Anybody else powder coating bullets?

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The German
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Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:39 pm

Anybody else powder coating bullets?

Post by The German »

I did my first batch of powder coated bullets today and they turned out really nice. The powder was blue and here's a picture of the loaded .223. Besides not having to lube the cast bullets and a really, really cool look, supposedly there is a small performance increase (about 3% higher velocity with lead/coated compared to lead/lubed.

Either way, I like the looks and will continue to play with the powder coating...

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MyWifeSaidYes
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Re: Anybody else powder coating bullets?

Post by MyWifeSaidYes »

Have you calculated a 'per bullet' cost?
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JustaShooter
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Re: Anybody else powder coating bullets?

Post by JustaShooter »

What method are you using?
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The German
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:39 pm

Re: Anybody else powder coating bullets?

Post by The German »

The coating is under very thin, here's the calculation I used to estimate cost per bullet (of course varies depending on bullet size). Typically powder weight is between 1 and about 2.5 grains (45/70 405 grain) per bullet.
7000 grain in bag
30% loss
4900 grain available
2 grain per coating
2450 bullets possible
$14 price per pound of powder
$0.0057 per bullet

The process I am following is very straight forward and easy - besides the discussion with the wife if they can be baked in the oven toaster in the kitchen or not :-)

- Clean bullets in Acetone
- Put bullets and some powder in an old 1 lbs powder container (am using Hodgdon's)
- Start shaking or rolling until bullets are covered nicely (I put it in my rotary tumbler for 5 minutes)
- Dump on a sheet of aluminum
- place on backing pan (I am using latex gloves as they cover with some powder covering the fingers so you don't get handling marks)
- Bake at 400 F for about 20 minutes, let slowly cool down, remove from pan and enjoy

There are other ways to do it like with an electric powder coating gun from Harborfreight, which I might try at some point, but the plastic container approach works fine with me for now (static electricity seems to be key to get the coating to stick, the plastic powder containers from Hodgdon seem to do a good job in that regards).
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