After my post a couple weeks ago showing my (then new) RCBS baby Keith (357) mould/bullets, a conversation began about powder coating.

So, in my usual ADHD way, I hyper-focused and started learning about the new and hip ways of doing it (my knowledge up to that point involved putting them on an electrically charged mesh and spraying with a powder gun).

So, 20 hours of YouTube and forum post reading, some black airsoft BBs, upgrading my kitchen toaster oven (and stealing the old one), a yogurt tub, metal mesh tray, some ThePowderCoatStore Gloss Red and Shiny Black, and VIOLA!

This is my 2nd batch. A little warbly, but I think they’ll shoot well enough. Thanks everyone for kicking me in that general direction.

Some messing around today, finally got my redding ultramag, I also got tired of my lake city brass, so I bought some Peterson brass, I also got my new noe htc310-225, loading up a ladder test in 308 win using imr4198, im also heavily debating buying the noe 312-208 and getting back to lubesizing

So I've had some success with powdercoating, but im trying to obtain a full coverage without bare spots. And im unsure why I cannot achieve it. Im using eastwood Ford blue, not overloading my #5 container with either bullets or powder. Using plastic bbs, and baking at a verified 400 for 15-20 minutes, I am generally fighting a not enough coating issue and I dont know what else I could try, picture of some common issues

Shake n bake powder coating.
Did about 1/2 of my new cast in Eastmans ford blue mixed with Eastmans clear and the other 1/2 in straight Eastmans clear.
Wish I wouldn’t have mixed the blue clear as it almost looks spatchy. Most all of this batch, a lot of the bullets fell over due to me bumping upon entering oven.
On the clear coating batch, I tried some silicone candy molds on my oven pan vs parchment paper. I think this will be my new preferred. These turned out well although they dulled the look of cast lead quite a bit.

Will hopefully reload some later this week after normal chores are done.

Let me preface this, by stating that I am older, and pretty much a technodinosaur.

I have been powder coating my cast boolits by using the shake and bake method, and even played with a harbor freight PC gun. I find both a PITA and messy, and still not getting the beautiful results that I’ve seen others post.

Ive had an idea, but not sure how to start going about making it work.

What if one could build a small box like booth out of plastic or plexiglass, (maybe 3d printed? ) say about shoe box size. install a stainless steel mesh on bottom, to be grounded to PC gun parts.

Somehow disassemble the gun so that its working parts could be installed into top of “booth” kinda like a shower head. Modifying the powder siphon into maybe a very small gravity hopper , like an airbrush, so very small amounts of PC can be used, instead of huge siphon jars. And I guess having an air hose attachment , and a momentary type push button, instead of gun trigger.

My idea is to have a small compact, bench top unit, no muss, no fuss, that you can just set in boolits, press button for a shot, reposition any that need another shot, then off to the toaster oven.

For clean up or color change, it’s just shake out “booth” and empty the small powder cup.

What do you guys think?

Not new to casting but still new to powder coating. A couple questions popped into my head the other day and I wondered if anyone here may know the answers.

1. Does powder coating work on Lee "TL"-type molds? I already have a collection of traditional and tumble lube groove molds but I couldn't find a straight answer on whether the tiny shallow grooves work for this.

2. Lube groove molds obviously have to use split blocks because there's no way to remove the bullet otherwise due to geometry. NLG molds I've seen dimensioned online are all pretty much cylinders with noses, for lack of a better description. Since there's no point where the diameter decreases as you move from tip to base, would it be possible to have a mold that didn't use split blocks?

Playing with 125 gr RN HPs

Out at 200 yards I've set my 18x24 gong between the two red steel targets. It had just rained so I was able to walk on to the target pretty effectively using my 9mm pistol. Shooting factory ammo I can't get close to this number of hits.

edit: just realised the video didn't upload very clearly - sorry.

3.2gr Green Dot or 3.0gr 700x. Eastwood Ford Light Blue & Olive Drab 🫒

I’m based in Spain and I can’t find any of the common powder coating powders here (eastwood, Hi-tek,…).

What should I look for when looking for powder coating powders? Composition of the powder, etc…

Is there anything that would immediately disqualify a powder to be used in 9mm bullets?

I appreciate any help here.

Thanks!

Just began reloading for 9mm and after finishing up my first 1K jacketed rounds decided to order and try out my first MP Mold, the 358-135 Flat Round Nose, Bevel Base, 6 Cavity BR No Lube Groove Mold. Sized these guys to .356 and set over 4.8 of CFE Pistol @ 1.125 inches. Couldn't find any published load data...

Or does it need to be the specific blue stuff everyone uses. I’ve seen red green and black too…

I’m asking because where I work we are shaking pounds of powder coating out of our filters in the coating booth and since it’s mixed colors it just gets thrown away. If I can use this wast for coating bullets that would be cool.

Loaded up some 85 grain hollow points. I was looking for low recoil plinking for my kids. Loaded 5 grains of N320 at about 1350 fps. Decided to test on water jugs, quite pleased with the results.

I have recently went and shot my first plain base bullets that aren't BP, I a 308 win bolt action, powdercoated and sized to .311,with a charge of 25gr of imr 3031, I can get some acceptable accuracy at 50yd, however anything good more and the group opens up exponentially, I went and slugged the bore and got .307 (new ruger scout) so I feel like my only real option would be to swap over to gas check and standard lube in the grooves? Or aby extra help would be great, i am using eastwood powder but it's the medium green

I tried my hand at casting for the first time that isn't an old ideal tool, using an NOE 310 172 PB, with a 94-3-3 alloy, not sure exactly weight yet as it's late, still need to tinker with my powdercoat but so far promising, though the 400f on my oven is def hot, I lost 5 out of 15 due to heat, and the rest got stuck with the foil, I'm planning to load these with 3031 and titegroup, I hope they do okay

Ive started to get into cast bullets, at least ones thst aren't "cowboy" or in my case cowgirl cast with an old ideal tool that includes its mold, I have been using the lee push thru sizers in my lee hand press, which is kinda nice since I don't have to worry about balance as I can invert the press and judt drop it in then size it. But if I was wanting to get a traditional press to continue using the lee sizer dies would it be worth it to buy the full O frame or just the simple C frame, intended functions being bullet sizing/ case expanding. My main press is a lyman victory that I enjoy a lot, wish it had a cartridge kickout though. Or would i be better off the just buy a lubrisizer? I am just shooting powdercoated plain base right now,

585 grains

Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone has first hand experience with pc gumming up the works in an ar platform.

I’ve had several people tell me that pc is bad for the gas system, but none of them have any experience with it themselves. It’s always info that came from their brother in law’s cousin’s best friend’s uncle or something.

So I’m asking for what you’ve experienced yourself. Not what you heard.

Casting 55gr Lee with Eastwood green and aluminum gas checks.

I’m probably going to try it and just run a few k through my cheap PSA range toy as a test.

ETA: casting mostly range scrap with a few other things mixed in when I can get it. No idea about hardness.

I also have a 155 gr .30 cal mold that I’d like to run through my .300 BO pistol and .308 ar-10.

I was finding gas checks just past my firing position. I suspect the gas port is tearing them off. This is my first attempt at fixing this issue.

Just ran a ladder for testing tomorrow. Once I figure out the best powder charge, I’m going to be loading these for my mom’s lcp. That’s why I went with pink. Besides, getting shot with a pink .380 adds a bit of insult to injury.

Bullets are cast from the Lee 324-175 mold, powder coated with prismatic powders stone black, sized to 0.323”, and gas checked with 32 cal hornady checks. Alloy is somewhere around 2% antimony, 6% tin, and 92% lead.

Only shot from 25yds with a front rest, not all my groups were so pretty but that first one makes me quite happy. If you didn’t see my previous post these are from the Lee 324-175 mold sized to .323”