Spray painting bullets

rockquarry said:

I size and lube the conventional way, no coating and baking, but I have noticed some blue cast bullets in the berm at our gun club pistol range. They appear to be painted. I have no idea if these are home-made or commercial, but the surface is slick.

Do coated bullets have a slick surface? That may be what I found.

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rockquarry said:

I size and lube the conventional way, no coating and baking, but I have noticed some blue cast bullets in the berm at our gun club pistol range. They appear to be painted. I have no idea if these are home-made or commercial, but the surface is slick.

Do coated bullets have a slick surface? That may be what I found.

Click to expand...

rwsmith said:

....epoxy, polyurethane, engine paint? I see heat resistant epoxy's are good for 600 deg F, but need baking on. Polyurethane, probably not so good. What would the best material be?

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Alk8944 said:

Yes, bullets can be spray painted, it gives the same results as powder coating, which is dry paint powder.

I have been shooting and casting bullets in both pistols and rifles for more than 65 years. I have tried powder coating, spray painting and polymer coating of my bullets and have finally decided that none of those methods gives me any advantage at all over the traditional lubricating with beeswax based lubricants. Simply sizing and lubrication is simpler and quicker, and prevents leading as well as any of the other methods, which is the usual reason promoted for all the various coating methods.

I have also used nearly all of the boutique (expensive) bullet lubes on the market and have settled on Saeco Green, available from Forster (NOT FORESTER!) which prevents leading better than any of the expensive ones. Years ago I was given the formula for Saeco Green by a former Saeco factory representative. I make batches of 5-10 pounds for less per pound than a single stick of the commercial lube! You can buy candle wax die and make it any color you want.

Click to expand...

Alk8944 said:

Yes, bullets can be spray painted, it gives the same results as powder coating, which is dry paint powder.

I have been shooting and casting bullets in both pistols and rifles for more than 65 years. I have tried powder coating, spray painting and polymer coating of my bullets and have finally decided that none of those methods gives me any advantage at all over the traditional lubricating with beeswax based lubricants. Simply sizing and lubrication is simpler and quicker, and prevents leading as well as any of the other methods, which is the usual reason promoted for all the various coating methods.

I have also used nearly all of the boutique (expensive) bullet lubes on the market and have settled on Saeco Green, available from Forster (NOT FORESTER!) which prevents leading better than any of the expensive ones. Years ago I was given the formula for Saeco Green by a former Saeco factory representative. I make batches of 5-10 pounds for less per pound than a single stick of the commercial lube! You can buy candle wax die and make it any color you want.[/QUOTE

Instead of buying candle wax dye just use colored crayons in your mix......I use my wife's expired scented candles in my mix.......Shooting them smells good!.....When commercial lube sticks got above $3 each I started making my lube......It works as good as anything you can buy.

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Richard93 said:

Do you think there is a way to coat the bullets with paint without dust? With powder paint you need an oven and it is a long process. If there was a spray paint it would be very fast. Do you think it is possible?

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rockquarry said:

I size and lube the conventional way, no coating and baking, but I have noticed some blue cast bullets in the berm at our gun club pistol range. They appear to be painted. I have no idea if these are home-made or commercial, but the surface is slick.

Do coated bullets have a slick surface? That may be what I found.

Click to expand...

Richard93 said:

Do you think there is a way to coat the bullets with paint without dust? With powder paint you need an oven and it is a long process. If there was a spray paint it would be very fast. Do you think it is possible?

Click to expand...

Mike said:

Alk8944 said:

Yes, bullets can be spray painted, it gives the same results as powder coating, which is dry paint powder.

I have been shooting and casting bullets in both pistols and rifles for more than 65 years. I have tried powder coating, spray painting and polymer coating of my bullets and have finally decided that none of those methods gives me any advantage at all over the traditional lubricating with beeswax based lubricants. Simply sizing and lubrication is simpler and quicker, and prevents leading as well as any of the other methods, which is the usual reason promoted for all the various coating methods.

I have also used nearly all of the boutique (expensive) bullet lubes on the market and have settled on Saeco Green, available from Forster (NOT FORESTER!) which prevents leading better than any of the expensive ones. Years ago I was given the formula for Saeco Green by a former Saeco factory representative. I make batches of 5-10 pounds for less per pound than a single stick of the commercial lube! You can buy candle wax die and make it any color you want.[/QUOTE

Instead of buying candle wax dye just use colored crayons in your mix......I use my wife's expired scented candles in my mix.......Shooting them smells good!.....When commercial lube sticks got above $3 each I started making my lube......It works as good as anything you can buy.

Click to expand...

I don't have your experience (only 45 years) but I prefer powder coating. In performance it certainly isn't inferior in any way.

It keeps your dies clean. No lube build up.

You get a lot less lead splash on the face of the cylinder when used in revolvers.

It's cheap. The $24 I spent on a pound of powder did 7800+ pistol bullets. Mostly 158gr .38 SWC. Some .41 SWCs and 147gr 9mm. I still have some left. I have enough left to make it to 9,000 for sure. Maybe 10,000.

There's less need to vary your alloy. If it casts, it will shoot.

Used (or new) toaster oven instead of a $350 Lubrisizer.

Downside: There's a learning curve. It seems everybody develops different techniques. Also I don't think you want to do this indoors. The garage is best. The powder tends to be a little messy but not real bad. You tend to spill a little.

Humidity levels matter a lot. If you live in a humid area, like I do, you need to work around the weather. A dew point below 65 is best.

Sizing can be an issue. The powder coat adds .002"-.003" to diameter. If you have a mold that already throws big it may be more than you can size in one shot. Sometimes, with some bullets, you may need to size them twice. With some styles of bullets it seems over-sizing can damage the coating or produce a "skirt" around the base of the bullet. But most size just fine in one step.

The flip side of this is if you have an undersized mold, powder coating may be enough to fix it.

The other disadvantage here is that you are separating the lubing and sizing into two steps. I find running them through a Lee push-through sizer pretty fast. But the oven production rate doesn't represent the entire effort needed. In my opinion it's close to a wash as far as speed goes. But powder coating may be a little slower. Not a lot though.

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