Rabbit hole

Ian

Notorious member
19.6 grains of 2400, standard .44 Mag trim length, Federal brass, medium roll crimp in the groove, Federal standard LPP.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Federal brass is something I don’t have. I do have a large amount of factory fresh Starline. I wouldn’t be caught without 2400 and am pretty sure Fed standard primers are on hand.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
cut back some for the star-line brass it is heavier than the others.
I was gaining quite a bit, something like 35+ fps just from the case swap in my 24'' barrels.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Brad, did you ever try those 429421 HP PC'd bullets I sent you?

Bob, really all you need for the poly PC is a shallow sandwich container with silicone lid seal and snap flaps on the lid. One for each color. PC need not be expensive, equipment dense, or messy. If you're using HF red, Fortunecookie45LC's method (utoob) seems to work really well.[/QUOTE
Brad, did you ever try those 429421 HP PC'd bullets I sent you?

Bob, really all you need for the poly PC is a shallow sandwich container with silicone lid seal and snap flaps on the lid. One for each color. PC need not be expensive, equipment dense, or messy. If you're using HF red, Fortunecookie45LC's method (utoob) seems to work really well.

Thanks Ian. I do have all this, but just want to experiment a little and see if I can improve my end result a bit. This Vibratek is big enough that if the powdercoating gig doesn't work out, I may just use it with solvents to clean parts before using. I may be able to fit a complete 1911 in one of the buckets. I didn't know they made Vibrateks this big!
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Got some bullets coated and baked.

Do I need to think powder adjustment from traditional lube loads?

Looking at 9 mm, 45 ACP, 357 mag, and 44 special to start.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
probably.
run your normal red-dot load in the 9 first... and maybe bump it .2grs for the comparison.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I did some chronograph work years ago comparing the exact same load with lube bullets versus powder coated bullets and I noticed almost no difference between the two.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
If you have to seat significantly deeper, back off normal a scootch...
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Thanks guys.

I sized a bunch of them tonight. A few ended up with very small bare spots on the bands. Is that an issue?

If all goes well I may try to shoot some Thursday AM.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
True enough.

They sure size down nice. The 9mm barely touched the die, mould drops a little smaller than I like. The 45 200 swc was easy enough but the 359 160 wfn took some effort. Those may need a presize next time.

All sized on the Star with no lube as that is far and away the fastest sizer I own.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Brad, I know it goes against your intuition, but they really don't have to be coated all that well to work fine. They're probably coated better than you think even if the pigment didn't get 100% coverage. Load some up and go shooting, you'll see. The only way they'll lead is if you make them too small.....or too large for the gun. In revolvers, size as you normally would. In autos, half a thousandth over groove is plenty, unless the throat is generous, then go a full thousandth. What you want to avoid in the autos is scraping off the coating on the ledge at the end of the chamber. Using a bullet which will pilot in the throat of the autos helps a bunch, be it just the front band of a swc or the ogive of a rn, observe the "plunk" technique and make sure the bullet has a chance to start off concentric with the bore and not have room to be pulled into one side by the extractor.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
All sized on the Star with no lube as that is far and away the fastest sizer I own

Well, I did some production tests...lol.

I can do 1k per 30-45 minutes thru a Lee on a single stage. The star takes me about 45min-1hr per 1k. The bench was set up for the single, were it set up for the star specifically they might be close to the same. The final test result revealed that we need automation for non magnum pistol cals...sigh..
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Got 100 loaded today.
4.5 gr of Promo, Tula LP primers, and a PC HG 68 clone sized .452. OAL was increased to 1.262 from 1.240. Taper crimped to .469.

22ACA622-34A0-4F55-B1F3-EEDA3E56EB23.jpeg
 

Ian

Notorious member
It will fit the same as uncoated because it's an SWC design and he's sizing the bands like normal. I think the OAL change is to take the advice about making sure the front band pilots in the throat and centers the bullet as much as possible in an effort to prevent the bullet scraping off the coating on one side of the throat entrance due to excess room, extractor pressure, and an off-center start. My Kimber likes that same bullet uncoated at 1.265", gives about .005" off the barrel hood during the plunk test.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Oh now I see. Since I lay all my rifle bullets on the lands to start load work up I thought it was a similar situation
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
in some situations it would be.
if Brad was using [pre-cut throat] his CZ-75 he would have shortened the OAL a bit.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
This barrel has a throat recut but Doug. Plunk year shows it is easily short enough even at the new OAL.
Next up is some 9mm and 357