Coated bullets vs. traditional band/lubed cast?

If the coating is getting damaged during loading that means that either it was not cured properly or your dies are not adjusted properly. Failure to properly cure the powder could certainly cause some of the problems you have indicated. What is your coating procedure?

Most coated bullet sellers have load data for there bullets on their website, and will usually answer any questions about problems you are having.
I only use bullets with the Hi-Tek coating and have found bullets .001-.002 bigger than what worked for traditional lubed/cast work best.
Never had leading with coated bullets in any caliber,

I have reloaded and shot thousands of 9mm coated and the accuracy is as good as I could want. I have shot many thousands of both coated and lubed cast in 45acp and notice no difference in accuracy.

The only difference between lubed cast and coated cast for me is that I grew weary of cleaning bullet lube out of the internals of my semi-autos. And I pay a little more for the coated just because of this.

the coating should not come off. i have recovered fired bullets and the pc is still on. a good test is to smash the bullet with a hammer, the coating should not crack.

I have only had problems with the coating coming off if the flare die is not adjusted properly. Wether it be be the Lyman M die on my Redding T7 or the powder funnel on my Dillon 550b. If not adjusted properly the coating can be shaved off.

And because I use bigger coated bullets for 9mm (.357/.358), I use this 38 S&W expansion plug:
https://leeprecision.com/pm-expan-plg-38-s-w.html
https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-se1699-pm-exp-plug-38-sw?search=SE1699
Might not make a difference but it's something I do,

I have have commercially coated bullets that didn't work well, and others that work very well. I bought some 30 carbine coated bullets where the coating was damaged by the seating stem. I don't buy from that company anymore.
I can recommend ACME coated bullets which have worked well for me in all calibers that I have tried.
The majority of coated bullets I shoot nowadays though are my own boolits coated in harbor freight red powder
The only uncoated lead bullets I use are 38 wadcuttters and 32 s&w short, because for those the advantages of coating are not necessary and the time/effort involved compared to tumble lubing would be excessive.

I've tried them in 9mm, and seem to get similar results to traditional cast through several firearms.

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Me too, my results are the same as well. This is because it’s the same bullet just coated vs wax lubed.

The coating doesn’t make it more accurate just cleaner.

I've been casting for a couple of years now. I've never lubed a bullet. Always coated. Either Hi-Tek or PC. The one mistake many people make with PC is not cooking it long enough. You need to get the base metal up to temp for 10 minutes. Not just cook for 10 minutes. I cook my PC bullets at 400° for 20-25 minutes. Hi-Tek gets six minutes at 400°, a shake and another six minutes. I minimize the time the oven door is open. I've never had a problem.

All of my 38, 9mm and 45 are coated Acme bullets. My dies are RCBS. Never had a problem with the sizer or seating dies taking the coating of. The only problem I've had with lost coating is when I pull a bullet after it's crimped which I would expect.

I have not found any difference in performance between the coated and un-coated handgun bullets that I have used. But, I mostly plink these days and do not expect 100-10X kind of accuracy. Also, I have not attempted to drive any coated bullets to magnum velocities.

The only commercial coated bullets that I have used have been Missouri Bullets Hi-Tek coated bullets. I have been dabbling with coating my own cast bullets for 32, 9mm, 38, 44, and 45 calibers.

I've experienced many of the issues already mentioned but have been able to make adjustments or replace die components to work around the issues.

Coating the bullets is a bit more labor intensive than I would like.

The only way for leading to occur using a coated bullet is if the bullet base is not properly coated (or as mentioned if the coating is not properly applied at all). The coating will be removed from the sides of the bullet due to the rifling but that's perfectly OK. The coating on the top and most of the sides has no effect on leading or bullet performance. Accuracy will not increase and should not decrease when using any coating. Hopefully I can run another test eventually to get more pics to add to the ones below.

I use Coated lead in .38/.357 and have had fantastic results I use Missouri, SNS Casting and Summers Enterprises. Accuracy is great and never have a leading problem. I've pushed some Coated lead over 1500 fps with not a hint of leading. Granted, when I'm shooting the hot hunting loads, I'm only shooting to stay sharp and make sure that my Red Dot Tube is still sighted in so I'm usually shooting 25-30 rounds a session. But I so shoot a lot of 130 and 158 grain coated lead mostly loaded in the 900-1000 fps range at steel plates and I'm subject to shoot several hundred of these in an afternoon but still with no leading problems. I'm also a believer that leading can be caused as much by bullet fit as it can by too soft of lead. I've shot a lot of the standard lead from GT Bullets and I order them at .358 size. I really like their 185gr Hard Cast Hollow Point and have shot these at around 1300 fps in my 8 3/8" model 686 without any noticeable leading. On the flip side, I have a 6' Colt Python that loves the .358 sized HBWC but shoot any lead bullet in it over 1000fps and it leads up some sort of bad. It does great with the coated lead, but I've not tried any Coated Lead in it pushed real hard. Its earned its place just to shoot target loads. Its got over 30k rounds through it over the years and I've go other guns to push to the limit. Try some different diameter bullets in your guns to see if it helps the leading problems and not to sound like a complete jerk or know it all, make sure you have all the lead out of a barrel before trying a new load. I've found if you do have lead, it just seems to attract more. All of the loading techniques mention above should not be taken lightly as well. If you are doing something to damage the coating when loading, then I'm sure that could play a part in your lead problems as well. I bell my cases pretty wide when loading coated lead. More than I do than when loading jacketed bullets

[q]Coated bullets seem to be all the rage these days. I've tried them, still have a large inventory of 9mm to use up. My results, on paper however, have been mixed.[/q]

Coated by who, IE who made them, and coated with what?

When coated boolits first were being experimented with, there were dozens of coatings being tried. It has pretty much boiled down to 2 major methods. Hi-tek and powder coating.

IIRC hi-tek was first used in Australia. It got good reviews and the process made the journey across the pond to the U.S. Powder coating is simply powdered paint sprayed onto an object using an electrostatic gun to make the powder particles stick to the object until it can be baked on.

I've never used the hi-tek process, while investigating the two major processes, I didn't like the chemicals needed, and the necessity to coat the boolits twice. So I don't know that much about it, other than it should not be easily scraped off the boolit.

I opted for the powder coating process. My first tries were with the harbor freight red powder, tumbled in a plastic bowl. The results were amazing. It made leading problem handguns shoot with zero leading. With the same accuracy that did NOT degrade as the leading got worse.

The coating is as tough as nails! It takes a sharp knife and great effort to peel it off a properly cured boolit. I have since switched to a company called "powder buy the pound" powders. A ziplock bag, the boolits, and a teaspoon of powder. Then placed in my vibrator tumbler for 5 minutes. The friction from the plastic bag rubbing against the tumbler bowl creates the electrostatic electricity the coat the boolits.

I SOME cases loads have to be re-worked to get the same or better accuracy with coated boolits. BUT it's worth the effort.

snuffy said:

[q]Coated bullets seem to be all the rage these days. I've tried them, still have a large inventory of 9mm to use up. My results, on paper however, have been mixed.[/q

I opted for the powder coating process. My first tries were with the harbor freight red powder, tumbled in a plastic bowl. The results were amazing. It made leading problem handguns shoot with zero leading. With the same accuracy that did NOT degrade as the leading got worse.

The coating is as tough as nails! It takes a sharp knife and great effort to peel it off a properly cured boolit. I have since switched to a company called "powder buy the pound" powders. A ziplock bag, the boolits, and a teaspoon of powder. Then placed in my vibrator tumbler for 5 minutes. The friction from the plastic bag rubbing against the tumbler bowl creates the electrostatic electricity the coat the boolits.

I SOME cases loads have to be re-worked to get the same or better accuracy with coated boolits. BUT it's worth the effort.

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I have read a lot about do it yourself coating and it really interest me. I will assume you are casting your own bullets as it would not be practical to buy cast bullets and then coat yourself. The difference in uncoated and coated is not worth the trouble in my opinion. I'd love to try the process, but just don't have the time. I have very happy memories of the 70's when 5-6 of us would sit around with several 6 cavity molds and cast 148gr wadcutters, drink beer and tell lies for several hours at a time We used an old cast iron pot over a gas burner.. It's amazing how many bullets can cast when you got that many guys casting at once. We weren't technical by any standards. We used wheel weights that back then were free to anyone that would haul them away from numerous tire shops and service stations all over town. We sized on 2 old lyman sizers and used various materials for lube. When we had it, we used standard bullet lube from lyman, but it seemed we never had enough. We used wax from the grocery store, melted candles etc but never seemed to have a problem. Everything we loaded was with around 2.5-2.5gr of Bullseye. We were not looking for bullseye accuracy, we just wanted cheap bullets to shoot. We would cast until we ran out of lead and then start sizing and loading. Everything was loaded on an old lyman turret press. We cleaned our brass in an old cement mixer much like Jerry Miculak does today using lemon dishwashing detergent. About the only high tech equipment we had was a carbide sizing and decapping die. We took turns sizing and priming. All powder drops was done in wood loading blocks that were hand made. Then the seating and crimping was done. It was slow compared to todays standards that I can turn our on my Dillon 650 but the good times we all had working together was priceless. When we go through, all the bullets were divided up and when they were gone, we just started over. It took a couple of nights for 2-3 weeks but we wound up with a lot of cheap bullets to shoot and doing everything together made it seem like fun and not work. Oh those were the good old days! Now I barely have time to buy components ready to go and load a few hundred at a time in the afternoons after work, and while I stay in bullets to shoot, I sure do miss the old days with the boys! Maybe after retirement I'll go back to casting and coating myself just too remember the old days.