Powder coating?

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It's not any extra work than any other type of lubricant in my experience. If it's your first time I hole heartedly recommend the Eastwood ford light blue. It's the easiest and best working powder internet wide. Fortunecookie45lc and elvis ammo have both tested hundreds of powders to find the best ones and easiest processes.
 
ballman6711 said:
I don't cast but do shoot coated bullets, and yes, it does leave a small bit of coating in my barrel. Not enough for me to be concerned about and the barrel cleans as easily as if I had shot jacketed.

chris
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if the coating is applied properly, it shouldn't deposit any coating in the barrel.
I've used MBC Hi-Tek coated bullets in 9, 45, and subsonic 300BO. No fouling with any of these bullets.

I did have fouling with my own coated cast bullets in 300BO. But that was on me. I miss calculated for subs and got supersonics with a 230 cast bullet.

With some true copper Chore Boy, the deposits came out easily.

To add, the barrel was new and I hadn't shot any jacketed bullets through it. So there is a possibility that rough virgin barrels could strip some coating off.
 
I prefer hi-tek coating, powder coat works too. I'm just gearing up now to coat my own (haven't done any yet) but I've been shooting coated bullets for years. Powder coat seems a bit softer or maybe just thicker than hi-tek and does give off some odor when fired. Either coating if properly applied will prevent leading , even at magnum velocity. Sometimes some coating will be left in the barrel but not enough to foul the bore or affect accuracy and it cleans out with little trouble.

Reason I chose hi-tek for my own operation is that it's applied in coats (2-3) so if you have a bare spot from where the bullet made contact with something in the curing process it likely will be covered by subsequent coats.
 
I have coated a few hundred pounds of bullets using harbor freight red with excellent results. Done properly there is no residue and it is a simple process.
 
I size both before and after too. I was not sure on shooting my 200 grain nuggets, powder coated through my 44 mag Desert Eagle, but have not had any problems. I had only shot 200 before going back to the copper coated, so not a real big test. Found a box of X-treme 44 mag bullets that was buried among the reloading bench, so not so worried about running out, and save the powder coats for the Super Redhawk.
 
WiTom said:
I size both before and after too. I was not sure on shooting my 200 grain nuggets, powder coated through my 44 mag Desert Eagle, but have not had any problems. I had only shot 200 before going back to the copper coated, so not a real big test. Found a box of X-treme 44 mag bullets that was buried among the reloading bench, so not so worried about running out, and save the powder coats for the Super Redhawk.
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With long term shooting coated bullets may prove to be detrimental to your Desert Eagle. I did a test awhile back and while I greatly prefer coated bullets for most applications, IME it's not suitable for the gas system on the DE.
 
Like everyone has said, powdercoating is easy and clean after they are coated. The biggest thing I would say is use a quality powder, be sure your bullets are clean( not been handling with dirty oily hands or such like) and read up on the process and if you are inclined hook it up to a PID that you can also use to control your lead pot.
 
glockgod said:
Size bullets after coating?
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I size the bullets after coating. The Lee push through bullet sizers work well if Lee has the sizer you want. A regular lubrisizer like RCBS or Lyman works well as well if you leave out the lubricant.

I generally use cast bullets in low pressure loads. If I want full power magnum loads I use jacketed but thats me. I have a bit more flexibility in alloy content and still not have leading issues.

Even within one brand of powder coating, not all colors work the same. Look at some forums and u-tube videos to see what folks are using that get better results.

I like Eastwood powders, especially Ford blue and MG maroon. White tends to give splotchy results.

There are a number of powder coating processes that give good results. Again, videos and forums can give you ideas and find what works for you.
 
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Yup, big fan of Eastwood Ford Light Blue. I've tried the Harbor Freight, black is a no go, abrasive from what I understand. Yellow was iffy at best, red is no longer available, from what I could find. 9mm, 38 and 45 have all turned out great. No residue in my barrels. As far as the steps involved, much easier than pan lubing in my opinion. Can't get a lubesizer for love or money now, so don't have a comparison there.
 
I've used primarily the red harbor freight red, it's no longer available I've read. I've had about 30 pounds of it and use it a lot, most I gave to friends. One of the perks when I worked part time there inbetween running a truck repair service. There would be at least a pound of two broken when Monday truck came, the manager was happy to let me have the broken ones.

There red works but sometimes I have a hard time to get it sticking, pre heating worked but took more time.I'll probably order some from eastwoods again or from smokes4320.

Anyone try the powder from Sherwin Williams?
 
glockgod said:
Getting back into casting bullets after a 40 year hiatus. Apparently powder coating is all the rage these days. Is powder coating for real and is it worth the extra steps involved?
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I powder coated my first bullets less than a decade ago and there were more skeptics back then.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/bullet-coating.707641/

It is real and cleaner but if you were happy with wax lubed lead, you’ll still be happy with them now.

I didn’t powder coat for long though, as I switched over to Hi-Tek coating pretty quickly and have been using it ever since.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/bullet-coating-part-ii.713642/#post-8883760
 
I’ve switched to powder coating for all of my cast Bullets. The user Smokes over on the castboolit forums sells a number of powders that have been tested and work well for coating Bullets.
I originally tried harbor freight powders and found them hard to work with and went back to pan lubing until I decided to give it another go and use a different powder. The difference in result was like night and day. I have Carolina blue, traffic orange and clear. The blue and clear work the best for me. I’ve switched to just using clear for the most part as I enjoy the traditional look of a lead bullet.
index.php

index.php
 
I haven't coated myself but I found that Hi-tek coated 405 grain ACME bullets shoot incredibly well in my 45-70. No left over material in the bore. I am having some trouble with the 158 grain HiTeks in my 357 magnum rifle. I just haven't found the right mix to get a ragged hole at 25 yards. Maybe a different bullet type might make the difference. The blue coated bullets above from Barbaroja look promising, much better bearing surface than what I am using.
 
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