While shooting my new CA Bulldog 45 Colt I noticed barrel residue with coated bullets. I tend to use hotter/faster powders that live near the top of the burn rate chart. I go with those powders to prevent top strap etching. I switched to lead/lubed bullets (Rim Rock & Straight Shooters Cast Bullets) and the barrel is much cleaner. Anybody "rediscover" lead bullets?
Anybody gone back to lead/lubed bullets from coated?
- Thread starter nevadabob
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SlowFuse
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I never really made the switch to coated. I've tried them and for me it isn't worth the additional step/cost when making or buying them.
Plain lubed lead for me. And may be minor to some, but the odd chemical smell when shooting the powder coated lead isn't my favorite... My lube may smoke a bit more but it doesn't stink.
Plain lubed lead for me. And may be minor to some, but the odd chemical smell when shooting the powder coated lead isn't my favorite... My lube may smoke a bit more but it doesn't stink.
mcb
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Once I shoot up the last of my loaded bare lead bullets (not much left) I be done with them. The coated bullets work great and I see no reason to go back to bare lead and lub. Coated are cleaner loading, and shooting for me. And yes I am pushing them with fast/hot powders and am not seeing any issues.
When I started casting about 5 years ago I tried the Lee Liquid Alox briefly and then switched to powder coat and have shot many thousands of rounds using it. The biggest drawback was the time it takes to setup the bullets for baking and then sizing. Last year I ran across a good deal on a used Lyman 450 and figured I'd try it out. For me the Lyman 450 has worked out well and it's faster than PC'ing.
For the most part I've been using White Label Lubes Carnuba Blue lube and haven't ran into any problems with leading. This includes a variety of 9mm loads, light .30-06 loads, .38 Special, and 45 ACP. I'll still use PC for some applications but for the most part I've switched to lubed bullets.
For the most part I've been using White Label Lubes Carnuba Blue lube and haven't ran into any problems with leading. This includes a variety of 9mm loads, light .30-06 loads, .38 Special, and 45 ACP. I'll still use PC for some applications but for the most part I've switched to lubed bullets.
Obturation
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Powder coat can have a smell, some more than others. I got a batch of hi-tek coated from MBC , going to drive them hard and see how they do. I use both bare and coated and I'm not stuck on one or the other. Haven't noticed any residue - I typically use slower powders though - h110 & 2400 are most common for me.
.38 Special
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I lived through the lubaloy years and the copper-wash years and the moly years. I'll be damned if I'm falling for it again. 
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I PCed a bunch of my cast bullets and they did do everything they were supposed to do. I started with "shake and bake" method then "graduated" to electro spraying. I fired maybe 1,000-1,100 in my guns and yep it was clean handling, clean shooting and cute looking bullets. But my cast and lubed bullets no longer lead the barrels of my guns, are easily made, and not real messy and PCing got to be a very involved process (cleaning bullets, tumbling or spraying, cooking, cooling, sizing and the biggest @!!* was clean up. When tumbling not a real problem, but care must be taken to keep the extra fine powder where it belongs and over spray was a major problem without a spray booth). I still have a few hundred left and occasionally load some up (My Lee 125 LRNFP PCed red works quite well in my 357 Magnum). But I tried it, made it work, and sorta lost interest as there's not a lot of advantage over my nekkid and lubed cast bullets...
40-82
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One disappointment I have with my lubricated bullets is that I've never been able to get my hands on any rendered bear lard. Any bear who ever tried to eat me was already too skinny for lard rendering. Animal fats in bullet lube may be obsolete technology, but there's no reason a little of it wouldn't work in one of my formulas for low velocity pistol and rifle bullets.
Imagine this scenario: the cute detective couple, the obligatory hot woman and model perfect gym rat young man view the scene of devastation, their only clue that whoever did this thing was very fast and very accurate.
The cute little girl, the camera closing in to the screenshot, says to the camera, more in rhetorical fashion than in real expectation of an answer, "What kind of man could, would do this thing?"
The nerdy little lab technician type, always obligatory in detective screenplays, looks up, sniffs, and announces, "Burnt bear lard. What we're looking for is an old school bullet caster."
The male model lead detective muses, "Hmmm, I had a strange uncle who was a handloader. Those types have their reasons. We may not be looking at a crime scene. It may be something else. Our suspect is very unlikely to have a criminal record."
Imagine this scenario: the cute detective couple, the obligatory hot woman and model perfect gym rat young man view the scene of devastation, their only clue that whoever did this thing was very fast and very accurate.
The cute little girl, the camera closing in to the screenshot, says to the camera, more in rhetorical fashion than in real expectation of an answer, "What kind of man could, would do this thing?"
The nerdy little lab technician type, always obligatory in detective screenplays, looks up, sniffs, and announces, "Burnt bear lard. What we're looking for is an old school bullet caster."
The male model lead detective muses, "Hmmm, I had a strange uncle who was a handloader. Those types have their reasons. We may not be looking at a crime scene. It may be something else. Our suspect is very unlikely to have a criminal record."
Frulk
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Have not made the jump to PC bullets. Might never. I have a huge bench stock of lead with gas checks on them for all my pistol calibers. If I did go to them I certainly wouldn’t PC in house. I have enough hobbies and there are plenty of folks who do it locally.
I like coated cast bullets but they do require more work than lubricated cast bullets.
When I'm in a bullet making mood, it depends on my mood on which I do.
When I buy bullets, I get plated, jacketed or lubricated cast depending on my need.
When I'm in a bullet making mood, it depends on my mood on which I do.
When I buy bullets, I get plated, jacketed or lubricated cast depending on my need.
TTv2
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I don't cast, but if I had my preference it would be to use coated bullets. Right now I'm mostly looking to shoot plated Berry's for semi auto because I can get them with a thick plate that ups the velocity from 1250 to 1500 fps, which is nice in the event I ever shoot my loads in a carbine I know I'm good, same holds true for revolvers and actually, that's where coated would do better because velocities in a carbine with a magnum handload will be well over 1500 fps.
Lead I'll only use if there's a certain bullet I can't get any other way. Speer makes the 158 gr SWC-HP and if I could find that style bullet coated, I would, but my intended use for that bullet is in .38 Special only, so it's nbd. Mattsbullets makes a 250 gr full wadcutter for .44 and .45 revolvers and if someone like Missouri would offer that style bullet coated, I'd buy that instead. I also like to load duplex ammo using two round balls for .38 and .45, so I'm stuck with buying 000 Buck and Speer .454 balls to do that because nobody is ever going to polymer coat a round ball to sell on the commercial market because only I would buy it. Keyboard curmudgeons would look at something like that it and say it's stupid.
Lead I'll only use if there's a certain bullet I can't get any other way. Speer makes the 158 gr SWC-HP and if I could find that style bullet coated, I would, but my intended use for that bullet is in .38 Special only, so it's nbd. Mattsbullets makes a 250 gr full wadcutter for .44 and .45 revolvers and if someone like Missouri would offer that style bullet coated, I'd buy that instead. I also like to load duplex ammo using two round balls for .38 and .45, so I'm stuck with buying 000 Buck and Speer .454 balls to do that because nobody is ever going to polymer coat a round ball to sell on the commercial market because only I would buy it. Keyboard curmudgeons would look at something like that it and say it's stupid.
I lube my 45s' and coat my 357s' and 9mm. Time is usually a concern, but not right at this moment, as it's a whole new ballgame out there, now. I do HVACR for alot of small businesses and a couple of big guys that own lot of rentals, and some aren't coming back. Going to be a banner year, for reloading and bullet making, though. LOL.
RealGun
Member
I would be okay if I knew how to readily remove coating residue from the rifling. It doesn't seem to be lead that I am seeing and scrubbing. I only get this in magnums, when not powerful enough to warrant gas checked lead or jacketed.
RealGun
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delete
Could it be antimony wash?
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