Rabbit hole

[Brad]

Shot 100 rounds each of 45 ACP and 9mm today. No leading, no major fouling, guns were much cleaner.
I now know the sizing diameter is right so I can go into production mode.

The 9 mm was seated long enough that you could begin to see the front edge of the lube groove at the case mouth. Th CZ fed them fine that long. I had one failure to fire and when I examined the extracted round I could see a faint line around the front of the bearing surface where it entered the throat. About perfect to me.

 

[JWFilips]

We created another PC monster!

 

[Brad]

Powder coat or politically correct?

Those who know me would argue on the politically correct......

 

[Ian]

No argument, there is no doubt.

 

[JWFilips]

Powder Coat! Remember.... Politics are verboten!

 

[BHuij]

I've tried standing up small objects and usually end up knocking over two items for every new one I add after a certain point. I was thinking of something like a square pool ball rack, put it down, fill it up, take it carefully off.

This is exactly what I do. For 9mm bullets I just pull them out of the plastic container with tweezers, give the tweezers a quick tap on the edge of the container to dislodge extra powder from the bullet, and drop it nose-down into an old 9mm factory ammo tray (the kind that come in a box of 50 9mm rounds). Once it's full I put the toaster oven tray upside down on top of the bullet tray, flip both upside down together, and voila, 50 bullets perfectly spaced and standing on their bases, ready to bake. I've never had good luck when the bullets could touch each other during the cure.

I wanted a similar solution for my cast .223 bullets because they're REALLY fiddly when it comes to standing them on their bases by hand, and tend to fall over easily since they're significantly taller than they are in diameter. Ended up 3D printing what amounts to a bunch of cylinders just over the bullet diameter, all stuck to a base. Functionally it works identically to the ammo trays I use for 9mm bullets. Saves me a ton of time and frustration when PCing those tiny .223 bullets.

 

[JWFilips]

BHuij.....I think you should start selling those .223 bullet gadgets! Sounds pretty neat

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

BHuij why don't you just lay them out on a window screen and bake them?

 

[Ian]

Coating defects from touching anything but the base can affect accuracy, especially with the small, fast bullets. Handgun bullets at 900 fps, not so much.

 

[Ian]

Shot 100 rounds each of 45 ACP and 9mm today. No leading, no major fouling, guns were much cleaner.
I now know the sizing diameter is right so I can go into production mode.

The 9 mm was seated long enough that you could begin to see the front edge of the lube groove at the case mouth. Th CZ fed them fine that long. I had one failure to fire and when I examined the extracted round I could see a faint line around the front of the bearing surface where it entered the throat. About perfect to me.

Good news. Getting that first range trip out of the way should remove a lot of trepidation and skepticism, I know it did for me. Beware the age-growth thing if you're running the ragged edge of too large to chamber, you don't want to end up with hundreds of loaded rounds that in a few months won't chamber in your guns.

 

[fiver]

I haven't tried this with PC bullets yet.
but when I'm putting cores into the jackets for swaging 223 bullets I use a cut down 22LR tray.
I just nibbled the 'feet' away and use the rectangle shaped tray.
I would imagine taping/gluing 4-6 of them together would work just as well.

 

[BHuij]

Yeah that probably would work great. I'll have to pull out some of the 22LR boxes I have, shoot them, and test out the trays. Might save me a few bucks in 3D printer filament

 

[popper]

Might try laying them down first time cook - just get the PC to flow, then drop into the 'fixture' to align for the final cook. PC isn't cured yet and will continue to flow but won't knock the powder off cause it's melted. Or try hitek.

 

[JWFilips]

I decided for Rifle bullets ....They must stand to bake if I want to be happy! I can't stand to see raw lead sticking out from anywhere on the bullet except a few long skinny pointed bullets I bake are placed nose down in a perforated plate that sits above the baking pan Yes the noses show some lead when they get knocked out of this plate after baking however that area does not engage the throat or bore at any point