Considering looking into powder coating

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Thanks Ian,
Good to know someone is listening
Jim
P.S. That sewer pipe 1916 Spanish Mauser has never been cleaned since shooting PC! No Need to!
It was trash when I got it and now it is a pretty good "Low Node" target rifle & tons of fun to shoot!
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Ah yes!, the low node thread. I'd forgotten. So it takes some time to "season"? Have you tried taking things up into hunting load territory? By that I mean 1800 or so for a 7x57 or '06? My 7x57 is a 95 Mauser. Puts 160's into nice round groups as small as I can hold. Cast is another story. Only success I had was with teflon tape wrapped Louverins 20 some years back. Not a handy process by any means.
 
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shuz

Active Member
Bret-- yep that's me! Same guy who was on the old shooter's site that kinda morphed into Cast Boolits.
It's been a fee few years now!
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Brett,
Sorry I only load low for target work! I have not hunted in some time because my balance is deteriorating and I fall a lot on uneven ground.
Falling and old age are not a good combination! I actually would love to get out and hunt some upland game ( & get some exercise) but in the past few years when I went out I got myself in some bad situations Which took me awhile to get back up and out of the woods!
I have always found Big Game hunting boring except when it was flintlock season in PA....That I enjoyed!
 

Bruce Drake

Active Member
I recommend and use Eastwood Powders for PCing after wasting my money on Harbor Freight powders once. Plenty of great tips already stated. I will offer one more. do not store your dry powder in your tumbling bowls and your tumbling "BBs" as it impacts their adherence to the bullets if they have been exposed to any humidity or finger grease. between coating operations/high humidity.

Regarding gas checks. I coat the bare bullets and then seat the gas checks onto the 1st coated bullet during sizing in my Lee Dies. After sizing and seating the primer, I then put a 2nd coat onto the bullet to ensure the gas check stays on the mold during it's flight. That extra coating definitely helps to prevent bullet slump in bullets made in my spitzer-shaped molds.

And if you have never used Glen Larson's lube recipes, I highly recommend his lubes for your high velocity experiments as well. I use his XLOX 2500)(ps) version of the traditional 50/50 lube recipes and his "Carnauba Red" lube for my traditional CB work over 2700fps. He also has a "Carnauba Blue" that has the same speed protection as the Red but is a softer version according to his website. I haven't tried his C Blue version but his C Red lube recipe is excellent..

Bruce
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Cleaned the AR10 I showed pics of earlier. Just powder residue (Smoke's red). First patch with Ed's without acetone, then tight clean patch - hardly dark. Soaked patch for the upper, came out BLACK with residue. 168gr GC slick sided > 2500 fps I figure. Alloy seems like it's good, just pushed too fast. 40Sw had a little toward the muzzle (smoke's gloss black), chore boy fixed, much softer alloy. AR10 (both rifle and carbine uppers) are original DPMS before Bushy or Rem took over. They just shoot! Only original problem was metal mags that needed the lips adjusted to feed properly.
 
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Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Popper, 2500 is well beyond where I've looked to go. I'd be happy at 18-2000 with my milsurp hunters. It's the ones that scatter like chickens at 13-1500 that make me pull what little hair I have left out!
 

Bruce Drake

Active Member
You'll be very happy with PC coatings at 18-2000. Unless you are a glutton for pain like I am and have been working on getting the classic 311413 Squib bullets and Ideal's other spire point molds to shoot faster than 1600 ;)
 

Bruce Drake

Active Member
The Squibb! At one time it was the most popular 30 cal cast design out there, legendary for it's accuracy. Today it's a total dog. Gotta wonder what changed.
Folks got impatient and tried to shoot them like the FMJ's they are modeled after. That said, I'm trying to see if the polymer coatings help prevent the reported nose slump on them when fired above 1600fps.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Folks got impatient and tried to shoot them like the FMJ's they are modeled after. That said, I'm trying to see if the polymer coatings help prevent the reported nose slump on them when fired above 1600fps.


IIRC I ruminated on that theory for a long time re the Squibb and other spire pt cast designs. The conclusion I came to, after playing around with my own fairly short spire pts, was bullet/case run out. Just my theory, but it makes no sense to me that a particular design with a fairly short nose would slump when others with longer noses wouldn't.
 

hrpenley

Active Member
NOE .225 60gn RN shoot like a dream, PC no gas check 2000fps all day long. Eastwood cherry red. size to .224 adjust seating accordingly. again just my own personal experience.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I've wondered why the 312-155 shoots and the Squib design wouldn't . I have a Cramer B4 that is a .280-130 Squib I've decided should be paper patched for a 7mm . I don't know if I'll get there anytime soon .
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Nose slump is one of those theories that you can't really prove or disprove conclusively with out a lot of work. Bullet or neck run out is a lot easier to prove. That was my problem and I was using quality tools.
 

Ian

Notorious member
The spire-pointed bullet does have its issues, but I think the big one is usually overlooked because it is so misunderstood: dynamic fit. The bullet just doesn't have "the right stuff" to be pushed hard, and it is no fault of the pointy nose.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
A perfect spire point should slump perfectly but if the body get twisted out of balance,so does the point.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Dynamic fit is another of those hard to prove (it doesn't matter until it does) things outside of grouping. So much of this is theory based on experience and a lot of that can't be replicated in every gun by any other person. "Art", eh?
 

Ian

Notorious member
Dynamic fit is a simple and repeatable thing once you understand it. The devil is REALLY understanding what it is and how to pull it off, which I figure is a lifetime endeavor.