Yes, they will age harden a bit but if I add some As they get hard in a day. The 'trick' with heat treating is due to atomic mobility. Higher temp, more mobile, even in a solid. Takes some 'soak' time to get homogeneous, then freeze quickly and locks the crystal structure. Faster freezing means harder. Just a short time over 200F and hardness is lost. Tin just globs over time and the alloy is weak and soft. Sb tends to do the same but time is MUCH longer.
??? The Effect of Curing PC VS Bullet Heat Treating
- Thread starter yodogsandman
- Start date
Reloader762
Active Member
I've been powder coating both pistol and rifle bullets for some time now using both the ES gun as well as the tumble lube process and have come to the conclusion that I like the PC'ed pistol bullets very much but for rifle loads where the bullets have standard lube grooves I'm going to stick with my RCBS Lubesizer. It's just easier for me to lube,size and gas check when needed all at one time.
I haven't really found the PC'ed rifle bullets to be much of any advantage other than using it to mark specific type loads that use the same bullet design in the same cartridge for quick reference ie like my low velocity 150 to 170 gr. 30-30 plinker loads or my Lee 160 gr. TL bullet that I use 12.5 grs. of Alliant 2400 with that will cycle in my Chinese SKS but want in the Yugo SKS. Before I just circled the primer pocket with a colored sharpie and wrote the load notes card that goes in the ammo box in the same color.
For bullets that I plan to PC I just cast them at the BHN I require to begin with so the curing process has no real bearing on the bullets. Water quenched or bullets that I pan on heat treating just get regular tumble lube or ran through the lubesizer. When your time to enjoy your hobby is limited you just try and keep things simple.
Here are a few bullets I sprayed with the ES gun way back when. I don't use it much anymore as I found I could tumble my bullet in a small contain on my rock tumble and get a nice even coat of powder. I also size after I applying the PC.
Here are a few I used my TL process with while I was playing around with some color mixes,bullets haven't been sized through my Lee sizers when the pic was taken.
I haven't really found the PC'ed rifle bullets to be much of any advantage other than using it to mark specific type loads that use the same bullet design in the same cartridge for quick reference ie like my low velocity 150 to 170 gr. 30-30 plinker loads or my Lee 160 gr. TL bullet that I use 12.5 grs. of Alliant 2400 with that will cycle in my Chinese SKS but want in the Yugo SKS. Before I just circled the primer pocket with a colored sharpie and wrote the load notes card that goes in the ammo box in the same color.
For bullets that I plan to PC I just cast them at the BHN I require to begin with so the curing process has no real bearing on the bullets. Water quenched or bullets that I pan on heat treating just get regular tumble lube or ran through the lubesizer. When your time to enjoy your hobby is limited you just try and keep things simple.
Here are a few bullets I sprayed with the ES gun way back when. I don't use it much anymore as I found I could tumble my bullet in a small contain on my rock tumble and get a nice even coat of powder. I also size after I applying the PC.
Here are a few I used my TL process with while I was playing around with some color mixes,bullets haven't been sized through my Lee sizers when the pic was taken.
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