I wanted to try some coated bullets in my 223 for ease of cleaning. I've read just about every page Google would bring up on the topic. I've cleaned bullets and bb's in acetone. I've tried no heat, heating bullets prior in the oven and even during with a heat lamp in both vibratory and rotary tumbler for up to 4hrs. Bullets are not getting coated and not slick to the touch. Muzzle velocity is the same and cleaning is no easier. I've tried tubbs and bullet coating.com hbn with no avail. Any thoughts from people that have done it successfully?
HBN coating
- Thread starter jsthntn247
- Start date
That's the reason I gave up on HBN, that I couldn't get them to plate without a lot of trouble. Then I found that only one rifle I used liked the stuff - so I stopped using it & went back to moly.
I did get the buggers to coat by cleaning them first by vibrating in clean walnut & dusting off in an old towel, then coating them using the Lyman kit with the ceramic beads.
I did get the buggers to coat by cleaning them first by vibrating in clean walnut & dusting off in an old towel, then coating them using the Lyman kit with the ceramic beads.
About 1/2" of bb's on the bottom and 50-60 90gr bullets when in the Lyman. The come out a dull matte frosted look but no slicker than normal.
First batch was two- 1/4 teaspoon scoops to coat the containter, bb's and bullets. After that a little less than 1/4 teaspoon. I tried it once by adding more bullets and no more hbn and they looked the same.
Why not save the electricity and put your mixture in a plastic jar and shake it by hand
Got a pm about tumbling bullets in corn cob media before coating. Tumbled bullets for 5 hrs, washed in acetone, put a small amount of hbn and half the bb's I've been using. Put a heat lamp on the bottle while tumbling and bullets were hot after coming out. Vibrated for 3 hrs. Bullets look identical to my hbn dtacs. I also smelled sulfer for the first time when opening the bottle which other have mentioned. Bullets still arnt slick as owl shi_t as other have mentioned. They look and feel like coated dtacs.
I'll explain how to coat your bullets via PM.
Just put about a half cup of BB'S in a small tumbler, about 2 CC's worth of HBN, about 200 bullets and let them vibrate for a couple of hours. They will come out a speckled white frosted color, just put in a towel and slosh them back and forth and that's it. You don't have to pre-clean the bullets. Some people make too much of a project of it. It's not rocket science. I've done 47,000 30 cal match bullets and about 5000 6mm match bullets over the winter so it's not all that hard.
Sulfur?
Really? Like burning matches? Or black powder?
That's weird, as there's no (or ought not to be) sulfur in the mix.
Ammonia? Yes. I've smelled that a few times after hBN-coating bullets. Comes from nitrogen (N in nitride) recombining with hydrogen possibly from moisture maybe from the air inside or on components that aren't thoroughly dried before processing.
Shouldn't hurt anything unless it's really strong & persistent. Remember ammonia dissolves copper, why it's used to remove copper fouling from bores.
Correct ammonia, not boiled eggs, lol.
I actually have a different method for HBN coating. I admit to taking most of this from Mozella's method for Moly plating.
I use a cheap HF rock tumbler, a quart-sized applesauce bottle from walmart, about 2lbs of chrome BBs(the copper ones are too soft IMHO), and just slightly too much HBN for whatever I'm coating.
I usually rinse the bullets in acetone, dry them in some paper towel, add them (usually 100x230gr Berger Hybrids) to the 2 lbs of BBs with about half a teaspoon of HBN. I'll usually tumble them for about 12 hours. It's very noisy, but the results are amazing. Then I'll just tumble them in a cotton tube sock by hand for 10 seconds to remove the excess. You end up with a perfect, pearlescent coating on all surfaces. They're definitely a bit hard to hold onto when seating them too.
I use a cheap HF rock tumbler, a quart-sized applesauce bottle from walmart, about 2lbs of chrome BBs(the copper ones are too soft IMHO), and just slightly too much HBN for whatever I'm coating.
I usually rinse the bullets in acetone, dry them in some paper towel, add them (usually 100x230gr Berger Hybrids) to the 2 lbs of BBs with about half a teaspoon of HBN. I'll usually tumble them for about 12 hours. It's very noisy, but the results are amazing. Then I'll just tumble them in a cotton tube sock by hand for 10 seconds to remove the excess. You end up with a perfect, pearlescent coating on all surfaces. They're definitely a bit hard to hold onto when seating them too.
Ca
I guess I am lazy, I mix the HBN powder with alcohol (90% or better) to make a thin paste then heat the clean barrel with a heat gun to around 105 degrees then run several patches thru the barrel. then use a clean patch to clean the chamber. I have used this method for several years. You can do this at the range for 5-10 shots. barrel will be coated well.
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