Rossi Rifleman

donhuff wrote:That brings up a question in my mind. If you were to design a bullet, say a 357 bullet. And did not have to put grooves in it for grease or crimping (I taper crimped them). What would it look like?

Don, I quickly redrew my TLC359-175-RF which was designed for the Marlin 1894C and at .357" fits the R92 chamber as well. Just a cylinder with a point. The sum of filling the lube grooves and gas check shank with lead minus the loss of the gas check weight added five grains to the bullet. It now weighs 180-grains. The changes also brought the center of gravity and center of pressure closer together.

Boy, that was quick!
That bullet looks pretty good I think.
I'll have to make or buy a top punch that fits these now since they shot so well. Might as well ream out the other hole in the mold too!

PBTP does have a clear powder coating you can use. I didn't care for it since you can't see how well it's coating. Kind of a duh thing to have to admit. The powder is white so if you use a spray gun maybe the bullets turn white until they are baked. I used lacquer thinner to break down the powder and tumble the bullets so they dump from the bucket looking about like they did going into the bucket. My first batch I ended up putting way too much on them. Once I started adding only a tea spoon to the bucket and just trusting the process to coat them they turned out much better. I prefer something with some color though just to tell they are evenly coated for sure.

Yeah, I was just kidding about the clear. I would never do that as it kills the "BLING" factor of coating them.

BTW I tried a few this morning using the piglet method and they turned out about like most of the ones I have seen on the net. Sure would save a lot of powder and wasted foil and screen. If they do as well at not leading, it would be a good way to do it for a lot of folks that don't have an air compressor. But they aren't nearly as pretty.
I tried it with lacquer thinner once before and did not like the results as it was real lumpy. This time I tried using urethane reducer cause I have it for doing base coat/clear coat paint jobs on my rockets. It did not work too well either. Then I tried some NITRO-METHANE and it worked great. The powder dissolved almost instantly and made a thick SNOT like substance. it coated the bullets pretty well as it dried. Then I poured them out onto some screen wire to finish drying. I think with more practice it might be a workable system.

I couldn't stand it, so I got out the reamer and took the grooves out of one hole on my Lee 310 RF that I had already cut down to a 275 grain RF. Now it's a 285 RFNG.

Looks a lot like the drawing RD made doesn't it? If I had a Lee 357 158RF and took them out, I'll bet it would be a close match but just a little lighter.

You definitely have it going on Don!

RD, I sent you a PM

I don't think this is the "Piglet Method" exactly the same because I use less thinner but it's the same mostly.

This is I think after just one coat and ready for the second from the oven:



And this is as in focus as I can get the bore after shooting my powder coated bullets:



To me the bottom line is they work even if they don't look as perfect as the ES coated version. It's cheap, easy, and fast enough that I can tumble more of them than I can bake. The HF matte black isn't as groovy looking as some of the available colors but it just works. I admit I have to coat them twice because I have to tumble them in thin coats but IMHO it's not a big deal. While I've not had good luck with the HF red looking good they do still function in that they don't lead and the shoot fine. They just look terrible. So even if you mess it up they do still work.

Well, I guess I should change the name of my method since I'm using a totally different solvent.

I get much better results using nitro methane than I do using any of the recommended solvents. It turns the powder to a liquid instantly.

But I still like the results from using the gun so much better. Much more uniform in thickness and appearance.

Hi Don; I have a little experience in painting fabric aircraft that I built. we used poly urethane with a
flexing agent added so it would not be brittle. we had to specify metal or fabric when ordering the paint.
I wonder if that flexing agent would work on powder coating. now Epoxy adhesives, I use a fair amount
of this stuff. bedding actions, forearms, and imperfections in stock wood. I use acralic raw umber to
color the epoxy brown. just a little dab and I noticed that the epoxy is not as hard and brittle. might be a good thing for bullets??? some food for thought. there might even be a flexing agent for powder coating
for special applications. don,t hurt to ask.
Louis