Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Powder Coating Lead Bullets
DangerousDrummer:
My bullet casting and loading are done to occupy my time so I am not concerned with cranking out high production. I even use my progressive as a single stage and weigh every charge. Every case is hand polished after tumbling as I want each cartridge to be a functional piece of art.
SemperFiGuy:
unfy:
I loaded the twenty (20) 180-grainers last night that you gave me.
Usually, I try to get away without belling/flaring the cases, but these cases (mostly) went through the flaring die so that the coating wouldn't get scraped off, should such event occur. Turns out, by habit I loaded the first cartridge with a 124gr RN plated bullet from my standard setup. So now I was short one (1) flared case.
Nineteen (19) of the coated 180gr bullets loaded slickly. Literally. Coating just lets the bullet slide right into the case. However, because of the initial loading error, I was one flared case short. So I just let 'er rip and used a non-flared case. The coated bullet slid right into the cartridge case just like the other nineteen. No shearing of the coating occurred.
I checked them in my Wilson .40S&W cartridge sizing gauge. They didn't seat completely. [Kinda like we had previously discussed.] My guess is that the force of a cycling pistol slide will bang them fully into battery and they will shoot OK.
We'll see next week.
sfg
unfy:
--- Quote from: SemperFiGuy on April 05, 2013, 11:19:04 AM ---I checked them in my Wilson .40S&W cartridge sizing gauge. They didn't seat completely.
--- End quote ---
The 10 rounds (5 base coat, 5 nose coat) I brought with me to Perkins during coffee slid into the chamber on my Sig P229 with zero effort / gravity. Sounded just like the critical defense hornady ammo I carry.
I've got a crimp die that is either 10mm or 40s&w (I believe same die does either?) ... if ya need to borrow it I can loan it to ya (I crank my seating die down pretty far so it crimps pretty heavy already...).
In other news, marked up a cookie sheet for where to drill holes for nails, marked up one of the 5x7 roof flashing singles as well (had to use a nail on that thing... polished metal + sharpie = ha ha). Went to hardware store and picked up some 1-1/4 inch roofing nails as well just for the fun of it. Figured maybe 1-1/4 inch from the cookie sheet and 1 inch from the jig would be good and give plenty of clearance.
After work I'll go home and draw on some aluminum then take a drive back to work with tools to drill holes in everything so I can assemble stuff.
Oh fudge!
Uhhhh gotta run to hardware store. Forgot something.
Anyhoo, hopefully tomorrow can test out jig.
edit:
Grabbed some extra 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch machine screws just because heh.
That makes everything I could possibly need for the jig AFAIK.
unfy:
Got distracted last night.
Anyhoo, been here at work cutting and drilling and all that.
An immediate note: cheap cookie sheet without it's rolled edges is quite flimsy heh. I'll have to do something to strengthen it a little.
Well.... it's... hmmm.
40 s&w round for size comparison.
Ignore the top / bottom not being aligned - not attached yet etc.
With 1 inch centers, the top rails end up being half inch wide and half inch in between. Shadowing is going to be a problem.
Jig fail, I think. I'll eyeball it some more and debate if to continue or not.
edit:
Alright, I've got a work around I think. It'll involve wire at only low / moderate tension to grab in the lube grooves.
Drilled out some rivets to remove a couple of the bars, waiting 45min for hardware stores to open.
New jig will only do 24 bullets instead of 64-80... but... whatever, it's an attempt at a rig style.
Do note: drilling hollow points in the lead would prolly be easier / faster hehehehehe
I wonder if ya pre-drill some tiny holes in a 1x3, and line it up with some bigger holes below... if ya could use it as a drill guide to quickly drill hollow points. Perhaps even to the point of maybe a 2x2 ... tiny hole all the way through, then fatten up one side to hold the bullet.
Actually, such a thing would be better done with some mill work or something. A steel rod with the hole through middle.
Wonder if a 1x2 or something would do better... this way ya do it so a bit of the base of the bullet sticks out from out of the wood, ya use some clamps to squeeze jig + bullet to other piece of wood or something to keep bullet from spinning.
Hell, put a 1/4 inch or bigger screw/bolt into the piece of wood and then drill through it. Instant guide hole that's easy to manufacture.
DangerousDrummer:
I powder coated my first full batch yesterday. There was no problem with shadowing at all. I made 4 passes from each side while rotating sides. These bullets turned out beautiful.
Full load in the oven.
A bag o bullets. The ones in the front are an experiment in ballistics tipped. Cut a nose mold on the lathe, coated with Froglube, squeeze in some hot glue, shove in the bullet, hold a second, ballistics tip.
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