Powder Coating Bullets Made Easy

Cast lead bullets are a cheaper way of shooting. You get the satisfaction of controlling every aspect of making your own ammo. However, casting your own lead projectiles can be pretty time consuming. You need special tooling to size and add lubricating grease to the grease grooves. This ensures that you don't smear your bore with soft lead and clog up the grooves of the rifling. But I have started using a different method lately. Powder coating. About $7 - $10 worth of powder coat is enough for a couple thousand bullets, depending on size.

Powder coat from Harbor Freight

After dropping the cast bullets and allowing them to cool, it doesn’t take any special equipment.

Dropping fresh bullets from a mold

I simply place the bullets in a plastic container with a lid and shake them around for a few minutes. The powder coat has a negative electrostatic charge which makes it stick to the surface of the bullets. Powder coat paint comes in multiple colors, so you can color code your ammunition according to caliber or powder charge when developing new loads.

First powder coating

Baking the powder coated bullets for about 20 minutes at 400*F sets the paint. I usually place a sheet of parchment paper on a cheap cookie sheet to keep them from sticking to the pan. Since the lead doesn’t melt until the temperature reaches about 700*F or so, they don’t melt during the powder coat process.

Baking the powder coating

I transfer the bullets to the side in another pan and allow them to cool while I run another batch. Most of the time I use the bullets right from the mold without sizing them. The coating adds only about 2 or 3 thousandths to the dimension of the cast bullets. I allow plenty of room between the projectiles so they bake evenly and don’t clump together. But if you need them sized, you can do so in a push through sizing die. This doesn’t scrape off the paint.

Placed in another pan to cool

The best thing about powder coated bullets is that in a black powder cartridge such as this .50-95 Winchester is that you don't have to worry about the lube melting and running down inside the case to contaminate the gunpowder charge. It’s the same thing for smokeless powder loads. The powder coating is slicker than standard lead. This means higher velocities and lower pressure in the gun because of reduced friction. It’s not as messy as using standard grease grooved cast lead bullets. The best part of all, is that the powder coat paint is non toxic, so you don't need to worry about hunting with these bullets and contaminating the meat.