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Since we've had some discussion of powder coated bullets lately, I thought I'd share this. I posted my process a few years ago, but don't remember the name of the thread. Anyway, I cast and coated a bunch of bullets this weekend, and figured I'd take some more pics.

These are 9mm 105gr hollow point bullets from a Lee mold I modified. I shoot them at 1450 fps from my Glocks, so the coating has to be pretty tough. That doesn't mean it has to take a long time to apply though. The pics below illustrate less than 1 minute of effort on my part (other than taking the pics) for coating, and another 5-8 minutes for separating and sizing about 200 to 250 bullets.

A quick note about powder BTW - not all powders are equal, in fact, none of them are equal, in my experience. Each one behaves slightly differently, even just different colors of the same brand/lineup. The powder below is RAL 6018 Yellow Green from Powder Buy The Pound

About this much powder for one coat; this is roughly 200-250 bullets. Use a plastic recyclable yogurt or sour cream tub.
[Linked Image]


About what it should look like dumped on the bullets. If you get the quantity right, the bullets will be coated like below, with little or no extra powder left in the tub.
[Linked Image]


15-20 seconds of shaking by hand, hard. I do mean shake it hard; build up some static in there by swirling the bullets around, and get that powder floating around in the air. If you're holding the tub in one hand, you aren't shaking hard enough.
[Linked Image]


Dump them out on a tray, doesn't matter if they touch each other. I use a metal screen in the tray to avoid flat spots.
[Linked Image]


20 minutes bake time in the toaster oven at 400* F (temp varies for different powders). You MUST use a thermometer to verify oven temp. Do this in the garage, not the kitchen.
[Linked Image]


Separated, ready to size (use a push-through Lee sizer die). Notice the thin or bare spots, and marks from the screen and touching other bullets - those don't matter. These bullets pictured are every bit as accurate as any jacketed bullet in my Glocks, and will chew out the X ring at 10 yards.
[Linked Image]

Hope that helps!


Last edited by Yondering; 07/13/16.
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Thanks for the speed tutorial, I'll have to try it with my next batch.

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Thanks for the information. I have a few questions: If I remember right you were doing a second coat, have you gotten away from that? If applying a gascheck, you do so before powder coating right? Are there any powders you've found which work well for high velocity (2400-2500) rifle loads? Thanks.

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Yeah, I was doing a second coat for everything, but have gone away from that for most pistol bullets. The stuff shown above gets loaded with just one coat.

Depends on the powder though, I use a different color for subsonics that pretty much requires two coats, as the first coat is pretty spotty. I'll probably switch to something else when I use up that batch of powder.

The green powder above is what I use for my rifle loads. I use it for 30 and 35 cal rifles, up to about 3000 fps. (Might work faster, I just don't have any cast bullet/cartridge combinations to do it right now.) I usually apply two coats for rifle bullets, just for a little thicker/tougher coating.

I apply gas checks after coating. That saves a step, I'm not handling bullets before coating, and I only have to size them once. (I do size all of my rifle bullets for accuracy.)


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That's very encouraging! I'm going to get a mold and try making some high and low velocity loads for my 9.3x62. Thanks yondering.

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Glad to help. That 9.3 will do really well with powder coated cast; a lot like my Whelen.

One final thought on the rifle bullets - I cast everything from ww alloy, and water quench for the rifle bullets. You don't strictly have to use quenched/hardened bullets, but accuracy is much better in my experience, and terminal performance is still good with flat nose bullets. This is for full power loads of course, at roughly the same velocity as the same weight jacketed bullets.

If you quench, do it after powder coating, when they are hot right out of the oven. If you water drop out of the mold, they'll get annealed in the oven again so it's not effective. When quenching after powder coating, pour water on the bullets, instead of pouring the bullets in water. The coating is damaged easily until it cools off, and will leave bare spots on the bullets.

Last edited by Yondering; 07/15/16.
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You just saved me alot of frustration. I'm gonna get the 280gr NOE mold with the pins to try different nose types. I'll have to experiment to see how expansion is with the wheelweights.

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Sounds like a good way to go.

At rifle velocity, you'll get plenty of expansion with a flat nose, don't need a hollow point.

Once you get below about 1500-1600 fps you'll need some sort of hollow point for expansion, and if the cavity is wide enough it can work down to 600-700 fps. With wheelweights, a cone shaped hollow point cavity performs better than a cup shaped cavity, unless you're looking for fragmentation.

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Hey Yondering,

You mentioned, "20 minutes bake time in the toaster oven at 400* F (temp varies for different powders). Is there a guide or quick reference guide for temps per powders? And Powders per calibers/velocities?

Thanks

Tracy


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Each powder can have different temp/time requirements, so you'll have to go by what the manufacturer recommends, but 10 min @ 400* F is pretty common for the powders I use.

I think the 10 minute spec is for time once everything's up to temp, so I bake for 20 minutes, allowing the first 10 min for the bullets to heat up. Cooking longer doesn't seem to hurt anything, within reason.

It is very important to hit the right temperature though; don't just go by the dial on your oven. I have to set the dial on mine a little past 500* to hit 400* actual temp, but other ovens might be down at 200-300* for the same result. Toaster oven temps seem to vary a lot more than regular kitchen ovens.

Regarding different powders for different velocity - not really; a powder that works well at 3000 fps is fine at 700 fps too. You could just use one good powder (like the green one above) for everything.

Last edited by Yondering; 07/17/16.
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Yonderling,

What other colors have you found to work well? I might have to try this. I have an old toaster oven out in the garage.


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So far nothing has been as good as RAL 6018, but there are literally thousands of options out there so the dozen or so I've tried are just a drop in the bucket. My best results have been with "TGIC Polyester" powders from PBTP.

I just started working with a "Bottle Green" from PBTP; it seems to coat well but I haven't used it enough to say any more than that.

I can say the Harbor Freight powders aren't really worth messing with. You can make them work but they are far from ideal, and not worth it to save a couple dollars.

I've also had bad results with the candy colors; they coat well but bullets stick together too badly, and they don't seem to offer as much protection in the barrel.

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Good info, thanks!


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When I get home I will post the PBTP powders I have found to work well. Probably around the first of the month.


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Yondering, about how many bullets can you coat with a pound of powder? Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands? Ballpark number is fine. Thanks

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Definitely many thousand, five to ten thousand might be a good ballpark number? I haven't kept track, but have gone through over 100 lb of lead on less than a pound of powder, so whatever that works out to.

It makes the cost of the powder pretty insignificant, so it's worth buying good powder to start with.

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Thanks. I see on pbtp sure that you can buy as little as a couple ounces. I wanted to try different colors, but didn't want to end up with a bunch of powder I didn't like. I also didn't want to get 2 ounces and find out it only would coat a small handful of bullets.

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Keep in mind their half pound only costs a little more than 2 oz most of the time; that's what I always end up getting to try new powders.

Last edited by Yondering; 07/29/16.
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Yeah, I see that. I even found one powder that a half pound cost more than a pound.

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Yondering, Not that sizing is all that time consuming,but have you ever fired any without sizing,if great accuracy is not required? Obviously, for rifle rounds and checked high velocity handgun rounds would be run thru the sizing die. memtb


You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right; you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong." -Bob Hagel

“I’d like to be a good rifleman…..but, I prefer to be a good hunter”! memtb 2024
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