post. Quick question, what lead alloys are you using? Does hardness matter when powder coating? Thanks

the dark side indeed! It took me a year to become proficient enough to reload dozens for different calibers for rifle, pistol and shotgun for the next 50 years. However, 50 years might not be enough time to master casting. Paper patching? The men in white with the strait jacket are looking for me, but I can run faster! Mastering paperpatching is more fun that hitting your thumb with a hammer.

Without stupid people, pawnshops would go out of business.  A shop can put a stupid price on a gun and there is a good chance that someone will pay that price.   Set up a circuit.  visit every pawnshop in your area that seems reasonable to deal with.  I always ask the clerk to read me the hanging tag without handing me the gun.  That way I don't waste their time on things that would have no interest to me.  If something looks good, I ask to see the gun.  Also, I always leave a business card and thank them for their time.      Last month, I got a Marlin waffle top 30-30 for under $300 out the door.  I am talking to another place about a handi-rifle in 30-30 when they get ready to deal.

Respectfully, I would suggest you forgo any reloading until you have two or three bound paper printed reloading manuals at your fingertips.  One of these should be the LEE Reloading manual because it has listed the pressures for each load.  Free data off the internet is worth usually what you pay for it.

No one has yet mentioned that they knew the diameter of their barrels, 9mm or .38.  Until you slug the barrel and accurately measure the slug,  futher discussion is a waste of bandwidth.   How many of you have ever applied a micrometer to bullets that you bought?  It sounds like we have some folks who do not know the diameter of either their bullets or bores and opining about them.

I have arthritis in my hands and elbows. My doctor told me to shoot reduced cast loads in my .45. My 'reduced load' is a 215 gr soft cast bowling pin bullet with a wide meplat going 850 fps over a nice load of WSF or Unique. Here is a picture of the same bullet made by Magnus Bullets Co just over the line in AL. [url=http://s97.photobucket.com/user/jwsoutherland/media/bowlingpinbullet_zps273b56b2.jpg.html][/URL]