CAUTION: The following post includes loading data beyond currently published maximums for these cartridges. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The High Road, nor the staff of THR assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.
Several months ago, while I was testing a new load for one of my .45s, I found a ricochet lying behind me on the ground. It was a Hi-Tek coated 230-grain bullet and it was in pristine condition (see first set of pictures below). This got me to thinking about how coated bullets look after they have been fired, so I embarked on a project to attempt to retain a few.
The .45 ACP load I was developing pushes a 230-grain bullet along at around 400-500 FPS (I haven’t been able to chrono the load yet, but it’s substantially below listed minimums). A question I seem to hear quite a bit though is how does the coating hold up at higher velocities? To answer this question, I started building cartridges in the various high-powered calibers I own using both commercial Hi-Tek and DIY powder coatings. Slowly but surely all the necessary elements came together until I found myself with about 50 milk jugs, a chronograph and seven (7) loads covering a variety of calibers from 9x19mm to .30-06. The idea behind the spread of cartridges was to see what – if any – impact the different diameters and velocities would show. As regular lead bullets have all been tested for penetration, I excluded that from my tests to simplify things.
Due to problems encountered before and during testing I was only able to shoot 4 out of the 7 different loads. The break-down of each bullet follows below.
The first load I intended to test was a powder coated .30-06 using a 170-grain flat-point gas check over 44.1 grains of 4064 (thanks to blarby for providing this data). The load was intended to be fired in an M1 Garand, but I was unable to get this cartridge to chamber as the bullet was seated too long. This turned out to actually be a good thing though, as I wouldn’t have had enough milk jugs left after this one test to finish the other tests. I will come back and test this load after I tweak the OAL and find a suitable way to test it.
The second load was a Hi-Tek coated (MBC) 10mm 175-grain SWC over 13.5 grains of AA#9. An AMT Javelina with 7” barrel was used in an effort to get the most velocity possible. This bullet departed the jugs and was not recovered. Even worse, the chronograph gave me an error (1,891 FPS!).
After a quick reset, I attempted to shoot a powder coated .357 load consisting of a 158-grain SWC over 5.3 grains of Red Dot. I was unable to get any of these to fit in any of the .357 guns I brought however. Apparently I mis-adjusted my dies at some point because I’ve never had problems with my .357 bullets before. Boy I got off to a great start on this test!
For the fourth test I decided to give the 10mm another try (same load as before). This time I actually managed to recover the bullet! The velocity was listed at a much more believable 1,419 FPS. As you can see in the picture below, the coating was stripped off the sides by the rifling, but the coating on the base of the bullet is intact. This is important to help prevent leading. Notice that while the coating appears to have been knocked off in places, it is still perfect on the bullet base. Compare to both the .45 test bullets, which seem to show signs of charring.
Next up was a .45 ACP using a powder coated 200 grain SWC over 5.0 grains of Bullseye. I used an H&K USC for this test, which gave me a velocity of 1,056 FPS. Unfortunately this bullet was not recovered. I reset and decided to run this one again using a Taurus 1911 instead (the barrel of USC was shooting perilously low over the top of the chrono). I got an error off the chrono the second time, but the bullet was recovered. I included an unfired bullet in the pictures to show a comparison of before and after firing.
Two more tests were conducted using a Hi-Tek coated 124-grain 9x19 (5.0 grains Unique), but both of these departed the jugs. Velocities were 1,082 and 1,059 FPS for these. At that point I ran out of milk jugs and had to stop testing. None of the guns used in the testing showed any signs of leading or debris of any kind in the barrels. Unfortunately I couldn't get my camera to focus for pictures of those.
While it’s certainly not an exhaustive test, it was all I could manage with the materials I had at hand. I intend to follow up with this down the road. The main stumbling block was finding a place to shoot. If anyone is in the SW Ohio area and is willing to provide land to shoot on, I can test more of these. Alternately I would encourage those of you who do have access to test these types of bullets yourself so we can get more data.
*A very big thank you is required for Wreck-N-Crew, who provided the powder coated bullets used in this test.
Several months ago, while I was testing a new load for one of my .45s, I found a ricochet lying behind me on the ground. It was a Hi-Tek coated 230-grain bullet and it was in pristine condition (see first set of pictures below). This got me to thinking about how coated bullets look after they have been fired, so I embarked on a project to attempt to retain a few.
The .45 ACP load I was developing pushes a 230-grain bullet along at around 400-500 FPS (I haven’t been able to chrono the load yet, but it’s substantially below listed minimums). A question I seem to hear quite a bit though is how does the coating hold up at higher velocities? To answer this question, I started building cartridges in the various high-powered calibers I own using both commercial Hi-Tek and DIY powder coatings. Slowly but surely all the necessary elements came together until I found myself with about 50 milk jugs, a chronograph and seven (7) loads covering a variety of calibers from 9x19mm to .30-06. The idea behind the spread of cartridges was to see what – if any – impact the different diameters and velocities would show. As regular lead bullets have all been tested for penetration, I excluded that from my tests to simplify things.
Due to problems encountered before and during testing I was only able to shoot 4 out of the 7 different loads. The break-down of each bullet follows below.
The first load I intended to test was a powder coated .30-06 using a 170-grain flat-point gas check over 44.1 grains of 4064 (thanks to blarby for providing this data). The load was intended to be fired in an M1 Garand, but I was unable to get this cartridge to chamber as the bullet was seated too long. This turned out to actually be a good thing though, as I wouldn’t have had enough milk jugs left after this one test to finish the other tests. I will come back and test this load after I tweak the OAL and find a suitable way to test it.
The second load was a Hi-Tek coated (MBC) 10mm 175-grain SWC over 13.5 grains of AA#9. An AMT Javelina with 7” barrel was used in an effort to get the most velocity possible. This bullet departed the jugs and was not recovered. Even worse, the chronograph gave me an error (1,891 FPS!).
After a quick reset, I attempted to shoot a powder coated .357 load consisting of a 158-grain SWC over 5.3 grains of Red Dot. I was unable to get any of these to fit in any of the .357 guns I brought however. Apparently I mis-adjusted my dies at some point because I’ve never had problems with my .357 bullets before. Boy I got off to a great start on this test!
For the fourth test I decided to give the 10mm another try (same load as before). This time I actually managed to recover the bullet! The velocity was listed at a much more believable 1,419 FPS. As you can see in the picture below, the coating was stripped off the sides by the rifling, but the coating on the base of the bullet is intact. This is important to help prevent leading. Notice that while the coating appears to have been knocked off in places, it is still perfect on the bullet base. Compare to both the .45 test bullets, which seem to show signs of charring.
Next up was a .45 ACP using a powder coated 200 grain SWC over 5.0 grains of Bullseye. I used an H&K USC for this test, which gave me a velocity of 1,056 FPS. Unfortunately this bullet was not recovered. I reset and decided to run this one again using a Taurus 1911 instead (the barrel of USC was shooting perilously low over the top of the chrono). I got an error off the chrono the second time, but the bullet was recovered. I included an unfired bullet in the pictures to show a comparison of before and after firing.
Two more tests were conducted using a Hi-Tek coated 124-grain 9x19 (5.0 grains Unique), but both of these departed the jugs. Velocities were 1,082 and 1,059 FPS for these. At that point I ran out of milk jugs and had to stop testing. None of the guns used in the testing showed any signs of leading or debris of any kind in the barrels. Unfortunately I couldn't get my camera to focus for pictures of those.
While it’s certainly not an exhaustive test, it was all I could manage with the materials I had at hand. I intend to follow up with this down the road. The main stumbling block was finding a place to shoot. If anyone is in the SW Ohio area and is willing to provide land to shoot on, I can test more of these. Alternately I would encourage those of you who do have access to test these types of bullets yourself so we can get more data.
*A very big thank you is required for Wreck-N-Crew, who provided the powder coated bullets used in this test.
