I've had some leading issues with commercially cast bullets in .45 ACP and I'm thinking of trying to powder coat them. These bullets have lube or grease in the grease groove.

Should I first degrease these bullets before powder coating?
Many thanks for your input.

If you are getting leading then it's a either the lube or the size. Commercially cast bullet frequently come with terrible lubes. Even with a properly sized bullet leading can occur with a bad lube. As far as bullet fit/size/diameter goes the PC coated bullets increase the size which maybe the answer to your leading.
If your planing on PC coating those commercially cast bullets you will need to remove the lube they came with before attempting to PC. I seriously doubt you would need to size them down before adding PC. But as with anything reloading there is no absolute answer. Do a drop fit into your gun's chamber to check for fit and feed after PCing a few.

He said for " 45acp " but didn't specifiy if for a revolver or semi auto ? If for revolver , there are several areas of possible causing leading the barrel . Poor lube that the commercials use is a possibility but there are others usually causing the problem .

I would shoot them up or trade them off and buy some coated bullets, before I would try and do it myself.

Powder coating typically involves heating the bullets and powder coat to 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. If you leave the lube in place and try this I imagine it will create a mess. I have heard of people boiling off the lube in water and then doing an acetone rinse. I have never done this however, this is what I would do if I was going to try.

A better idea might be a tumble lube coat of Lee Liquid Alox , leave the bullets lubricated , and follow the directions for tumbling lubing them. A thin coat works better than a thick coat, let dry and load. The extra lube might help, and the existing lube doesn't have to be removed.

You can NOT powder coat over lube. The bullets have to be squeaky clean. As noted, sell/trade them off or shoot them up. If you are getting leading, it's likely the bullet is too small. If the bullets are 0.452" & you are using the LFCD, stop that & they will probably be fine.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Excellent advice, unless you are talking about a large supply to "degrease"...? Sounds like a lot of time, work and bother.

Lots of choices out there: my experience with MBC coated bullets in 38/357, 9mm & 40 S&W has been very positive!

Cheers!

Like someone said above. Buy 500 coated bullets (I like MBC) and load them up and give them a try. Later, if you can find a source for wheel weight lead then try your hand at pouring your own bullets. Then you can learn to powder coat. For me, learning new things is as much fun as shooting. Oh, powder coating is fairly simple.

I did degrease and hi-tek coat about a 1000 cast .44 bullets.
Was a bit of work but turned out well.
Step 1. Arrange bullets on a baking sheet covered with 4 layers of paper towels. Bake 2 hours at 300 degrees. Most of the lube melts into the towels.
Step 2. Boil the bullets in a pot for an hour, stirring a few times. Most of the remaining lube will float to the surface. Let it cool then skim off the hardened lube.
Step 3. Put the bullets in a wire basket and run in the dishwasher on ultimate scrub with Cascade. Did all this when Tarowoman was out!
Why do all this? Had special oversize from Penn from a mould he retired.
Would I do it again?
No.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

SOunds like a huge time suck. Either start casting your own or find someone that will sell you bare bullets.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Right.
Once was enough.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

I just buy the powder coated bullets ready to load. Either from Donnie Miculek or Missouri Bullet Co. They are just pennies over cast bullets. I really like the end result, no leading, good accuracy, you can run them hotter, less clean up when shooting, etc. What's not to like.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I've been using bluebullet.com or bayoubullets.net

I like the blue ones better. They seem to run .001 smaller. They sell some sample packs that might be worth trying.


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I'm having fun with 32 H&R these days and coated bullets are just the thing for keeping the front of a blued cylinder free from lead buildup over a long range session. Not all places offer 32 caliber coated bullets, but I've been very pleased with the products from Acme and SNS Casting.

Acme coating is red, and SNS was gold when I first tried 'em but they too have switched to red. Too bad, as I was prepared to buy from both vendors and use one color for hot loads and the other for normal or light stuff. But apparently anything that looks like it even might be plated or jacketed gets hyper scrutiny from cowboy action match officials (where only lead bullets are allowed) and SNS has enough cowboy action customers that they switched to red. I asked 'em about other colors, and the reason for my asking, but they said it was just not feasible for them to run multiple colors, and they simply won't offer gold bullets any more. So I guess I'll just have to rely on ammo box labels - like I've been doing for decades.

Other vendors do offer more color choices, just not in 32.

Another thumbs up for Blue Bullets! Here's the barrel of my Springfield Armory Trophy Match after 200 rounds with their 230 gr. round nose. It looked exactly the same with another 200!

Barrel after a single dry patch and 200 rounds.



Bullet: Blue Bullets 230 gr. RNFP (Polymer Coated)
Powder: VihtaVuori N310 3.9 grs.
Primer: Federal 150
Case: Winchester
Recoil Spring: Factory (16 lbs.) No Buffer Pad
LOAL: 1.250

Anybody have any load data for the Blue Bullets 9mm 124g with Power Pistol?


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You could boil off the bullet lube, but wouldn't it be more fun to just shoot them? Buy some Hi-Tek coated bullets and load those. They work great.

I still have a decent supply of older lubed lead that I will load up & shoot someday, but I keep reaching for the Hi-Tek coated varieties when I sit down to load batches.

I've done this. Won't work with the lube on them, as it will melt when you bake them messing everything up.

The best way to remove the lube is to heat them in the toaster oven you're going to use for the powder coat. This will melt the lube off. Then wash in mineral spirits/kerosene/whatever.

Put some foil on the tray so the lube doesn't end up all over the place.

Unless your guns are tuned to only run on Federal primers, you might try a different brand so that you have silver and gold colored primers in your normal and hot loads respectively.

__________________
Dave

I just sold off about 600 cast 9mm as I probably won't ever load lead 9mm any more.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Oh I like that one. I've been working through 10K of WSP that I accumulated just in case. But I believe my local reloading supply has all the choices, so I'll look into something in a different color. (Just as soon as I get done doing tax returns, in two weeks.)

Thanks for the suggestion.