Powder coating cast bullets

I do.
It takes a little more time but I use some curved forceps to pull them out of my "shake n bake" container and place them in my tray.

I did a bunch of .30 cal rifle bullets and couldn't get them to stand up easily (different center of gravity) so I just randomly put them on my baking tray.

I ended up with some bullets sticking together and when I pulled them apart it left tiny, uncoated areas.

I truly don't believe it will affect anything though and it's more of an affront to my OCD than anything.

No problem.
Some guys count their time as a sort of "cost".

I don't.

I understand that if I have expectations of a project I'm working on, the time involved is just part of the "price of admission"

A lot of folks seem to do things like reload, cast, powder coat etc as simply a means to an end, I do things like that because I enjoy it.

There are two distinct groups. I stand on end... comparatively low volume.
Basket coating like loads of bacon on YouTube. It leaves small blemishes where they stick together, arguably a non issue.

I stand on end. I like that the finish comes out nice and even.
Many people don't stand on end and they say everything works just fine.

I take the extra time. Usually, I'm casting in the early spring or late fall. Then I powder coat during the cold days. It gives me something to do when the weather isn't nice outside.

For long thin 30-30 bullets, I bought some silicone "mini ice cube trays" from Amazon. Powder the bullets and drop one in each cube hole. Then bake. It seems to work ok. No worries about them falling over or sticking together.

If you stand them on end they usually dominoes and take out several around them.

The small bit that may stick is usually smoothed over when you shove them through a sizing die.

I would face them up before backing!

tell you what, my brother is the worst powder coater ever! 1/2 his PC bullets fail, my suspicions is becuse he doesn’t turn the bullet when baking

I'm retired and on a fixed income too ... but I am Lucky ...
My Lyman 450 Lubricator / Sizer was paid for in 1970 and I discovered Lithium-Beeswax Bullet Lube ! Standing a bunch of cast bullets on end , getting them into a oven all without tipping them over sounds like something I can't do ... Place the bullet in the sizer die , pull handle down , tweak the lube supply handle , then handle up ... Completed bullet sized , lubed and gas check installed if it needs one ... it just don't get any easier or faster than that .
Gary

pistol - for PCC or blammo ammo- I don't bother standing up on end
rifle - for 30/30 and 300Black - I use the mini ice cube trays from Amazon like WeekendReloader mentioned.

I also stand them on end, even my 30 cal bullets (yeah, gotta be careful). Perhaps bullets baked on their side or touching other bullets "work fine", but if I can I like them "purdy" and blemish free, I will, and I'm rarely in a hurry, or take short cuts with anything casting, coating or reloading oriented...

I only powder coat pistol bullets and I stand them on end.

I take the time to stand them up. It’s a pain sometimes (30cals) but I prefer to take the extra time for a better finished product, I didn’t spend alllllll that time casting them nicely just to half ass the coating step and have the Bullets be poorly coated or missing spots.

@Mark_Mark what do you mean by the Bullets failing? The coating not staying put? I’d say that’s going to be “under cooked” if I had to guess. You should be able to hammer them flat and not have the coating flake off

Barbaroja said:

I take the time to stand them up. It’s a pain sometimes (30cals) but I prefer to take the extra time for a better finished product, I didn’t spend alllllll that time casting them nicely just to half ass the coating step and have the Bullets be poorly coated or missing spots.

@Mark_Mark what do you mean by the Bullets failing? The coating not staying put? I’d say that’s going to be “under cooked” if I had to guess. You should be able to hammer them flat and not have the coating flake off

Click to expand...

I haven't hammer tested in a while, I only do that now when I get a new powder. It's surprising how it deforms with the lead.

AJC1 said:

I haven't hammer tested in a while, I only do that now when I get a new powder. It's surprising how it deforms with the lead.

Click to expand...

It’s been a long time since I have as well, but I haven’t changed my powder or bake time and any recovered bullet I have dug up has always had most of the pc still on the bullet, even when shot at steel and it’s just a flattened coin shape it still has pc on it

Here are some Lee .431 200gn rnfp coated in smoke’s Carolina blue after being dug outta the ground

savagelover said:

They look great. Guess I'll have to see if I can recover some of mine in the berm . I'm still surprised at how far they bury them selves. I have found somebody else's with the red paint on them,but they are pretty hard bullets.

Click to expand...

Yea they dig in really deep, I was able to recover these easly as there was a buried rock in the ground they were stopping on.

I did the stand up but I didn’t like the base inconsistencies and before I could iron out my processes, I switched to a less build coating and tumble and dump.

Faster and better on target.

jmorris said:

I did the stand up but I didn’t like the base inconsistencies and before I could iron out my processes, I switched to a less build coating and tumble and dump.

Faster and better on target.

Click to expand...

I've definitely seen some real excessive PC. They need to be shaken off and the final result still needs to have the definition it started with. More is not better.