Painting or powder coating cast boolits?

[Mbaker78]

I've already done a quick run through of the cast boolits forum and didn't find what I was looking for, too much chaff to sort through...

I'm thinking about getting into casting my own, but I'm curious about painting or powder coating instead of traditional lube. I'd be casting for 40 and 45 without gas checks, but the 308 for 300aac might need gas checked.

Are checks supposed to be put on before or after paint/PC?

Do paint/PC foul up a barrel and more or less than lead?

If I decide to paint, will any paint work or will it have to be enamel paint?

If I PC will I have to put them in the oven to "cure"?

I'm still in the information gathering stage and getting ready to start collecting lead from local tire shops, so any help would be appreciated.

[WarEagleEd]

With the powder coat you will need to "bake on" the coating. You can use a toaster oven, I believe (use the "bake" function, don't toast 'em). A friend of mine used to powder coat various car parts in an incubator.

[62chevy]

No one I've heard of uses enamel to paint boolits epoxy yes but not enamel. Anyway the epoxy does not hold up well and no one is using it now. There a a bunch of people using the Hi-tek coatings from Australia. I just started powder coating and got a black-n-decker toaster oven and some PC form a guy on cast boolits. Total cost less than 50 bucks.

[gandog56]

I don't cast but I have a buddy that does. He will sell me cast 150 grain, gas checked, powder coated bullets sized to .313", which I use for a reduced recoil load for my Mosin Nagants. (Also for my Type 99 Japanese Arisaka) I don't have any pics of them, but here is the same bullet squeezed into a .308 Win case. (Just the thing for my converted 1916 Spanish Mauser)
155

He will also size them to .309" which is what the above photo is.

[DukeInFlorida]

Here's my take..... as a 40+ year experienced reloader and caster............

More than a decade ago, some long distance shooters thought of a NOVEL idea..... Cast their rifle bullets, and coat them with finely powdered molydisulfide powder, a somewhat good lubricant for some applications. Their hope was that for the same amount of smokeless powder, their velocities would be much improved, and the resultant group sizes reduced.

Well, that's not the way things worked out......

Turns out that yes, the powdered moly did act as a lubricant. But the effect was in the negative direction. Turns out that the longer a bullet is in the barrel, and the longer the gasses are pushing on said bullet, the faster it gets to going. The moly caused the time in the barrel to be too short, and the velocities DROPPED from the un-powdered versions. OOPS.

Here's the real problem that was encountered:
NOTHING dissolved the Moly from those barrels. Once a barrel was "infected" with that damn moly powder, the barrel because all but useless. Many of the early pioneers were wringing their hands, wishing that they hadn't gotten involved.

The current trend towards powder coating is a similar exercise.

Everyone is looking to reduce the time, trouble, and cost of making proper cast lead bullets. The raw material used in the powder coating?? It's again a fine powder!! This time, it's typically a polyester.

Could someone please tell me what dissolves the polyester that will get smeared inside your barrels??? NOTHING will dissolve that.

So, I wish all the un-educated people who are willing to screw up perfectly fine barrels with polyester linings all the best. History will certainly point towards these efforts as being a lot like the previous MOLY failures.

Answering some of the questions:
1) Success with normal cast/sized/lubes boolits requires three basic ingredients.
(A) Hardness of the lead alloy for the loaded velocity.You'll need to also attend to that even with powder coated bullets
(B) Proper sizing for the bore, typically .001" to .002" over bore diameter. With powder coating, sizing is the BIGGEST issue, and the one most likely to ruin your barrel with polyester smears. If the sizing isn't right, hot gasses leak past the bullet while in the barrel, and those hot gasses will melt even lead. That's where a lot of "leading" happens. Size matters!
(C) Proper lubrication is required for the velocity, ambient temp, etc. Polyester powder coating is not nearly as effective as a proper cast bullet lube would be.

So, polyester powder coating will FAIL in all three instances.

Yes, you COULD try to size the bullets before coating. Yes, you could fuss with the hardless of the alloy. Yes, you could try to add on some sort of after lube to the powder coating.

But.... if you are going to go through all that time and trouble and effort......... why not just make proper castings in the first place!!

Gas checks: These are used to make up for small (very small) errors in the hardness, sizing, and lube of a normal cast bullet. They would NOT be appropriate for use with powder coating bullets. First of all, the gas checks are cinched on during the sizing/lube operation. Buying gas checks, and trying to make them go on, either over or under the powder coat would be a horrible failure. And, they would not do what you wanted them to do.

Anyways, that's my two cents worth. You'd NEVER catch me powder coating anything that would slide down the barrel of any of my guns. Most of the people powder coating are young people, who seem to always prefer the fastest way to do anything, without care of cost or results. I wish them well.

My advice: Stay away from trying to powder coat bullets.

Casting the correct way is easy, and cost effective. Keep your guns safe, so that you can pass them along to your grandchildren.

[Mbaker78]

I was indeed hoping to skip the cost of a lubrisizer. Any feedback either way on Lee tumble lube molds and the bullets they produce?

[62chevy]

I was indeed hoping to skip the cost of a lubrisizer. Any feedback either way on Lee tumble lube molds and the bullets they produce?

I have tumble lubed both kinds of boolits and it's quick and easy BUT it smokes like black powder guns. The main reason for going to powder coating. And of course FPS is a big factor some say under 1600 FPS and some say 1200. I have pushed some rifle boolits to maybe 1400 fps, no crony, with no leading.

[62chevy]

Duke acetone will remove the polyester and heat, 400 deg, will hake the fine powder melt together. You may be right about long range shooting as some report poor performance but in pistols it's great.