Powder coated wadcutters

[savagelover]

Question for you guys. Has anyone tried powder coated 148 gr wad cutters. I don't have a luber sizer pan lubing is alright put I'm thinking of trying the powder coating. Also had any body used the powder from harbor freight? Thanks

 

[Englishmn]

Yes and yes.
Both work fine.

 

[savagelover]

How do you apply the hf powder. Can you just shake it on like the Eastwood in a cool whip container? Thanks

 

[Pottimus]

Stick with Colors that coat well. Harbor Freight Red was the only one that seemed to work really well in one coat. I understand that it is hard to find. I have had good results with Eastwood, no BB's in a bowl. I would consider ordering some...

 

[Englishmn]

Old cool whip bowl.
Then dump them on 1/4" wire screen and toss in pid controlled toaster oven.
Red is probably the best but white works well too.

 

[savagelover]

Appreciate your reply.

 

[Englishmn]

Here is a before/after pic of .40 swc with hf white.
The white pigment isn't even but there's still a clear coating over the bare spots so I just send them.

 

[Y-T71]

Stick with Colors that coat well. Harbor Freight Red was the only one that seemed to work really well in one coat. I understand that it is hard to find. I have had good results with Eastwood, no BB's in a bowl. I would consider ordering some...

Yeah, I had pretty good experience with HF red, HF matte black if I did two coats, no good results with their yellow no matter how many coats and no experience with white.

Eastwood powders though were night and day better even compared to the HF red.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

Even easier would be to tumble lube them.

Unless you just want to start powder coating, and are looking for an excuse...

 

[WeekendReloader]

Eastwood powders are so much better than Harbor Freight. I've used Eastwood Mirror Red, Lime Green, Mirror Blue, Mirror Black, Clear and Copper Penny with good success.

With that said, I have used Harbor Freight Yellow and Matte Black. Yellow is ok, kinda splotchy but serviceable. The matte black required two coats.

I use the airsoft BBs in a plastic sour cream container. Shake and Bake method.

After coating, I run them through a sizing die to get them all to a uniform diameter.

 

[AJC1]

You can get Eastwood powders on Amazon for 20ish dollars free shipping. The only hf powder any good is red which I don't prefer, but that's why it's harder to find. Even Eastwood white doesn't work well so I avoid white.

 

[AJC1]

Fortunecookie45lc and loadsofbacon test hundreds of powders so check them out on YT if your doing research...

 

[Walkalong]

Not in .38 Spl, but I have in .32. Long, shoot great

 

[Thomasss]

I heard you can put nurf projectiles in the cool whip container to enhance static to cause better powder adhesion. Haven't tried it yet, myself, but I have experimented with mixing acetone with black Harbor Freight powder coat; then allow them to dry on wax paper before "cooking" them while sitting on a wire window screen in a toaster oven I got from a thrift store. That worked pretty good. But then I bought a old Lyman luber/sizer for $30 and then I found a guy selling Liquid Alox on E-bay for $20/quart. Then the misses gave me a slow cooker and I mixed up lube combining paste wax, toilet bowl ring and litho grease and candle wax which worked good. Then I found 5 old Boar Alox sticks at another rummage sale $5 for the lot. They seemed dried out, so I add a table spoon of Bore Butter to each Alox stick and heat up the Lyman luber with a heat gun for a few minutes and lube up my cast bullets. The toaster oven has been just sitting in the garage for a year now, colleting dust. Mixing the bullets in Liquid Alox is ok too. Sometimes the old ways just work out better. (Anyone interested in a slightly used toaster oven or double boiler slow cooker?) lol

 

[cfullgraf]

Eastwood Ford Blue and MG Maroon work well as well.

Eastwood sells the plastic bottles that are the same that their one pound containers of powder come in, They work well for shaking the bullets and powder. I also tumbled in a small rock tumbler.

If you coat your finger tips with powder, you can carefully handle the bullets without disturbing the coating. You can even roll the bullets between your fingertips to fill in some light areas.

I've coated both 148 grain 38 caliber DE wadcutters and 32 caliber DE wadcutters.

 

[mdi]

I used "shake and bake" for quite a while, starting with HF red. "Graduated" to electro-spray gun but exceedingly messy! For answers to most questions go here; https://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?184-Coatings-and-Alternatives.

For a long time one of my "house gun" loads was a PCed, 38 Special, 150 gr DEWC over a max. charge of W231 for my 3" snubby. Accurate at 15'-20' (longest distance tested) and devastating on 1 gal water jugs...

 

[ms6852]

I have a Lyman Tumbler that came with two bowls. I use the smaller bowl to powder coat my bullets. Many people recommend air soft BB's because of the static electricity created to allow the powder to adhere to the bullet. I found that the plastic bowl has the same effect as the airsoft BB's in creating static electricity. I only use the red powder coat from HF as it normally coats the bullet with the first coating. The other colors do not work as well and may require several coats.

I have not used the Eastman powder so I can not offer input to see if it works the same as the HF powder.

 

[savagelover]

Even easier would be to tumble lube them.

Unless you just want to start powder coating, and are looking for an excuse...

Been coating for awhile,but all I've got is blue. Guess I don't make a difference. Have enough to do lots more.

 

[WeekendReloader]

One pound of powder will coat thousands of bullets. I probably have a lifetime supply with the few colors I have.

 

[Ritchie]

I've been using the Lee Precision push-through sizing die for any new calibers.

 

[bullseye308]

Dewc I load in 38 and tumble lube them. It works well enough that I haven’t bothered to powder coat them and I’ve shot thousands with no leading so haven’t had any need to try anything else with them. My 9’s get powder coated tho. The harbor freight red was the only one that worked well for the shake n bake process, and when I finish up the container I have I’m going to get some powder from Smoke on cast boolets as I have heard nothing it good about his powders.

 

[brewer12345]

Dewc I load in 38 and tumble lube them. It works well enough that I haven’t bothered to powder coat them and I’ve shot thousands with no leading so haven’t had any need to try anything else with them. My 9’s get powder coated tho. The harbor freight red was the only one that worked well for the shake n bake process, and when I finish up the container I have I’m going to get some powder from Smoke on cast boolets as I have heard nothing it good about his powders.

Smoke's powders are great. VS - Hi Quality Powdercoating Powder For sale (gunloads.com) I have tried several colors and they all work well. I started powder coating because my revolver leaded no matter what I did with tumble lubing.

 

[Riomouse911]

I bought my pound of Ford Blue last year… along with a used toaster oven. Now I just need to get my act together and get to it.



I have a few thousand of the Missouri, Brazos and ACME .358 and Bayou .312 coated DEWC still to go through, along with a bunch of the Extreme plated DEWC and Matts heavyweight lead wadcutters as well.



I use coated bullets with great success all the time, and coated wadcutters are certainly favorites .

Stay safe.