Hardshot
Well-Known Member
Wash in soapy water, then dry. I have also used brake cleaner and a micro cloth. The brake cleaner can have some health issues if inhaled so I don't recommend it . Do it outside.
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HBN Bullet Coating
- Thread starter Coyote Shadow Tracker
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RH300UM
Well-Known Member
I've been using Dawn soap. Let dry. Rinse in 90% rubbing alcohol. Then let dry again. My wondering is I have hard water and if it leaves deposits?
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
I use dishsoap and hot water in a container, shake them around in that, pour them into a colander and rinse thoroughly. Then I bake them in the oven around 200 (more for untipped) to dry them (though immersing them in rubbing alcohol and then then leaving them to dry at room temp will also work much better than a paper towel or just letting them air dry with water on them) and to facilitate more rapid treatment in the tumbler. Heat is your friend when hbn treating bullets.
Further south some guys found better results just using a vibratory tumbler outside in the Arizona sun…
AFAIK, none.
HBN is low toxicity unless inhaled (sub micron particles can get deep in the lungs). Even with a fragmenting bullet scattering through tissue (maximum HBN dispersion) the amount on a bullet is miniscule. Lead itself is a far greater risk - and it is very low.
The version I use is 2.5 Micron - not as small or costly as some (0.5 micron) - but excellent results as noted by others in this thread. Search Amzn for "Microlubrol 4oz 2.5 micron" HBN. Curren cost $45.
Clean barrels to bare metal, swab with 99% isopropyl / HBN slurry, dry overnight & push a cple clean patches to remove loose material. Vibratory tumble bullets 30 min to an hour in a dedicated clean medium to large pill bottle with a quarter to half Tsp powder, no BB's or SS balls, just the bullets. TAPE THE LID SHUT. Painter's tape is fine.
Pour 'em onto a micro fiber cloth, pick up the four corners & roll around. Bullets will have a slightly frosted or cloudy appearance - not solid white - & are noticably slippery when trying to pick one up.
Note that most aoutomotive oil filters are rated as 5.0 micron, meaning they allow smaller particles through. I think 0.5 micron products are marketing & a way to maximize profits. You do you.
The 2.5 micron HBN wafts out of the container as a superfine powder with the slighest disturbance so I wear a USA-made (Armbrust) KN-95 when working with it.
At this point I intend to continue using it on every jacketed or mono rifle bullet I load. Handguns I shoot mostly polycoated lead & haven't gotten a round tuit for HBN.
HTH.
I'm wondering, when I hear of people coating their bullets in a pill bottle, is the bottle large enough for the bullets to turn end-to-end, or are they just rolling around and around in the bottle?
I tried using an empty powder bottle, which meant the bullets could genuinely "tumble" in the HBN. I also used BBs to "impact" the HBN into the copper. I never felt like the bullets were getting coated, although they generally came out with a slight grey tinge.
I had the same thoughts since we too have hard water so I bought a gallon of distilled water for 98 cents and rinsed my bullets in that.
Then I let them sit on paper towls until dry.
gohring3006
Well-Known Member
I quit washing the bullets, no significant change in performance. I figure if there's residue on the bullets from the factory it would show up in SD, one bullet would be slicker than the other. If the residue isn't affecting uncoated bullets going down the bore, than it is either not there or there is no influence. Maybe we should be washing bullets regardless of them getting coated or shot bare!!??! Hmm…. Eliminatated a step that was a pain. I tumble for several hours probably like 8 hours, used bbs but I don't think they're needed, I just never took them out, mainly for consistency, do everything exactly the same every single time.
As far as cleaning the barrel. I do it once a year, it's very easy to remove with a brush some solvent and some patches. It only takes a couple of applications and it's gone. The slurry usually puts me back into play in about 10 shots or so. What ever you do, do it exactly the same every time.
People sometimes get caught up in thinking it's all about the bullets with hex, in reality it's all about the barrel, getting the barrel impregnated and "seasoned".
Bullets and slurry are just a catalyst vehicle. It doesn't really matter if the hex is impregnated deep in the jacket pores or just superficial, as long as the barrel gets treated and the bullets get processed in the tumbler the same each and every time. Some barrels have a hard time absorbing the hex, if it's been lapped to a mirror I don't think you'll see the results you want. That's pure speculation though.
As far as cleaning the barrel. I do it once a year, it's very easy to remove with a brush some solvent and some patches. It only takes a couple of applications and it's gone. The slurry usually puts me back into play in about 10 shots or so. What ever you do, do it exactly the same every time.
People sometimes get caught up in thinking it's all about the bullets with hex, in reality it's all about the barrel, getting the barrel impregnated and "seasoned".
Bullets and slurry are just a catalyst vehicle. It doesn't really matter if the hex is impregnated deep in the jacket pores or just superficial, as long as the barrel gets treated and the bullets get processed in the tumbler the same each and every time. Some barrels have a hard time absorbing the hex, if it's been lapped to a mirror I don't think you'll see the results you want. That's pure speculation though.
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Bo Sweeney3
Member
New Mexico is trying to out law coated bullets this year . The bill is moving through the legislature now .
What's the idea behind that?
They are probably thinking of "Teflon" Coated bullets with the idea that the coated bullet will go through a Bullet Proof Vest.
Same, except I use a ceramic media. I take the powder bottle and drop it into my wet tumbler's big container. Stuff towels around it and let it spin for at least an hour. Bullets are very well coated after ... almost difficult to clean them down (rubbing w/dry micro-fiber towel) to where they're supposed to be. Big benefit here is the impregnated media can coat lots and lots and lots of bullets.
That grayish tinge is a heavier coating than I think you need/want. YMMV
TBH, I don't really see a difference in using hBN. Could be my process. My biggest ROI comes from dipping the necks of my brass in Imperial Dry Neck lube, because my brass is completely clean after wet tumbling (no carbon residue). So, I only use hBN on my .338LMs. **** sure doesn't hurt and no coyotes have complained so far.
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I also believe projectiles _must_ be well washed. If I'm not mistaken, what is being washed off is the lube they swage them in at the factory. I made the mistake of not washing it off once when I was first playing around with it and wound up with a sticky fouling in the bore of my .308. Took forever to clean it out as memory serves.
Grain size on the hBN I'm using is: 0,5 microns ultra fine. Stuff's supposed to be inert/safe. Still has warnings on the label. The little container in this pic will never go empty in my lifetime.
Cheers,
Chris
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Calvin45
Well-Known Member
Any and all coatings? Cuz that could be entertaining to watch all the attempted loopholing as well as any effort to actually define what constitutes a coating.
If done correctly the hbn bullets aren't technically coated, or even plated, the metal is impregnated.
To you fellas who feel it's never looking they way it should…you're almost certainly doing it right. Treated vs untreated you'll see a muted lustre, as someone has said a greyish hue, I would call it sheen. As opposed to the bright, almost reflective, shininess of bare copper.
gohring3006
Well-Known Member
A jewelers magnification loop will ease your mind when you first start coating. You can see the stuff is in every nook and cranny on the jacket. Another tip, clean the ogive of the bullet very well, hex starts to accumulate on your seating stem cup and will screw up your load.
