How To Powder Coat Bullets - Powder Coating 101 ~ The Complete Guide ~ Make Perfect PC Bullets!

[@jordanwiggins3971]

By far the best method. Followed your directions and my 9mm powder coated bullets came out looking professional. Thank you!

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Hey thanks man!

[@gregorycooper7962]

this is the best video i have seen so far. your bullets are smooth and beautiful. thanks

[@luckyrabbit4355]

My first attempt was an hour ago, and on 177 airgun pellets... The tweezer way is only way. Props, this guy getting best quality, i kno cus i just learned the hard way. Wish hed get more views

[@robkilcollins310]

This method works best for me for sale reasons you stated. Basket method was a hot mess of sticking bullets and unever boolits. Great video, thanks for sharing!

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Thanks Rob... great minds think alike!

[@sj6404]

I've seen a lot of different ways, yours look the best and have a nice thick coat. I'd be curious to know how fast you could shoot those.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

'How fast' depends on alot of things starting with the gun you have. A steel frame 1911 imo is the way to go if you are going to 45 Super. The bullets pictured in the thumbnail pic are 200gr Saeco #68 and getting to 1100fps is not hard to do - but you have to work up to it. The Hodgdon 'Annual Manual' book load for 45ACP for those with CFE Pistol gets over 1140fps as a max load. In my testing I get to 1100fps at 7.4-7.6gr - way before their max data shows, so it really depends on your gun. Unique with the same bullet I get to 1100fps with apx 6.8-7.0gr. CFE Pistol and Unique are my favorite 45ACP powders, and for 250gr I like Herco or Longshot, but you really need to work up as one gun's comfort zone is another gun's 'over max' load. Study up on how to identify pressure signs and work up slow. Also remember shooting that load to 1100fps in 30 degree weather might be way over pressure on a 95 degree day - so consider testing working up to max loads on hotter days so you wont get a surprise on a hot day if you work up on a colder day

[@1885win]

It’s about making an art out of everything we do.

[@BOHEMIANHUNTINGCLUB]

Interesting, Pretty good technique! Those look really good👍🍻

[@pareloader5989]

I stand my bullets up also. I feel that when stood up the flow of the powder coat evenly flows down the bullet. Plus they look nicer

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

It only makes sense, right? I just did a video to test if 450 degrees (per Eastwood instruction) until you get 'flowout' and then cutting to 400 makes a difference in any way. I think I need to do more testing to see if it does, as you'd think Eastwood likely invested the $$$ already in how to get the best results with their powder. I did get orange and yellow to work pretty good so maybe that was it. Thanks for the comment!

[@scotte6828]

First time ive seen this done. Impressive. You talk about re sizing this after powder coating. Do you have to resize and are you only powder coating your own cast bullets or can i buy precast and the powder coat. Thanks

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

You dont have to resize - it depends on the bore diameter of your gun and what you need. A big benefit to PC is you can actually use it to increase bullet diameter. I often will cast bullets from molds for 9mm to use in 35 Remington - which I will size to .360 due in part to the extra diameter the PC gives it. I will say in regards to plain base (PB) bullets I like to size due to it really improving the concentricity of the bases. I started as a person who did not want to cast bullets and used to buy cast bullets to then PC. Make sure you ask the company if they can sell you unlubed/unsized bullets. Some companies wont. Some say they will - and then send you lubed bullets anyways! You need to soak lubed bullets in acetone a few times to get all the lube off and even then sometimes you get good PC results sometimes you dont. After a few times through that I started casting my own - which then opens up an endless amount of bullet designs from custom mold makers like NOE, Arsenal, Accurate and loads of other bullet mold makers

[@RussellHoughton]

I also was unhappy with the basket setup. I have a jig for gascheck bullets but I'm going g to try and get those trays you have.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

What is the jig you have? Those trays are not all the same so be sure to ask the seller the size of the cubes. Interesting you mention GCs as I'm starting to experiment to see how much more accuracy I'll get with plain PCd vs. GCd & PCd. I'm thinking if I can find a good PC that will coat light enough where the GC will still fit. If I like using GCs enough I'll find the best size when they are PCd and get a custom check maker made for that diameter

[@RussellHoughton]

@@leveractiongypsy1848 I had a video on if but it must be one of the ones that got taken down. I have 1/4" mdf with 50 holes in size of the gascheck shanks that I cover with foil the snap the pallets in and spray them. I'm also working on a fluid bed so I can use the same jig to dig them.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

@@RussellHoughton I think I need to try a fluid bed when I do jig heads for lake trout. I see some guys online making them using a small container for powder and an aquarium pump hooked up for air flow

[@lindboknifeandtool]

Is this for muzzle loader, or cased ammunition? Is this similar to cerakote? Producing ammunition scratches an itch I have, definitely looking into this. Always wanted to be able to cast and make my own 45-70

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Well I shoot it in cased ammunition, but I'd imagine any situation where a bullet needs to be lubed to prevent leading this is going to give you better results than any lube will. If you shoot 45-70 I know quite a few shooters who are PCing their 45-70 cast bullets

[@leadsmith5873]

Still trying to convince myself to buy a toaster oven. Thanks for the tutorial. I'm gonna powder coat eventually, I just don't know when.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Hit thrift stores and you'll find a deal. Make sure the door will stay shut on a used one. I got two, one was $10 one was $15 and they are my dedicated PC ovens. I also do lead fishing jig heads in there too. I did a small batch for the video, but normally I'll run two ovens at once, and will make a day of it and crank out a few thousand bullets.

[@pareloader5989]

When I got into casting my own bullets and started powder coating I bought a brand new toaster oven off of Facebook market place for $10 there’s great stuff for reloading on there. I also bought on market place my lyman universal case trimmer for $30

[@pareloader5989]

It’s a lot of work to make ingots and cast your own bullets but I put the radio on and just have fun. I find it very stress relieving. Thank you so much for watching my videos and commenting!! Happy reloading!

[@jesseboutdoors]

I never realized I wasn’t subbed to you 👍🏻🇺🇸

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

You were at one time haha...since youtube has installed communist policies, they deleted my channel a total of 10 times so I stopped posting 'those' videos lol

[@jesseboutdoors]

@@leveractiongypsy1848 good ole Commietube

[@michaeldickerson873]

Once my bullets have been resized after powder coating Lee Resizing die they are certainly concentric.

[@SuperBadbri]

yea im having a heck of a time powder coating my castings.yea maybe thats the problem,, not me,, the Harbor freight powdercoat, and its mat black.only choice i had,ha.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Bite the bullet spend $20 on Eastwood Ford Light Blue and maybe Ruby red, do pistol bullets, and just copy what I do in this video....pretty much guaranteed you'll get perfect results

[@streamylc]

What ammo are those large "#9" bullets for?

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

I'm guessing you mean the tall bullets in the ice trays? Its the famous Lyman 358009 bullet (290gr ) I shoot them in a 35 Whelen which is a 35-06 basically.. its a very old design for 35 Whelen, 35 Winchester, 35 Newton and 358 Norma. Its said that bullet has taken 95% of the game animals on earth

[@streamylc]

@@leveractiongypsy1848 too cool.... (talk about sleek 😎) And speaking of sleep, glad i stumbled across your video. I'm planning on getting into powder coating, and have this saved for when I do 🤠 I enjoy being a perfectionist with things like this; and your finish is one of the best I've seen by a pretty considerable margin 😍 lookin better than skittles brotha 👌

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

@@streamylc Hey thanks man I appreciate that! Let me know if you have any questions when you get it started and if you think I should make other PC videos for something I may have missed in these. I think I'm going to do one more for really tall spitzer bullets. The LBT 310gr 358 spitzers for 35 Whelen....even bigger than the Lyman 358009!

[@pareloader5989]

9 mm. Thanks for commenting and watching my video please subscribe if you found the information helpful. Thanks

[@pareloader5989]

@@streamylc thank you! Yes I don’t powder coat unless I know that the humidity is going to be very low. The fall is the best because the air is dry and I find that I get a better powder coat when the humidity is low. More static in the air.

[@ryuhadouken2722]

So when it comes to shooting you didn’t use gas checks? If you did, did you see a slight change in accuracy?

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Well most of these bullets are pistol and even 45 Super (my fastest pistol rounds) wont get up to velocities needing a gas check. Interesting you should ask though as thats where my testing is at right now with rifle bullets. I'm going to be testing some PCd GC bullets with and without GCs to see if I can see any accuracy differences. Alot of my rifle shooting is standard 'woods' hunting ranges 50-100yrds. The testing with PC rifle has been 50-75 yrds and so far so good. 35 Remington with a 200gr to 2200fps and 140-150gr to 2500fps. Can I get more accuracy? Not sure yet. A couple of good sources of info on GCs are Veral Smith's 'Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets" - which can be hard to find or get. Also Glen Fryxell's work is available online and worth the read - linked below. Unfortunately both of those sources pre date PCd bullets and there is NO sources of info for GC'd bullets that have been PCd that I have seen, so its basically shooters like us doing the research for future advancement and refinement of cast bullet technology - www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Chapter_10_GCkorPB.htm

[@ryuhadouken2722]

@@leveractiongypsy1848 to my knowledge especially for lead usually heavier grain bullets tend to go farther, the reason why I asked if you use gas checks or not is I noticed a slight accuracy increase with powder coating, some people use gas checks only some people use both gas checks and powder coating.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

@@ryuhadouken2722 Cool I appreciate the info - its exactly what I'm going to be testing in the next couple months. Can you give me some details on what loads gave you increased accuracy? Was it pistol or rifle? What bullet?

[@ryuhadouken2722]

@@leveractiongypsy1848 rifle it was 30 caliber 170 grain. At first I was using gas checks, but I did some study and just tried powder coating and it gave similar results if not better. Powder I was using was imr 30331 at 50 yards. Gave me about 2 moa

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

@@ryuhadouken2722 so was the bullet a GC design with no GC or a PB bullet? I'm assuming you are shooting 30-30. I love IMR3031 in 35 Rem but recently got H335 as I couldnt find any 3031 while I had cash to spend on powder. I'm glad I did as its similar to 3031 in performance maybe a little better but very easy metering

[@therealfourthhorseman6839]

will these work in automatics?>

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

I use them in semi auto pistols, lever action and slide action rifles no issues at all 100% cycling and feeding for me

[@therealfourthhorseman6839]

@@leveractiongypsy1848 can you make me some?

[@randyturman4133]

What is the BB for

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Its all about creating a static charge to get the PC to stick to the bullets. This is why you want to use a #5 (or #2) recyclable plastic tubs to put the bullets and PC in, and its why I use the plastic BBs. Also the BBs will also act as a 'cushion' limiting the amount of dings the bullets get when shaking

[@randyturman4133]

I see thank you

[@RussellHoughton]

I preheat my bullets so the powder won't fall off. This let's me dump them into a wire basket to sperate the bullets from the powder and the bb's.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Good results are just that - glad you got your method worked out. I can see this working if you get the temps right. I couldnt get the temps right for bullets, but I also make lead head fishing jigs and I heat the jig head up then dunk it in dry powder then cure it in the oven. Again getting the temp just tright is key with this method. I think most guys making jigs do it this way. I did try what you mentioned as well in my early PC days and got globbing on the bullets, so what you see in the vid is basically what I do thats the culmination of the easiest way for me to get good results every time.... after trying every dry PC method known to man haha

[@RussellHoughton]

@Marek Michalcik not sure I just go my feel. I can pick them up but just. So maybe 80

[@RussellHoughton]

@Marek Michalcik its less the the boiling point of water but i would expect the I deal temp would depend on the powder you use.

[@RussellHoughton]

@Marek Michalcik you may have some trouble if you got the doit stuff for doing jigs. I stied that and I had to use it in my powder gun. It did not work with hot bullets it seams to have a very low melting point and it was very globby

[@kcstott]

this is the reason I bought a Saeco lubrisizer. I'm over burning time like this.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

Why what happened? No need for a lubrisizer if you PC. I cant see any advantages with traditional lube and many disadvantages. I seriously doubt I wouldve got into casting my own bullets if I didnt first PC bought cast bullets and realized the benefits. I only shoot cast PC now. PC is a huge game changer in cast bullet technology and its here to stay. Shooters are just starting to scratch the surface with testing various aspects, collecting data and sharing data with others who are testing, so you can only imagine what other possibilities it leads to down the line.

[@leveractiongypsy1848]

somebody recently gave me some traditional lube cast bullets to shoot....its been about 10 yrs since and it reminded me one of the main reasons I switched to PC...traditional lube bullets is just a mess - from making to shooting them....holy crap the amount of smoke of the lube gives off that this guy used....not sure what it was, possibly whale blubber or something weird...I'm guessing its why he was giving bullets away lol....talk about 'burning time' ...or is it 'smoking time' haha