450Bushmaster.net

I just started getting into casting for my 45 ACP and would like to start branching out into other calibers. One of the next I am looking into is the 300 Whisper and I have noticed that a lot of people are powder coating the lead to mimic a jacket and reduce leading. It got me to thinking about using powder coating to push lead in the 450 a little harder. I've read a lot of the lead bullet for 450 threads and it seems to have mixed results. The only mold I have for now is a .452 200gr SWC, but I thought a lead 230gr RN bullet would make a cheap plinking round if the powder coat allowed for a little faster velocity.

Has anyone experimented with powder coating bullets for the 450?

Colohunter wrote:...snip...
Has anyone experimented with powder coating bullets for the 450?

Though I have not, right out of the gate, I'm wondering if powder coat is something you can get away with at subsonic velocities, but the heat from friction, as the bullet goes down the bore at higher speeds, would raise the temperature of the powder coat to where it once again liquifies and makes a mess of the bore?

My ignorance of the process is showing, I know...

Hoot

I too am new to the idea. On the 300 Blackout forum one of the users states that he has used powder coat at speeds up to 3200 fps. I don't remember seeing any recovered bullets to show how much coating was left, but most shooters say that they don't have leading when powder coating. I haven't seen any reports of coating left in the barrel either.

I doubt that you could get the accuracy of the FTX bullet, but it might be a way around the gas cutting and leading of straight cast bullets. I'll probably end up trying it eventually, but I'll need a RN mold.

Quick Google search produced this before, after image.



That missing paint wound up somewhere. Just saying...

That's a good example. I tried a Google image search and found this thread about polymer paint: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthr ... ting/page8 Post #394 has several pictures of recovered pistol bullets with varying degrees of paint still intact.

A 45 ACP that shows one of the few problems noted -- some cutting along the rifling lines:


A recovered 45ACP from the first batch:

There doesn't seem to be much experience or interest in the plastic coat, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I'm primarily interested in it for the 300 Whisper, but decided to try out some .452 SWCs since I have the mold. I cast a few and used Harbor Freight red. I applied with the dry tumble lube method, which doesn't provide the best coverage, but allows coating with minimal equipment and very little waste. Here are a couple loaded up compared to factory 250gr FTX:



The next photo shows two dummy rounds that were hand cycled through the action 6 times each. Hand cycling was flawless. There is some definite wear on the leading edges, but less damage to the nose then I expected. The repeated cycling also caused the bullets to move out about .1" I only applied a taper crimp and may add a side crimp at a later date:



And last but not least, a picture of one that I crushed in a vise. The teeth of the vice defenitely chewed up the coating, but the sides seem to have adhered fairly well to the led.



It may be a couple weeks before I get a chance to get out and shoot, but I'm curious to see how they do. If the accuracy is decent this would be a great way to get some extra trigger time behind the 450 without a lot of cost.

I loaded some bullets from Precision bullets, http://www.precisionbullets.com/
and they are accurate and shoot great in the 45acp, with very little smoke one usually gets from traditional hard cast when shooting indoors.
but at the 450BM velocities, had a huge group- my targets looked like a patterning board at 50 yds.
I abandoned using the coated bullets in the 450bm in short order.
These coatings are more like plating than jackets, and plated bullets have not fared well in this platform.
Will be interesting to see your results.

It's been awhile since I started this. I got to test out the SWCs above and had pretty poor accuracy as 3rdgeargrndrr mentioned. The faster the bullet went, the worse the accuracy. I may try to work down and see if I can get any lighter loads to shoot better and still cycle the action. The SWC fed without issues in my Bushmaster factory upper and left very sharp edges on the bullet holes (one of the reasons I like the SWC bullet for IDPA.) I plan out getting a 230gr RN mold and may try the experiment again with some of those bullets.

On a side note, there wasn't any noticeable fouling from the lead or the plastic coat. I have been shooting plastic coated 230gr lead bullets in my 300 Whisper with good results. I have been getting similar accuracy to factory FMJ bullets without any additional fouling or issues. It definitely makes for a much cheaper load for the 300 compared to 220 gr Sierra Matchkings.