Problems coating Berger Column bullets

adamsgt

adamsgt

Jerry Adams
I decided to coat some Berger Column bullets with Danzac (Tungsten disulphide for you purists). I had poor results. I had coated some Bruno bullets and they came out fine, even without degreasing. I tried the same thing with the column bullets and didn't get much danzac to adhere to the bullets. So, I rinsed the bullets in acetone for a while, dried them and then ran them again. So far it's not looking too good.

Has any one had success coating Column bullets with danzac or moly?
 
My normal process is to polish in plain fine ground corn cob,
and then straight to a small peanut butter plastic jar with about a pound
of ss bb's. The jar goes in my sidewinder for about 3 hours. I am still
a novice but no issues so far.
 
I've coated about 1,000 of them, Jerry, without any problem. I clean them in Iosso Case Cleaner (liquid), rinse in hot water, dry off with hair dryer and then, just like you, into peanut butter jars with 1 cup of No. 7 shot, about 1/4 tsp. T-D and into my old Lyman vibrator. Makes beautiful glossy "silver bullets".

My present system is Iosso case cleaner, hot water rinse and into peanut butter jars with about 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 tsp. T-D. No drying and no No. 7 shot. This wet process works very well and delivers the same "silver bullets" with less handling and effort. I do 100 at a time and put three jars in the vibrator at a time.
 
I bought a Lyman small vibrator system that was designed for coating bullets. It came with ceramic media. The first time I used it was with some Bruno bullets. I did no prep on the bullets. I had prepped the media first with danzac. When I did the Bruno bullets I just added some danzac, dumped in the bullets and let it run for about five hours. The bullets came out great. As I mentioned in the original post, I did the same thing for the Column bullets, but the bullets took little or no danzac. So, I washed the bullets in acetone and re-ran them. I started about four hours ago and they seemed to be taking some danzac but slowly. I'm just going to let them run all night and see what happens. Maybe washing them with acetone after they'd been run once isn't as effective as cleaning them first. I'll try a small batch next cleaning them first.

I think I remember reading somewhere that you didn't need to clean first when using danzac. That appears to be wrong or only works with some bullets.

I do have a RCBS sidewinder with three drums that I used years ago to use with moly and wax. Gave that up as it took a lot of effort and, again, didn't produce good results, especially the waxing. I used a heat lamp bulb to heat the coated bullets before tumbling in wax but they never came out very well.

I've also read about some "wet" processes with moly. One method used a small amount of water with the moly and tumbled the bullets by themselves. Another method used a "slurry" of water and moly in a plastic peanut butter jar and wedged into a Dillon vibrator.
 
Well, running them all night didn't accomplish anything better. Couldn't find my Iosso but had some Birchwood Casey case cleaner so I used that. It took off what T-D was on the bullets down to the copper. After rinsing and drying I put a handful into the tumbler to see if there's any improvement. If there is, that will show that the bullets need to be cleaned. Right now I don't have any appropriate containers to do the wet method. The only peanut butter jar I have is a large Jif one. I'll find something to use for that. Could be that I could use that jar in my RCBS Sidewinder. I'll check the fit and try that if the tumbler test is successful.
 
Well, the cleaning didn't seem to have any effect. I'll make one more try with a few bullets after I get some Iosso. I know I have some but can't find it. Another trip to Cabela's. If that doesn't work, I'll email Berger and see if they can help.
 
Jerry,
It wasn't clear to me if you tried the columns again in the ceramic media. If you did use the ceramic, but did not clean it after the first try, it's possible that the columns had some kind of lubricant and contaminated the ceramic media. I've never tried coating column bullets, but several times I've tried coating bullets that I didn't first wash with acetone and had results similar to yours. Also, once I attempted to coat and got a partial coating it was difficult even with washing to get a good finish. Good luck.

Rick
 
Greyfox said:
Jerry,
It wasn't clear to me if you tried the columns again in the ceramic media. If you did use the ceramic, but did not clean it after the first try, it's possible that the columns had some kind of lubricant and contaminated the ceramic media. I've never tried coating column bullets, but several times I've tried coating bullets that I didn't first wash with acetone and had results similar to yours. Also, once I attempted to coat and got a partial coating it was difficult even with washing to get a good finish. Good luck.

Rick
Click to expand...

I did clean after the first try but had the same bad results. I had considered that the media might have been contaminated. A number of unknowns. Should the Birchwood Casey case cleaner work as well as the IOSSO? Is there some coating on the bullets that would not allow the coating?. Would the wet process work where the dry process won't? Do I now have a sizable number of fouler/sighter bullets?

I'll be leaving for Raton again in about 17 days and have a new barrel and scope to mount on a LV gun and prep some new brass for that gun. So, this coating issue will have to have a lower priority for now. As usual, when you think something is going to be simple and easy, it bites you in the butt.
 
I THINK YOU ARE MAKING IT TOO COMPLICATED.
Like i said, i simply tumble for an hour in fine ground corn cob( blasting media).
no issues.
 
heat is the key. I tumble my bullets in the dryer. the heat from the dryer will heat the process 10 folds. just whatever you do, don't let your wife catch you. make sure the bottle you use doesn't leak. also wrap the bottle up in a couple towels so it doesn't beat the crap out of the machine, and softens the noise. works really slick. Lee
 
I tried the wet process using the sidewinder but had bad results. As I had good results using the ceramic media with Bruno and Bart bullets, I decided to have one last try with some Gentner Blackbirds. I cleaned them with IOSSO, dried and then into the vibratory with ceramic media. Much better results but not quite as good as I had with the initial run of Bruno bullets. I think the next thing to do is to thoroughly clean the media and tumbler and start fresh. However, I'm not sure I want to continue with the coating process. I've got a several thousand of the Column bullets and as I can't coat them, I'm going to put the coating materials aside and just shoot naked bullets for now. The coating process seems to be more trouble than it's worth.
 
Berger column and danzag

Talk to Walt. I bet your problem stems from the new jacket lube they're using.
 
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