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Thread: Powder coated mini balls

  1. #1
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    Powder coated mini balls

    Has anyone tried powder coated mini balls in there musket and if so how did it work? I did a search and couldn?t find anything on the subject.
    Terry,
    9th NYVC Reenactment regiment
    Home of the Accu-Timer 3

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    Lou Lou Lou is online now
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    Dave Miller was testing that our this weekend
    Lou Lou Lou Ruggiero
    Tammany Regt-42nd NYVI

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    did he come to any conclusions about it?
    Terry,
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    PoorJack is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by Terry Schultz, 10057 View Post
    did he come to any conclusions about it?
    Not yet. Didn't get to the range this weekend. It's on the agenda for the next weekend. I have powder coated smoothbore balls, minies (Hogdon and Trashcans), Smith and Sharps bullets. All bulllets were weighed prior to coating to eliminate a variable from differing bullet weights per gun. All weights are within +-1gr within type. I was going to use my same powder charge and lube that I use in each gun in this test to see if powder coating affects accuracy.
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    gemmer is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by PoorJack View Post
    Not yet. Didn't get to the range this weekend. It's on the agenda for the next weekend. I have powder coated smoothbore balls, minies (Hogdon and Trashcans), Smith and Sharps bullets. All bulllets were weighed prior to coating to eliminate a variable from differing bullet weights per gun. All weights are within +-1gr within type. I was going to use my same powder charge and lube that I use in each gun in this test to see if powder coating affects accuracy.
    What is the purpose of powder coating?

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    With modern cartridge reloading, powder coating has become a thing for bullets as it seems to act very much like a copper plated bullet. It prevents leading and eliminates the need for lubricant. Bullet can still be sized after coating with little effect on the coating. I experimented with it with .45 ACP but figured if I am going to size the bullets anyway I may as well stick with Lee Alox tumble lubing which is much faster. Also I got better accuracy with unsized .45 ACP Lee Truncated Cone Tumble Lube Groove bullets with Alox vs. powder coating.

    I'm not sure it would buy you much with a smoothbore musket, but would like to hear the results of the experiment.

    Steve
    Steve Sheldon
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    4th Louisiana Delta Rifles
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    Poorjack
    Please let us know that the results are, thanks.
    Terry,
    9th NYVC Reenactment regiment
    Home of the Accu-Timer 3

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    PoorJack is offline
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    Ok so I got a chance to shoot some powder coated ammo today. The results were what I'd call inconclusive. I used the standard method of shake and bake coating with Harbor Freight Red left over from an experiment with my 45/70 years back. Bullets were washed in acetone, coated and baked. Bullets for certain rifles were sized before loading. Lube as noted.

    #1- Smoothbore- utter and complete failure. I have a theory on this. My smoothbore mold casts at .685 and my bore is .690. The powder coating added about .003. The charge used is the same I use in competition- 60g 3f Swiss with one side of the ball dipped in lube. Here's the result-
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    #2- my Smith. I have yet to get a good load for this gun, but this is looking promising. Bullet is a from a Rapine mold that closely resembles the Lyman. I didn't size the bullet. Charge was 25g 3f Swiss with 7gr COW filler. Lube was dip in beeswax/lard. One called flyer, but note the vertical stacking and the windage is really, really good.

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    #3- Parker Hale Musketoon. Bullet was RCBS Hogdon, charge was 40gr 3f Swiss. There's essentially no change in how this load shot in this gun other than it hits about 2in low from my normal ammo. So while it does work, it's not providing any benefit other than shooting maybe a bit cleaner.

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    #4- 62 Colt Contract (Colt Sig series). I have one load that will stack bullets into one hole with this gun, Rapine Trashcan with 40g 3f Swiss and Lens Lube. This group is with a bullet I've been trying to get to shoot in this gun- the RCBS Hogdon. Bullets were weighed to within 1gr of each other and sized to .579 after powder coating. Charge is 40g 3f Swiss. Bullet is in standard musket tube and dipped into beeswax/lard to only cover the large lube ring. I made up a fair size number of these as I was thinking of trying a 100yd group but a weird thing happened to preempt that. The group started with the bullet marked #1, then #2, then 3 more shots touching. This wasn't a fluke. The first group we shot did the same thing with 8 shots. First high and right, next lower and to the left, the rest a bit lower than the second shot. It did this twice with two different shooters. I'm going to experiment a bit more with this one in this gun.

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    "A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"
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  9. #9
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    Poorjack
    Thanks for the results. On the musket did you have any problems loading the last bullet compared to the first one? I was just wondering if one could get threw an entire Skirmish with using powder coated bullets or would it become progressively difficult to load a musket?
    Terry,
    9th NYVC Reenactment regiment
    Home of the Accu-Timer 3

  10. #10
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    Powder Coating

    Poor Jack,
    So, I'm curious. It seems you lubed the bullets after powder coating? I was under the impression that powder coating was to take the place of lubing the bullet? It does in modern cartridge ammo I believe. Wonder if leaving the lube off would make a difference? And, if it would increase or decrease fouling?
    Chris

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