Powder-coated Powerhouse or Lipstick Lunacy?
The How & Why of Coated Bullets
Tank’s Pink Pepto Pills are just the ticket for accurate and clean shooting.
While upsetting to some, others know the value of PC bullets.
My buddy Dick Thompson explained the process of powder coating (PC) bullets to me years ago. I admit, I was skeptical. Why go to the trouble of starting something new when I’ve been happily lube-sizing cast bullets for 30 years? I should have known better. Dick is an experienced hunter, shooter, bullet caster and handloader, it’s why we get along so well.
Now dump your bullets onto a pan lined with parchment
paper and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
Freshly baked PC bullets ready to size and load.
Lazy Days
Retirement wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. You never get a day off and I was getting antsy. After 28 years of being a cop, I now had all the time in the world to do what I wanted. I tried PC bullets as an experiment out of sheer boredom. Buying PC powder from Harbor Freight — a dainty $4 investment — and already having plenty of plastic yogurt containers, I had all I needed. Being a bullet caster provided me an endless supply of naked bullets in need of some sort of lube so they could be loaded in their respective cases.
I cast a bunch of RCBS 98-grain .32 SWC bullets, lube-sizing half and PC the other half, sizing both at 0.314″. I’d learned this provides best accuracy from my Ruger guns chambered in .32 H&R.
I put around 100 freshly cast bullets into a plastic yogurt container, adding a pinch of powder and swirled them around for a few minutes. I dumped them into a wire fry basket, shaking off excess powder, then baked them. PC is simply a Polymer coating that melts onto your bullets.
I loaded them in .32 H&R Starline brass using 10 grains of 2400 powder, sparked by WSPP. Velocity runs around 1,260 fps from my 5.5″ Ruger single-six.
I fired 10 shot groups with both bullets. The results made me reconsider Dick’s claims. The PC group was about half as small as the lube-sized group. My barrel looked as if freshly cleaned, no sign of lead flashing, which is a normal occurrence when shooting lube-sized bullets even when everything is right.
I became a believer! But I needed to figure a way to powder coat bullets by the hundreds, saving time and energy. Here’s how I did it.
Approximately 250 bullets are placed in a dry, clean Tupperware bowl.
A teaspoon of white powder and a sprinkling of red make a nice Pepto pink projectile.
Place the lid on tightly and shake, rattle and roll your bowl until bullets are well coated. Usually, 2–3 minutes will suffice.
The Process
My first big batch of bullets started with around 400 #429421 cast bullets. Using a brass tumbler void of tumbling media, I dumped the bullets in the tumbler. I added about 2 teaspoons of Harbor Freight Powder, put the lid on the tumbler and turned it on.
As the bullets shake and turn around the plastic bowl, static electricity is created, making the powder stick to the bullets. Too much powder hampers this process. Always better to start with a little powder, adding more as needed than too much.
When the bullets are totally coated with powder — usually after 20 minutes — dump them into a wire fry basket so you can shake off any excess powder. This is probably the most important step, as too much powder will clump the bullets together into a mess when baking. I use newspaper to collect the excess powder and dump it back into the powder bottle.
I then dump the bullets onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I don’t bother standing the bullets up like toy soldiers, I dump them, sometimes 3-4 deep. If you shook off the excess powder, you’ll be fine. I then bake the bullets for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. For harder bullets, I water quench straight from the oven. For most handgun velocities I air cool, up to around 1,400 fps with Lyman #2 alloy or equivalent.
Dump your bullets into a wire fry basket and shake excess
powder off onto newspaper. Dump the excess powder to use again.
Why?
Show me a lazy man, and I’ll show you the easiest way of doing something. After 30 years of lube-sizing bullets on a RCBS Lube-a-Matic, I thought it was the only way to go. It takes time and effort to use, though. Pushing an oversized cast bullet through the sizing die can take a lot of effort.
I started using Lee push-thru sizing dies, which are used in conjunction with a single-stage press. Then, a few years ago, I got a Lee APP press, and it really started speeding up the sizing process. Plus, the sizing bushings are about $10 for the APP press, less than half the price of the standard push-thru dies.
PC is financially more efficient. A pound of powder goes a long way, capable of coating around 10,000 bullets. Lube is sticky, messy, and can melt, contaminating the powder, but not so with PC. Dies and press stay clean, as well as fingernails. PC bullets encapsulate the lead bullet, limiting lead exposure while preserving bullets from oxidation for long-term storage.
Softer lead alloys can be driven faster for better expansion on game without leading. I have guns that have shot thousands of rounds of PC bullets, and the barrel is spotless. Wiping the exterior of the gun is all it takes. Different color bullets can be color-coded for light or heavy loads, so you know at a glance what you’re shooting. Surely, you wouldn’t want to confuse your heavy Ruger-only loads with a Colt SAA or replica!
Traditional shooters can use clear PC to maintain “natural” looking slugs, or use copper colored or even silver colored if you want to look like the Lone Ranger, or take care of any vampires. My favorite reasons for using PC bullets? They simply work, and they’re easier, cheaper, and more fun to make.
