Powder Coated boolits

[BOOST]

Anyone here tried powder coated boolits in their Open gun?

[Reshoot]

[remoandiris]

Do you mean moly coated bullets????

[midget]

I'm thinking powder coating might be a bad idea seeing how you have to bake them...

[blind bat]

I believe SuperMoto uses a poly coated bullet in his open gun.

[Supermoto]

I have used poly coated. No real issues other than having to clean the comp. But if you spray the comp with WD40 before and after you shoot. It will clean up quickly. I have a friend that is powder coating bullets, But I haven't heard how they were working for him.

[BOOST]

Just curious , due to jacketed cost and availability. Seems to be getting popular with bullet casters. They are pushing 2000+ fps with powder coated bullets in rifles and zero leading.

[toddrod]

^{I am using the HITEK bullet coating on my own cast bullets. On the castboolit.com forum the maker of the coating is in Australia and has said that Australian shooters have been using this coating for about 20yrs. Another user from Australia has said that they use the coating on 38 Super in open guns without any problems.}

Edited July 25, 2013 by toddrod

[toddrod]

The power coating should work if it passes the smash test.

[BOOST]

The power coating should work if it passes the smash test.

So is this smash test ( with a hammer I'm assuming), is sort of a required procedure for every batch/lot that is made?

[toddrod]

for every batch you do, if you take 1 or 2 bullets, and do the hammer smash test on them, it will tell you if you have good adhesion and cure of the powder coat or the HITEK coating. I can tell you that in the long run the HITEK coating from Bayou Bullets is cheaper. I did 1000 bullets today and used maybe 3 oz of mixed product (Acetone, coating, catalyst)

[BOOST]

So is HiTek coating basically epoxy?

And when you say cheaper, you mean cheaper than powder paint?

I powder coat my 300BLK boolits and its some pretty tough stuff ! So got me thinking that this should work well with Open guns .

[toddrod]

I say cheaper because it takes so little to coat the bullets. With powder coat, and the HITEK, heat treating in necessary.

[Chills1994]

You don't have your location listed, soooooo.....I would ask over at the .300 Blackout talk forums. I figure some of those guys are shooting .300 blackout powder coated boolits through a suppressor. And I would imagine somebody has a "user serviceable" suppressor and is able to take his muzzle can apart and look at and clean the baffles. If the baffles are red (or green from the HI TEK solution) then yeah, you'd probably have red or whatever powder coating color on your open gun's baffles. That's my guess, anyway.

[CocoBolo]

I've run Bayou Bullets in both 38S and 9 major without any issues, no caca in the barrel or comp. 125gr at 1473 fps, yes 182 pf, in a worn out 38S barrel with the same load that the jacketed bullet couldn't make 165 out of. My good friend and GM caught the idea but tried a different bullet the Precision moly and had a disaster on his hands, tumbling, and filled the comp with lead to the point that the bullets were hitting the lead.

You will need to back off the charge weight, and this may well impact the performance of the comp and cause the gun to get bouncey, yes we develop loads not just to meet pf but also to get the gun to behave in recoil in such a way that it is easier to shoot and sometime we crank it up to get there.

[frag316]

If they're running 300BLK rounds thru a suppressor, then they're traveling a LOT slower than comparable .355/6 bullets would thru an Open gun (remember, you bring the round below 1100 fps for subsonic, otherwise the suppressor is only muffling the shot and not the bullet's passage thru the air). That means the bullets are probably being subjected to a lot less blast and a lot less pressure in the 300BLK suppressed gun than they would thru an Open gun, so your mileage WOULD vary and the comparison would be useless.

[Chills1994]

Do you mean moly coated bullets????

No, he means like how your refrigerator or washer gets painted. An electrostatic gun puffs pigmented powder at some metal part which is hooked to a ground wire. The metal object then gets put into an oven say like 400*F for 20 minutes. The pigmented particles melt and blend together to provide a nice smooth hard finish.

The other method being tinkered with is dissolving the powder coat powder in lacquer thinner, then tumbling bullets in it, spreading the coated bullets out on a mesh tray. Let the lacquer thinner flash off and then baking at the same temp and same time.

Here are a couple of pics of powder coated bullets:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8592909174_6d6d5cc93e_o.jpg

http://m19.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/Jailer/Gun%20stuff/powdercoatedboolits.jpg.html?o=14

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UFfQcgIF1SI/UVeLMMzD_VI/AAAAAAAAAS8/B7gaCWJMkUw/s400/2013-03-30%252019.39.30.jpg

Powder coating bullets and the HI-TEK solutions and processes are two different things.

[Chills1994]

If they're running 300BLK rounds thru a suppressor, then they're traveling a LOT slower than comparable .355/6 bullets would thru an Open gun (remember, you bring the round below 1100 fps for subsonic, otherwise the suppressor is only muffling the shot and not the bullet's passage thru the air). That means the bullets are probably being subjected to a lot less blast and a lot less pressure in the 300BLK suppressed gun than they would thru an Open gun, so your mileage WOULD vary and the comparison would be useless.

You can still shoot super sonics through a suppressor. This was done in Vietnam. The sonic crack as the bullet whizzed by was disorienting to the bad guys.

Yes, most guys are more likely to be shooting subs through their suppressors.

The advantage with powder coating and the .300 Blackout is you could theoretically get just one bullet mould say like a 170 grainer. Coat your bullets for supersonics one color. Your subs a different EDIT: color. Makes visual I.D. of which is which real quick and easy.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Chills1994

[frag316]

But that doesn't address the fundamental question asked--would powdercoated bullets work in an open gun without excessive crap getting on the comp's baffles. Using 300BLK shot thru a suppressor is a flawed analogy. That's why I said it.

[Chills1994]

But that doesn't address the fundamental question asked--would powdercoated bullets work in an open gun without excessive crap getting on the comp's baffles. Using 300BLK shot thru a suppressor is a flawed analogy. That's why I said it.

Feeling feisty today, huh Kent?

I get this feeling it is more of who this message is from than the actual content of the message.

Explain why it is a flawed analogy.

[frag316]

Brad, it has absolutely nothing to do with you and was actually a response to a post several above your post about suppressors and 300BLK.

The reason it's a flawed analogy is that one of the reasons coated lead bullets are generally perceived to be incompatible with comped guns--the speed at which the round is being driven and the accompanying effects of making the round go that fast break the coating and leave significant amounts of residue (lead and coating) on the comp.

If you're driving a coated rifle bullet out of a suppressed gun at subsonic speeds, which is generally the case, then you're not subjecting that coating to the same stresses as driving the bullet out of a gun at major power factor speeds. It's just that simple.

To dumb it down a little more for you, it's the same reason why you can drive lubed lead bullets out of a Production gun at minor power factor (usually below 1100 fps, so subsonic) with no ill effect and not do the same thing out of an Open gun at major power factor (usually above 1100 fps, so supersonic).

Believe me, I waste so little time on your posts that I didn't realize you had posted in the forum until after I put my initial comment on the board.

[Chills1994]

Oh, for a minute there I thought Darren had directed your attention to one of my posts like he did with my classified ad for primers.

Should I post the screen shot of how you stomped my ad?

Or would posting just the link work?

Let me posit this: no one posting here so far knows for sure how powder coated bullets will react with a compensated USPSA open gun. Powder coating =/= moly coating, which as a lot of us already know will gunk up a comp.

Powder coated bullet =/= a normally waxey lubed cast boolit

Apples =/= oranges

There is a St. Louis area USPSA'er by the name of Brad M. I think his screen name is "fastshooter" or "fstshtr" here on BE. He has an open gun. He has also been experimenting with powder coating 55 grainish boolits for his AR in 3 gun matches. I think he might have also tinkered with the HI-TEK solution and the Sandstrom 27A/9A moly/poly coating solution. If the OP wants more authoratative advice, the OP should try PM'ing him.

[frag316]

Dude, whatever, I don't want to gunk up this guy's quest for advice on your desire to take potshots at me.

BOOST--Feel free to give them a try. I'm just trying to make the point that performance in a rifle driving bullets at speeds significantly lower than those of an open gun probably isn't indicative of true performance. Your best bet is to take a few of these and find an open gun you're willing to clean if the experiment doesn't work out. Enjoy your tinkering, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who will look forward to hearing about your adventures.

[Chills1994]

[toddrod]

_{With all the different coating discussions going on in the other forums I have not seen any definite answer to the OP's questions. If I see something I will let you know.}