I have been wondering for some time about the accuracy and velocity differences between plain lead cast and lubed bullets compared with the new Hi Tek or maybe even other coated bullets.
I have transitioned to all coated bullets in my .357, .44 and .45 Colt loads. I have some plain lead still in inventory, but not many and odd weights. Easier to load, not messy on the fingers and shoot cleaner at the range and easier cleanup. BUT, I am uncertain about the accuracy, and how the coating affects velocity and pressure.

I have not seen any good comparison in any of my magazines, including Handloader, that have done an extensive comparison. Perhaps I just missed it.

If anyone has an article or knows of one, I would appreciate knowing how to get it.

Thanks in advance

__________________
Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

I can't say coated are any more or less accurate, but I feel that their advantages far outweigh any disadvantages (if there are any). They can be pushed hard like jacketed and are much cleaner and a LOT less smoky and smelly. Some people say they smell like electrical tape when they are fired, but I started ignoring that a long time ago.

I'll still shoot lube-in-groove bullets OUTDOORS, but not in an indoor range. The cost is amazing.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I have a ransom & gonna put this question to bed in the spring. For gun games out to 40y, sure. I dont see a lot of handheld diff out at 25y. They do shoot a whole lot cleaner. I was slow to coated as an old time caster, but I'm pretty much sold on either HT or PC coated.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I lube with a mix of my wife's "wore out" scented candles......Make's "em" smell good when you load "em" and when you shoot "em".

__________________
S&W Accumulator

Would be a monumental undertaking to attempt a comprehensive comparison of lubed versus coated. And, whoever did it, would undoubtedly conclude .... YMMV.

The answer is not in any article; it's as simple as testing readily available versions of the same bullet from the same manufacturer. Try to eliminate EVERY variable except the lube and coating and a trip or two to the range for side-by-side comparison will answer what a particular gun prefers in a jiffy.

__________________
Carry.."hope" isn't a strategy

This You tube channel has done some comparisons. Not the most scientific, but he's pretty thorough.

My first try with a coated lead bullet was with a C9 3.5" 9mm.

The 125 RN coated and a 125 FMJ plated were neck and neck with
the same amounts of different powders so no winner there.

Over all the test of target and full loads with different OAL tossed in
I had to give the accuracy award to the plated bullet.

The coated had a few loads that were accurate but the plated had more of them.
However there were good loads with both types of bullets that would make me happy
if I had to choose a load with either bullet, as a "Keeper".

I have yet to shoot coated in my revolvers so the vs lead answer will have to come later.

The new Handloader magazine (#312), that was just delivered to my mailbox, has an article on powder coated cast bullets.

You didn't miss it... it just arrived.

.

__________________
Waiting for the break of day

Thanks 41mag657ss, that's the kind of information I was looking for. That video led to others to view. Obviously, I am more used to print media, and have not caught up with utube info. My rut is deep!

Thanks much, I feel better now. My load that I have used for lots of years has been a 148, 150 or 158 grain lead bullet with 3.0 grains of Bullseye. I guess the coated bullet is not the problem! :-)

__________________
Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

I have been informed the coated bullets are just as good, accurate, etc. and protect the barrels equally but I'm a Die-Hard. I love the smell of burning powder and wax as I shoot. To me, reminds me of good times past and present.

__________________
ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

I have shot some 138 grain Bayou Bullets wadcutters out of my Open Bianchi revolver. In a Ransom Rest, they are shooting 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 groups at 50 yards. That's as good as I've gotten with anything else, including JHP, which is normally the most accurate. These were loaded to a velocity of 920 FPS.

Any way you cut it, bullets coated with a chalk(chalk line powder) is an abrasive.

__________________
S&W Accumulator

This is an interesting article about comparing velocity:

Bullet Composition and Velocity

My Dad always lubed his cartridges with paraffin. That was back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

It would depend on what powder you coated with but it has been proven myth that PC is abrasive. If anything, it is slicker than jacketed.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

That would only be good for very low vel/pressure loads. Paraffin fails quickly as things heat up.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

There's a whole forum on the net about cast boolits and gun loads..

Thread after thread about plating vs lubing.. After all is said and done.

Some like it hot. Some like it cold. Some like it in the pot nine days old.

No real winner in the comparison of the two. Mike is right about the CLAY.

From your wife's makeup to the paint on the family car, one main ingredient

Is CLAY.. I will personally continue using LUBE on my cast lead boolits.

Average lifetime for a rifle barrel is only about TWO MINUTES. FIVE for

a pistol barrel.. I am gonna do whatever l can to make my pistol barrels

last as long as l can.. If it means lubing a few boolits, so what.. Besides,

It's F U N making my own boolits and SCENTED LUBE

One of my shooting buddies did a comparison between 185 grain cast (45acp)swc with traditional lubes and bayou bullets 185 grain coated swc's and from a rest with with a tuned bulleye pistol complete with a red dot sight there was very little difference between the two bullets at both 25 and 50 yards. My friend is a reformed bench rest shooter and had as many variables eliminated as possible. The conclusion he and I came to was that if your buying bullets go with the coated bullets as the difference in how clean everything is really makes it worth while to use the coated bullets.

Not really......I use a mixture of commode seal and canning wax/scented candles 60/40....I lube 32S&W/32-20/9mm/40-10mm/38-357/44 mag-spl/45LC-acp/444/45-70/30-30/762x39/30-06........Velocities from 800 to 2200 fps(cronographed Oehler 35P)......Sized correctly none lead up my barrels or gas ports....So thats a myth too...I can't see cooking bullets with an abrasive powder to be any advantage over what I do......

__________________
S&W Accumulator

I won't say coated bullets are more accurate than lubed bullets. But I will say it's easier to find accurate loads with coated bullets than it is with lubed bullets.
Lubed bullets:
You hit the loud button and bang, the bullets off to the races. The base of the bullet compresses hydraulically pushing the lube outward and forward in front of the front drive band/bands sealing and coating the bbl. This is where the fit/allow/lube/pressure (powder) combo's come into play. Get everything right and you have an accurate load.
Coated bullets:
The lube is already there so it takes the finding of the correct pressure/alloy combo out of play. Either get the fit part correct or use a soft alloy (8/9bhn for up to 35,000+/-psi loads). All's that's left is matching the load with the bullet and test for accuracy.

I've owned a beater 629 for years & tested a lot of different cast/swaged lead bullets in it. When I 1st got interested in coating bullets I grabbed it an retested cast lubed bullets vs cast coated bullets. The scope of the test was to find plinking loads that would do minute of golfball @ 25yds. MOGB ='s 1& 1/2" groups/nra x-ring @ 25yds. Same dies/brass/powders/cast bullets/shooter/etc. The only difference was 1/2 the bullets were lubed vs pc'd from the same lot/casting session of cast lead bullets. I tested 5 bullets and 7 different powders doing a simple ladder test with each bullet/powder combo. At the end of the day I ended up with 3 vs 13

3 vs 13 is huge!!!! Had 3 lubed loads vs 13 pc'd loads


Both bullets that are coated and lubed can be accurate, it's just easier to find accurate loads with coated bullets.

Man/moment/machine, but in this case it's pc and what it brings to the table. 2 bullets cast from the same time from the same mold using the same alloy (20# pot & a 6-cavity mold). It'a a lee 312-160 tl bullet.

I used a traditional lube (lbt blue) + 1 thin coat of 45/45/10 tumble lube on 1/2 of the bullets and I pc'd the other 1/2. I used a 308w that just got re-barreled and tested some loads with h335. While accuracy wise none of the loads were anything special, it was an eye opener. The traditional lubed bullets were right with the pc'd bullets for the 2400fps & 2500fps loads (34& 35gr loads), the target with 10-shot 100yd groups.

As you can see the lube failed and accuracy went south with the 36 & 37gr loads. I did a 2nd heavy coat of lube on the same bullets and plan on re-testing the 36 & 37 gr loads to see if the groups/accuracy comes back.

The pc'd bullets on the other hand kept getting tighter groups and the load/powder got heavier. The 37gr 2650+fps load did just under 2" for a 10-shot group & 100yds.


I plan on testing 38gr & 39gr loads to see if the groups tighten up any (2800fps range).

This is a good example of the getting the fit/alloy/lube/pressure combo right with lubed bullets compared to pc'd bullets. The velocity of the loads steadily climbed with the pc'd bullets while the lubed bullets started to fail at the 35gr pressure range. Just not enough lube to seal the bbl. The bbl didn't have any leading, the hard 45/45/10 protected it. I've always said bullet lube is a gasket also. And this is a good example of not enough lube and the loss of pressure/velocity.

Anyway just another opinion on what I've found with lubed vs pc'd bullets from a 30+ year bullet caster/swager.

I did a lot of testing with wax and coated bullets in my revolvers. Accuracy improved with coated from a variety of manufacturers. Speed was not a factor, I was just trying to make Minor for ICORE and USPSA matches. Groups were fantastic. I was able to get sub 2 inch groups at 25 yards off a rest.

Best part was cleaning the gun. As an example, I could run an entire Steel Challenge match, without having to scrub the cylinder once and the barrel was clean enough I really didn't have to run a brush through it.

Just run a patch with oil through it when done saves a lot of time.

I have had my casting and lubing setup for decades. I do not shoot matches or indoors. Coated by any technique will either require spending a lot of setup money or buying bullets that are as expensive or cost more than bulk jacketed. For me I think I will stick with what I have and leave the new stuff for others.
I read the Handloader article and the author reported the coating did leave residue in the barrel but was easy to clean. Coated bullets are probably the future but by the time it all gets figured out my shooting days likely will be behind me.

Powder coating takes me about 60 minutes per 500 bullets. While one batch of 250 is baking, it takes another 20 minutes to shake and stack another 250. I use the plastic trays that cartridges come in to stick the bullets in nose first. I use nitrile gloves and pick up a bullet and drop it into the tray compartment. Then I put a parchment paper lined pan on top of the bullet trays and flip it over. All the bullets are now nicely standing on the baking tray and it goes into the toaster oven.

Expense to start powder coating:
$3.25 for a toaster oven at the Goodwill outlet store
$4 for a pound of Harbor Freight Red powder with coupon
$0.13 for a 1 gallon Ziplock Freezer bag
$0.05 for a nitrile glove

Then there is the added time of running them through a push through sizer unless you have a technique of seating the bullet to where none of the oversized part sits above the rim.



If you cast bullets already, those same bullets will work with powder coating. It does take either a dry climate to make the cheap HF powder work well or you have to get the expensive powder that Smoke sells on Castboolits at $10-$12 pound but a half teaspoon will coat over 100 bullets so a pound will last years (at least for me who shoots only about 10k/year). But even in a humid environment and splotchy coating, once a bullet goes through the sizer, the polymer flows evenly across the drive bands to seal off any gas and prevents gas cutting.

I powder coated some bullets right after a rainstorm where everything was wet so that I could get a poorly covered bullet.
The sized bullet has perfectly coated drive bands.