Powder coated v lubed bullet velocity

Robt
[subject]
Friday, February 11, 2022, 21:26 (1636 days ago)

Has anyone compared the velocity of lubed cast bullets with powder coated bullets? I am curious.

NOT PERFECT CORRELATION BUT

JT
[subject]
Friday, February 11, 2022, 21:43 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

Thank you

Robt
[subject]
Friday, February 11, 2022, 22:24 (1636 days ago) @ JT

I have been thinking about buying a toaster oven and powder coating Lyman 452460 for my Colt Gup, but I don’t think the extra bother is really worth the extra time and effort. I hate lubing and sizing so to me powder coating still leaves me with an extra step in bullet prep followed by the dreaded sizing step. TO my eyes I wouldn’t gain much.Am I wrong?

Fortune Cookie 45 on YouTube

steve todd
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 06:32 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

Came up with about the same results as JT did.
I powder coat because it stops leading of the barrel. I use soft bullets, often hollowpoints that expand easily. I stand each of the bullets on end, on a cookie sheet when i bake them. It takes much more time than a lubrisizer. When you bake the bullets,it takes the heat treatment out of the bullets.
Hi-tech coating doesn’t require baking, so it doesn’t make your bullets soft. You can buy and try from Acme Bullets for the Hi-Tech coating. I believe Acme coats them twice, seems like that would take more time than a lubrisizer too.
I use Eastman powder coating powder and get good results.

powder coating worth it?

charles
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 09:31 (1636 days ago) @ steve todd

You have your answers here but I thought I might add that when you pull the completed bullets from your oven, a decision can be made to AIR Quench, WATER Quench, OR ICE WATER Quench. This will affect the BHN of the bullet. To give an honest assessment, you will need to check some before PC then after the Cooling is done, and then 2 weeks later. You will see that according to how you quenched determines how much the BHN is.
When I resize the bullets I use Hornady Spray Lube to ease and enhance the burden of sizing. You may experience some springback with certain bullets. Check these things and watch for changes and you will not have problems.
Your cylinder is a good test for the sizing results.

This is not all that critical, and I chose to do small groups at first to test, and check results.
Velocity was small enough that it really did not matter.
No Smoke, no Leading, no big deal. My loads did.t lead anyway.
Accuracy was a little better. That's something I can always use.
As far as buying PRE PC-ed bullets, most of them have a bevel base which I do not care for. This was why I chose to do my own.
Hi-Tek Eastman and Smoke's are all good. Good luck and have fun.

Only you can decide on "Extra Time and Effort" BUT

JT
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 06:50 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

During the initial lockdown I loaded 5000 .45 and 9 mm cases on the Rock Chucker seating and crimping in two operations making for a total of 35,000 steps. Yes I felt it was worth the time and effort. If You hate lubing and sizing and the "extra" step in powder coating what you really need is an attitude adjustment.

I have used powder coated bullets

Jim Taylor
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 07:07 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

and they are ok ... but I prefer to do it the old school way. I can cast, size and lube bullets without electricity .. I can do it around a campfire or in a nice building. I can make the bullets so hard they are brittle or so soft you could almost chew them if you were so inclined.

Does it take time? Of course. Anything worthwhile does. If one feels they can't spend the time doing that - and some people are busy enough that they can't - then purchasing the bullets ready to load is a better option than trying to cut corners.

A powder coated is plastic jacketed, no longer cast

WB
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 07:27 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

The cast bullet becomes the core of the plastic jacket. You can shoot powder coated rifle bullets in excess of 3000 fps. You can’t do that with naked cast bullets (I couldn’t) and not get barrel leading. Cast pistol bullets do fine at near max velocities with some care. The powder coating is not as dramatic on them but shoots really clean and smoke free. The encapsulating changes the character completely. They work in gas guns fine. It just depends on your application and need, to be worth the effort. You work in batches so the overall time is about the same as lube/sizing individual bullets I think. Maybe a little longer, never put a watch to it. Just like casting lube sizing, at the end you have a big box of bullets you manufactured. I will say powder coating for a newbie caster requires less specialized expensive equipment (less than $100). You only need a bag of powder, toaster oven, and push through sizer for your press.

velocity

Randy Barnett
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 08:52 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

Looking back through some of my load data when I first started powder coating, I'm showing a slight increase in velocity with coated bullets verses traditional lube. This was 10mm ammo and the difference wasn't enough for a sight adjustment.

Some 385 grain HP for a 475 Linebaugh eye candy. ☺

[image]

I do not mid PC, but for me it is only for cast

Lynn
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 09:05 (1636 days ago) @ Robt

in my .358 win rifle-- - I get better much better accuracy-- still working on that --but with out...... PC black-- 7" rested at 100 yards--- with 4" - have started to seriously working accuracy-- trying seating-- as I can different powder etc-- I figure that they a little faster than un PC'd but a deer will not out run either-- my real interest is accuracy- goal is a deer at about 2oo yards -- wish the LGS had more powder choices--
other wise revolver bullets are done as I have since the 70s

back a hundred years ago I used to really enjoy casting my

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 13:59 (1636 days ago) @ Lynn

bullets, but I only had 4 or 5 calibers to cast for. I probably have 20,000 rounds of cast bullets in my reloading room but no time to size them. I have to load ammo for our test firing pretty much every night and for that I have 8 Dillon presses, 2 RCBS turret presses and an RCBS 4X4 (I think it has a new name now) and I have all of these presses because my time is very limited. With my Dillons I can sit my big ass down and crank out 200 rounds pretty quick. I also have 2 Lyman 450 lube sizers on my bench but haven't had the time to use them. To get to the reason for this rambling, I just get on the horn and call Montana Bullet Works and order several thousand bullets for our test firing, all with gas checks. Maybe when I grow up I will have a bit more time to try out the powder coating,....then again maybe not.

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