Every time I get just about ready to jump into PC a post like this comes along. And the whole jumbled in a basket thing. Don't they get little imperfections on them from touching and lying against the wire mesh?
I understand Tomme was coating pistol bullets and those are especially what I don't understand because BLL works so well, is so simple, and not time consuming.
I was especially interested in coating plain base bullets for the 9.3x57 until I got talked out of it and the mould.
I am BY FAR not the most knowledgeable PC-user, but my first batch came out perfectly, and each batch thereafter. I cheated and I hit
@CWLONGSHOT up via PM and asked which powder to use for the absolute, most assured chance of screwing up the least and he recommended Eastwood, Medium Ford Blue, so I bought a pound for $18.
Just like so many things, I tried a couple things to get the powder to stick, and the Cool-Whip bowl didn't cut it, but I found the perfect container in the Dollar Store (3 for $2) and it worked perfectly. Maybe all in my head, but I don't have to shake-rattle-n-roll, I just swirl with the bottom on a short-pile carpet square for about 30 seconds, roll the thing lid-over-bottom twice, GENTLY, swirl 30 seconds again and one lid-over-bottom trick again and I have heavily-coated bullets.
@Ian steered me right on the pointy "tongs" and knocking the excess off.
I DO stand them up. Shame on me, or otherwise, but my means, methods and philosophy mirror
@Rick H 's post above, almost exactly, in every detail he described, to include the OCD part.
Like
@Tomme boy and
@Rick H , the parchment works great, and I get at least ten cycles, unless I screw the paper up through mishandling. Buy the good (name-brand) stuff. I've gotten the Missuz off the hook a time or two in the past when she's run out of parchment or wax paper (for BLL and 45/45/10) and she INSISTS on the good stuff. Points for Jeff. The baked powder brushes off the parchment pretty cleanly.
I've not tried the basket, but do not doubt its efficacy. I do not weight-sort bullets, in deference to progressive visual culling, up to and including seating. I'm not a competitive shooter either, but am happy with my targets, as far as loads and hardware go. I'm still working on ME after a long "dry-spell" of not shooting as much as I once did, so minor technical matters won't show up until I'm shooting well again, which is a lot of work and I may never get back to where I was, but I'm OK with that.
Anyway, the point of the overly-long post for someone with so little experience is that YOU (
@L Ross ), are fully capable of producing good results with little perceived effort, knowing what yo know and doing things the way you do. The nature of our habits, developed while shooting cast bullets over the years will fill in most of the blanks you think are lurking.
Now, even if I WERE to use baskets, the PC process would still not overshadow my tumble-lube process in terms of time and energy efficiency, nor (so far) in terms of what I see on the target. I shoot a 148 grain WC in the 357s, which I do not size, tumble twice in 45/45/10 and load into unsized 357 cases for use in my revolvers and carbine. Hard to say with the revolvers, but in the carbine, I can see NO difference at all on the target, and the targets are very good with the carbine, so no, PC isn't going to save me time, but I'm more about making sure I don't bake on lube inside a suppressor (which may or may not be happening anyway), and it IS an "easy way out" to make two little pigs of cheap revolvers not lead.
I probably should sell the two revolvers and buy ONE, really good revolver with really good dimensions and alignment, but I like them. Jury's out on that one still, but I sure do like squishing a hundred (or two) warmed 357 WCs in a ziplock bag and dumping them onto waxed paper, and having a quart of usable, accurate bullets ready to do that easily.
You're a smart enough guy that everything you already know will kick in and answer any question or concern as it arises. Maybe not so much for those who have no already spent years developing their habits already.
