Over the past few weeks we have cast some lead bullets to shoot in a Remington 700. So far I'm pleased with the results and quality of the bullet. Here are a few pictures of the bullet. We used a lee mold in .309 and resize to .308. I'm now working on copper coating.
I've worked on the copper coat quite a bit as most info on this topic on the web is not very good. Chemistry.com is a great source of information if you know a little chemistry. Here are a few pictures of the coating I'm now using and a picture of 5 shots with: Red Dot=13 grains IMR = 4350 @ 46 grains. The red dot is the most accurate group. Oh, also we are NOT using gas checks but will when they are available local.
??? How do you copper coat these bullets? I like that. OOPS! The rest of the post mysteriously has appeared. I will look at the website you mentioned. I cannot see how it could be cheaper than buying them already plated. Is it any cheaper? (It wouldn't matter to me...I like to do cool stuff like this.)
Copper sulfate solution using electrolysis. It's still a work in progress. http://chemistry.about.com/ I would suggest research if you are not familiar with this process
I use 6% vinegar and make a saturated copper sulfate solution. Saturated meaning, no more copper sulfate will dissolve. It takes a little time to figure how much vinegar to copper is needed. But not THAT important as long as you use enough. I use 2 amp when plating 5 or more and to make sure it's working I used this For one at a time. I did 10 minutes, got a coat and then tumbled for a while ( not sure really ( I was cooking diner or what ever) to make sure it stuck. Than 10-20 minutes to increase the thickness. This is copper sulfate You can make your own crystals if you choose and it is very simple but I found its these will work also and cost effective. I've spent a little over $25 and can plate upwards of 500 bullets so far. ( a little guess work as I've coated close to 100 so far getting everything down) The part to pay special attention to is cleaning the bullet before you plate. Also, use copper wire ( preferably solid) for both the positive and negative that goes into your solution.
Sqrl, You should submit this as a technical article. I think you get some kind of recognition for it.
Good info squirlnutz.Been casting pistol bullets for years, but never tried rifle. I used some cast bullets with gas checks that I bought once, just never really got into the rifle. Thanks for sharing.
Do you have to run pistol bullets slower if you use cast lead? I'm trying to be able to shoot these the same speed as factory bullets ( upwards of 2800 fps). With out gas checks if possible. I found this To be the easiest way to make the copper sulfate solution as most don't have a magnetic stirrer . Add some Chrystal's and some vinegar and shake vigorously until the crystals dissolve. Keep repeating until you fill the bottle or you are satisfied with the amount you have. You can reuse ( recharge) the solution after you plate with it by pouring back into your bottle but be sure to filter it as you pour back. I use a cheep plastic funnel with ( 2 ) cone coffee filters to remove any solids that are in the spent solution. Clean bullets are paramount to obtaining a good copper coat and all my research on the web never really touch on this subject much. I found that 6% vinegar ( from Wally-world) with 25% alcohol over night gave me the best result, as there are better, faster ways but this is cheap ( like me haha). If you use 75 milliliters of vinegar then add 25 ML alcohol. Leave over night or until it looks like this When you shake it. This mix seems to work great on the lead opening up the pores. Remove the bullet from the vinegar/alcohol solution and place it in JUST vinegar before you begin to plate. Apply a thin coat 10-20 minutes depending on your sulfate solution and then tumble them to make sure it's taking. If not, then I suggest leaving them sit longer in vinegar/alcohol. I will update more as I make more development. Oh, what are y'all using to lube you bullets? I've made two lubes. One is high temp greas, paraffin, and a couple other oils to thin down and raise adherence. The other the old man came up with is petroleum jelly and melted candles haha. I must say his smells great using vanilla candles! Haha and mine smells like crap. Any observations or comment are welcome.
Here is a picture of what they looked like after resize. The one on the right is one coat of copper for 30 minutes ( I think, the old man did it) and the others are 10-15 minutes twice and cleaned in vinegar in between. You can see that the one on the right had a nice looking color but the coat was not strong enough to take resizing. Therefor it would have come off in the barrel. Most picture on the Internet had the same color and all my first coats do as well. But It's the second coat ( and ill try three later) in small increments that seem to work best. The bullets that are coated twice are much more difficult to get through the sizer.
Looks like a cool project... have you seen this? http://www.freechex.net/ makes gas checks from roof sheeting.
I've never seen that before. It looks like great idea. Ill read this evening. Thank you for posting the information
Looks good. Also glad to see you do that outside as electrolysis can produce some dangerous gases. If you could get some Silver cyanate you could do silver plated bullets.
I cast my bullets from linotype and lube and size them to .311 for the 30-06, 7.62x54r and the 7.5x55 Swiss. I drive them at 2200 fps with no leading whatsoever. Excellent accuracy too! The plating looks interesting though!
I cast bullets for my 30-06 and get the velocity up to 2300 using the Lee 180gr RN with a gas check. But when I go any faster the bullets start to keyhole and become imprecise. I notice the rifling on the bullet's noses are deeper on one side and suspect they are deforming at ignition. I use a 2 to 1 lead/Linotype alloy, and think I'd need a 50/50% to get the bullets stiff enough to reach the faster velocities. With the shorter Lee 150gr FN, I get the velocity up to 2415 in my 30-30; which is as fast as I can get 150gr jacketed bullets in it's 20 inch barrel.
