Powder Coating Muzzleloader Bullets

[Rattus58]

Anyone here powder coat your muzzleloader bullets? I have a question on fouling. On the one hand, I swear that the barrel of my gun is "choked". I'll be checking with the designer of the gun on this later, but we got a bullet stuck in the barrel yesterday that took a ton of innovation (hammer) to dislodge. Later, upon inspection of the barrel, the last 6" of barrel was smeared with something, hard to tell.... a brush took it right out but it was really weird.

Anyone else experiment with this?

Aloha

 

[ROAshooter]

too little information to make a informed response

 

[Rattus58]

too little information to make a informed response

What do you want to know... 400 grain .409 sized bullet, 40 grains of triple seven, musket cap ignition... 1-18 twist barrel....

 

[ROAshooter]

still not enough information to make an informed answer

 

[Rattus58]

still not enough information to make an informed answer

Never mind....

 

[ROAshooter]

rifle?
revolver?
brand?
inline?
sidelock?

 

[Rattus58]

rifle?
revolver?
brand?
inline?
sidelock?

rifle
inline
White
you've got the rest

 

[ROAshooter]

nevermind

 

[Schwing]

I powder coat most of my bullets but would not see the need for muzzle loaders of any kind.

I would start by slugging the barrel and verifying that the diameter of your bullets is around .001 to .002 larger. Having said that, even if your barrel is "choked" somehow and the balls are oversized, I don't see that being the issue with it getting stuck unless you are using projectiles made out of something much harder than lead. I would suspect an incorrect charge, bad cap, etc. The lead fouling is probably a secondary issue.

Second, what lube are you using? If the fouling is at the end of the barrel, you are either using a lube that is not sufficient or you are not using enough of it.

While powder coating will almost certainly resolve the leading issue, it won't resolve the problem that is causing it. It is also very time consuming.

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

personally a waste of time and money.
In a C&B revolver using conicals
any coating on the side of the bullet will be removed during loading.
What isn't will be removed going through the forcing cone.

Most of what is on the ogive section will also be removed going through the forcing cone.

the F.C. takes the excess diameter of the bullet and swages and in many cases rolls / peels the excess lead backwards towards the heel so it will fit through the lands and grooves of the barrel.
Thus again, removing most if not all of the coating anyway.

Muzzle loading rifle. the same with any coating on the sides.

What is the purpose? supposedly to reduce air friction to gain velocity?
Personally I doubt in a BP you are going to see enough increase to make it worthwhile.

Besides are the chemicals used toxic? If so it will taint the meat, and you may not want to eat that.

In a modern style semi auto, You still have a forcing cone of sorts at the beginning of the barrel, that aligns the cartridge as the bolt slides it into place.

Guess someone needs to fire one into ballistics gel and see how much is retained on the bullet to see if it is even worth the time and expense.

 

[Rattus58]

I look at powder coating muzzleloader bullets just as the guy who introduced me to it, looked at his paper patching his bullets. Two things I was interested in, one was to some degree... preserving lead bullets so that they don't deteriorate. When I lubrisize with something like Lymans blue lube or a lanolin lube a friend gave me a pot of, they last for years, especially in airtight containers.

However, I've had lead conicals oxidize when stored, especially when given to others who don't use up their lead as I will. Also, I will say this... I haven't chonographed these bullets yet, Saturday with just 40 grains of powder, these bullets would have what seemed to be a significant change of POI at distance.

This is all perception, because you could see the bullet impact on a dirt embankment on the side of a large cinder cone roughly 150 yards distant. One shot made by one of our instructors with a gun that was also a .410 caliber of identical configuration, has absolutely no problems, all day long, so caps, loading, etc are not the problem, but he took a shot at a spot on a log 150 yards downrange with just a couple of feet of holdover... nailed it....

40 grains of 2f triple seven... and that could have contributed in my opinion.. but it is the first time I've shot triple seven for more than one or two shots in any gun... being a black/Pyrodex P aficionado.

So waste of time... so is black powder and muzzleloading shooting in general... but it is what I do...so a waste to you is just another hour or two of tinkering with something I truly love to do... like taking the missuse to a movie every Friday afternoon...

Aloha...

 

[yugorpk]

I load coated 240 grain leatherhead hard cast in my 300 BLK SBR. The run out the muzzle at 1050 ish FPS. The ones I am able to recover from the sand or trees or whatever are nearly completely intact. Coating doesnt rub off , blast off , or even chipped off. Even where the rifling is the powdercoat just conforms to the rifling. Keeps leading off the bolt and the silencer baffles. I dont think I'd have any issues at all running coated bulltets through a revolver. I run hard cast, pure lead, medium hard and jacketed bullets in the Old Army with no real bad results with any of them. I do think I'd probably start with a .454" bullet before coating though so it didnt shave the coating off.

" Besides are the chemicals used toxic? If so it will taint the meat, and you may not want to eat that. "

More toxic than pure lead? Really?

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

I'm guessing in your first paragraph when you say "deteriorate" I'm guessing you mean oxydize as in the second.
Oxidation is a natural reaction of lead to the atmoshere. they can oxydize for a 100 yr and I bet you won't loose 1 grain of weight.
Oxidation does not hurt the bullet. and I doubt any shooter could tell the difference in shot placement between one that was and one that wasn't.

As far as the expense and trouble to powder coat your bullets, whatever trips your trigger.
But I have my doubts it will increase the velocity any sufficient amount to amount to a hill of beans, and I doubt the same for increased accuracy.

As too leading in a barrel? After almost 40 years of shooting BP I've never seen that to be a problem. Meaning leading has been nonexistant
Nor in over 60 years of smokeless shooting. Most of my smokeless has been with jacketed bullets, and that is the purpose of the jacket.... reduce or eliminate leading.
And velocity isn't everything there is when it comes to accuracy and or knock down power.
I've never had the need to squeeze every bit of velocity I can out of any given round, to ensure enough knock down power during a hunt, and definitely not when punching paper.
And poi vd poa is going to vary based on a lot of variables. Heat, cold, humidity, the bullet vs another bullet, powder type and volume, consistency in loading pressure, your grip, the parallax angle of the target left to right and up and down, how steady you are today vs yesterday, wind and so on.
It's up to each person, to get to know his gun, and where it shoots in all the variables.
But as I said, each his own and what trips your trigger.

I look at powder coating muzzleloader bullets just as the guy who introduced me to it, looked at his paper patching his bullets. Two things I was interested in, one was to some degree... preserving lead bullets so that they don't deteriorate. When I lubrisize with something like Lymans blue lube or a lanolin lube a friend gave me a pot of, they last for years, especially in airtight containers.

However, I've had lead conicals oxidize when stored, especially when given to others who don't use up their lead as I will. Also, I will say this... I haven't chonographed these bullets yet, Saturday with just 40 grains of powder, these bullets would have what seemed to be a significant change of POI at distance.

 

[Rattus58]

I'm guessing in your first paragraph when you say "deteriorate" I'm guessing you mean oxydize as in the second.
Oxidation is a natural reaction of lead to the atmoshere. they can oxydize for a 100 yr and I bet you won't loose 1 grain of weight.
Oxidation does not hurt the bullet. and I doubt any shooter could tell the difference in shot placement between one that was and one that wasn't.

As far as the expense and trouble to powder coat your bullets, whatever trips your trigger.
But I have my doubts it will increase the velocity any sufficient amount to amount to a hill of beans, and I doubt the same for increased accuracy.

As too leading in a barrel? After almost 40 years of shooting BP I've never seen that to be a problem. Meaning leading has been nonexistant
Nor in over 60 years of smokeless shooting. Most of my smokeless has been with jacketed bullets, and that is the purpose of the jacket.... reduce or eliminate leading.
And velocity isn't everything there is when it comes to accuracy and or knock down power.
I've never had the need to squeeze every bit of velocity I can out of any given round, to ensure enough knock down power during a hunt, and definitely not when punching paper.
And poi vd poa is going to vary based on a lot of variables. Heat, cold, humidity, the bullet vs another bullet, powder type and volume, consistency in loading pressure, your grip, the parallax angle of the target left to right and up and down, how steady you are today vs yesterday, wind and so on.
It's up to each person, to get to know his gun, and where it shoots in all the variables.
But as I said, each his own and what trips your trigger.

First off, when I say deteriorate, I mean just that. I'm thinking you don't spend much time around cast bullets or you'd not make such statement as to oxidation alone of the lead. Many of the lubes used on muzzleloader bullets from COMMERCIAL sources wind up unusable in ANY gun. My own beeswax/crisco/lard/lanolin mixtures if stored long enough in most containers will as well and though I've a recipe for a lanolin based wax lube that holds up seemingly forever, it is a lot of trouble to go through... and... we do that because we love the sport, not because it's efficient...

I'll take the rest of your treatise as coming from someone who hasn't used powder coated bullets, doesn't know anyone who dabbles in such, and has your own opinion.

As to my issue... I have two identical guns. One shoots a .409 sized bullet without cleaning for a 60 shot string. The other, roughly 9. Subsequently, we found powder coating filled the last 6" of rifling. Why on one and not the other. That was/is my question till today. It seems that the barrel is "choked"... perception.

Now... YUGORPK alluded to something that I find interesting... and that was the "shaving off" of powder coating. In a muzzleloader with a properly sized bullet, that should never be an issue, however, in this barrel there is smearing, so I'm wondering that if the bullet still obdurates is this constriction wiping off powder coating, though maybe not "shaving".

Aloha...