I'm a bit behind everyone else with giving this a shot. But tonight I decided to pry PC with a gun, and with the brass tumbler method. I coated some 300 BLK 230 grain, some 9mm, and some 44 mag that I cast up quickly for the test.
Pictures arent all the best but here the 300 blk dusted and going in the oven
And here they are after cooking for 20 min at 375
For the 9mm I tried the tumble coat. I then stood some one end using gloved fingers, some on end using hemostats, and I just dumped a few to see if that might work.
Coverage from the tumbler
To the left are ones i touched, to the right are the ones i stood on end with hemostats, and the bottom has a few laying in there as poured onto the sheet
Here are results of the ones laying down...some flat spots, decent coverage.
Here are the ones stood up with surgical gloved fingers
And here are the ones stood up with hemostats, definitely the best looking of the tumbled boolits
I was impressed with the coverage of the tumbled bullets
Next i made a jig to hold some 44's, sprayed them with the gun, and baked. Some foil stuck to this batch, but i am pretty sure this can be perfected faily easily
I may have had the oven a little hot, they seemed to flow too much, but cooled looking pretty good.
Tumbled 9mm vs PC gun 300 blk
I used Hot Coat High Gloss Black powder and a garage sale toaster oven set at 375 for 20 mins. If it weren't for standing the rifle bullets up to prevent odd little flat areas I think the tumbling method is a winner. The gun gave a thicker nicer coat naturally, but I havent mic'd any of the rounds yet. I didnt have any hardware cloth laying around so perhaps cooking them n something like that may solve the efficiency issues of standing bullets on end and aerodynamic issues from flat spots cause by laying on foil. I like the idea of a jig or tray setup for various calibers so that the PC gun can be used to produce really nice looking rounds, that hopefully function better as well. If the 9mm will stop leading I will be happy, and I am really interested to see what can be done in the AR 300 Blackout without leading. I have some 155 grain projectiles to try for that as well.
What do you all think compared to results you've been getting or seeing?