Anyone cast bullets for 300 blk?

guzma393 · Sep 9, 2020

John from MD said:
If you powder coat your bullets, you will not get any lead buildup. You will get some residue behind the gas rings on the tail of the bolt but it comes off easily. If you buy powder by the pound, their powder coat seems to be thinner than something like Harbor Fight type powder.

While I have heard of people having blocked gas tubes, I have not had it happen to me.

I'm actually looking for better powder coating powder than the HF stuff, especially powders that work well with the dry tumble method. What powders do you recommend? I was thinking of getting some dupont active green powder from ebay, but not sure if i wanna pull the trigger on unknown powder that doesnt work with the dry tumble method.

guzma393 · Sep 9, 2020

jollymon said:
I tried a few years back and was having a lot of fun with it till it stopped cycling regularly , I put the little tube from the can of gun scrubber in the gas tube thinking it was full of carbon , Well I got more coming out of back end then the muzzle , So I pulled out the gas tube to find a lot of lead that had built up clogging it , I replaced the tube and used a propane torch to melt what was in the front sight tower . Found some lead in the BCG too Since then it's jacketed only

The lyman cast handbook explicitly states this scenerio to happen, but this book was written well before powder coating bullets were introduced where [properly] powder coating bullets solves this issue. I'm not too concerned about this as i am mainly running casts on my stock burner barrel assemblies that i'd eventually replace with a better one.

John from MD · Sep 9, 2020

This is the powder I am currently using. https://www.powderbuythepound.com/ral-5005-signal-blue.html

I use the dry shake and bake method. The most important part is you want low humidity and as much static electricity as you can get. I don't coat in the summer due to the humidity levels as the paint just won't stick right. When I do coat, I use a plastic tub marked with a 5 in the triangle and I use a piece of wool that I rub against the plastic to build up a charge. This stuff is much thinner than HF paint and seems to give a more uniform coat.

jollymon · Sep 9, 2020

guzma393 said:
The lyman cast handbook explicitly states this scenerio to happen, but this book was written well before powder coating bullets were introduced where [properly] powder coating bullets solves this issue. I'm not too concerned about this as i am mainly running casts on my stock burner barrel assemblies that i'd eventually replace with a better one.

My days with this cal and lead were long before Powder Coating was around . I have a couple thousand rounds for deer hunting so I don't think I'll mess with it anytime soon .

guzma393 · Sep 9, 2020

John from MD said:
This is the powder I am currently using. https://www.powderbuythepound.com/ral-5005-signal-blue.html

I use the dry shake and bake method. The most important part is you want low humidity and as much static electricity as you can get. I don't coat in the summer due to the humidity levels as the paint just won't stick right. When I do coat, I use a plastic tub marked with a 5 in the triangle and I use a piece of wool that I rub against the plastic to build up a charge. This stuff is much thinner than HF paint and seems to give a more uniform coat.

Sounds good, I been having mixed results with HF powder coatings. Matte black just clumps where some residuals just stick and white runs really thin. I been playing around with combining black and white together, making a "cement gray" color.

I do my PCs in batches, where i throw about 80 boolits in a 1# powder jug and tumble the jug in a frankford arsenal tumbler for ~15-20 minutes and it puts a fair coating on. I mainly struggle in getting sufficient coating on the lube grooves. After a few batches, i realized that warming the bullets to the touch before tumbling allows powder to stick on the boolits better.

Unsuccessful batches wind up back in the melt pot (too thick, warmed up boolits too hot) or a second layer is applied (too thin), so i winded up with pc coated boolits labelled as 1 layer (1L) and 2 layer (2L).

Rather than deal with all this trouble, i'd rather get a coating that just sticks in the long run. I'll consider the signal blue powderbuythepound stuff.

John from MD · Sep 9, 2020

You don't need to use a tumbler and you get less paint on the bullet if you shake it by hand in a tupperware container. Trust me, I have been doing this since we first started years ago with a paint gun. As I said before, you need low humidity and static electricity to hold the paint to the bullet. This combination allows you to coat a tub of 50 to 100 bullets in 3 minutes. I have four oven racks and every 20 minutes I am throwing in another rack. Sometimes I do 2000 at a sitting.

guzma393 · Sep 10, 2020

John from MD said:
You don't need to use a tumbler and you get less paint on the bullet if you shake it by hand in a tupperware container. Trust me, I have been doing this since we first started years ago with a paint gun. As I said before, you need low humidity and static electricity to hold the paint to the bullet. This combination allows you to coat a tub of 50 to 100 bullets in 3 minutes. I have four oven racks and every 20 minutes I am throwing in another rack. Sometimes I do 2000 at a sitting.

Ill keep this in mind after i transition out of the HF stuff. Still on the fence on buying a lb of good powder coat to try out (looks like the rate is going for 20/lb shipped) or go all out and buy a couple of lbs in different colors. It will be a while until i start casting and powder coating again, so i'm in no rush.

John from MD · Sep 10, 2020

A pound of the PBP stuff lasts a longer time than you would imagine.

guzma393 · Sep 11, 2020

John from MD said:
A pound of the PBP stuff lasts a longer time than you would imagine.

That it would. Ill put an order in once I need to cast more boolits.

Melnic · Sep 11, 2020

what ever you do ,don't buy the Hi Tek Powder. I"ve totally struggled with it. It coats REALLY uniform and thin but its trickier to bake IMO
I even got poor accuracy results from bayou bullets coated ones.

the 300blk gas checked ones I did not have problems with, I think the Gas checks scrapes off anything that strips off.
I folllowed John's advice and got Power by the Pound

303_enfield · Sep 12, 2020

NOE 310-225 AKA the TACO
https://noebulletmolds.com/site/shop/308-311/tl310-225-rn-ce3/tl310-225-rn-ce3-2-cavity-pb

Been using that one a few years because of this group buy:

https://www.thereloadersnetwork.com...a-300blk-bullet-mold-for-dummies-is-finished/

Powder coat is your friend!

guzma393 · Sep 16, 2020

Reporting back, Best i could do is 4-6" groups at 50 yards with powder coated 309 sized 312-160gn with GC, 16 gn of imr-4227, COL to barrel lands of 2.100" (not preferable COL, backed to 2.06" for proper chambering but tried to seat close to lands as possible for accuracy sakes). Shoot clean, and cycles the action well, but the accuracy is just not there...

This same projectile, sized to .311 works great on my Ruger American 7.62x39, but not my 7.5" 1:8 twist 300 blkout build. I think i'm going to step back and load some FMJ's for now to see what accuracy I can even get out the gun. I am a bit lost with this one.

John from MD · Sep 16, 2020

My first pistol build using a ABC 1 in 8 8.5 inch barrel is getting tight groups with my rifle loads. They are Lee 311-160TL powder coated and sized to .309. The one problem I have is that the rifle chamber is at the top end of the spec and is more forgiving than the pistol for which the chamber is cut tight. Cartriges that drop in the case length gauge freely shoot fine. If they need to be pushed in a little, no go in the pistol. So now I have to segregate the loads. Bah humbug.

Melnic · Sep 22, 2020

guzma393 said:
Reporting back, Best i could do is 4-6" groups at 50 yards with powder coated 309 sized 312-160gn with GC, 16 gn of imr-4227, COL to barrel lands of 2.100" (not preferable COL, backed to 2.06" for proper chambering but tried to seat close to lands as possible for accuracy sakes). Shoot clean, and cycles the action well, but the accuracy is just not there...

This same projectile, sized to .311 works great on my Ruger American 7.62x39, but not my 7.5" 1:8 twist 300 blkout build. I think i'm going to step back and load some FMJ's for now to see what accuracy I can even get out the gun. I am a bit lost with this one.

Do you have any H110 to use?

guzma393 · Sep 23, 2020

Melnic said:
Do you have any H110 to use?

Nah, i'm currently trying to get my hands on any suitable powders for 300 blk and h110 is always oos when it's time for me to buy.

Melnic · Sep 23, 2020

Try ordering online at Basspro and ship to store so your not paying hazmat or shipping. I have done that twice now in the past few months.

atblis · Oct 2, 2020

I've always gotten terrible accuracy with coated bullets in 300 BLK. Tried several bullets and a few barrels. Haven't switched powders up, just using AA1680.

What's a reasonable accuracy expectation out of an AR?

guzma393 · Oct 16, 2020

atblis said:
I've always gotten terrible accuracy with coated bullets in 300 BLK. Tried several bullets and a few barrels. Haven't switched powders up, just using AA1680.

What's a reasonable accuracy expectation out of an AR?

I settled with 3-5 moa pinging steel at 100yd using imr4227, powdercoated, sized 309/160 grain GC lee cast, out of a 7.5" bear creek arsenal upper.

Definitely room for improvement, but it's good enough for general plinking ammo at the range.

John from MD · Oct 16, 2020

Since you are using a 7.5 inch barrel, you should be happy. My 8.5 inch will shoot 1inch groups at 50 yards from a rest holding it very firmly. Leaning on my elbows, the groups open to 2.5 inches. My 16.5 in carbine, will shoot 2 inch groups at 100 yards from the bench if I use a high enough power scope and don't jerk the trigger. Lets face it, with AR pistols, you really should expect them to shoot MOA unless you put it in a Ransom Rest.

guzma393 · Oct 16, 2020

John from MD said:
Since you are using a 7.5 inch barrel, you should be happy. My 8.5 inch will shoot 1inch groups at 50 yards from a rest holding it very firmly. Leaning on my elbows, the groups open to 2.5 inches. My 16.5 in carbine, will shoot 2 inch groups at 100 yards from the bench if I use a high enough power scope and don't jerk the trigger. Lets face it, with AR pistols, you really should expect them to shoot MOA unless you put it in a Ransom Rest.

Gotcha, i'm happy how it runs. I just never really had anything to benchmark it to cause I never ran FMJs/factory ammo, different powders, harder lead alloy, etc. out of the upper to really see how they fare against my casts, so i assume i can squeeze out more accuracy out of it. Im probably overthinking it, but that's the kick i get out of the reloading hobby.

Anyone cast bullets for 300 blk?

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