Ws2 and HBN, pros and cons

J

JRB

Guest
I made the assumption a few years ago, after reading of some favorable results with the newer bullet coatings, to try them out.

I have a couple of barrels i use for field shooting, i have changed from moly to Ws2 this past year and seen good results for my situation. The change over was quite simple and painless with only minor changes to load after the initial run in. I now pre treat the barrel after cleaning, as well.

I have a new barrel in 6mm dasher for longer work, and after shooting 100 or so older moly coated projectiles, left from the old barrel, i decided to try the HBN coating. I cleaned all the moly out with Jb and iosso, had a look with the bore scope and the bore was shinny.
I have fired about 100 or so of the HBN bullets, doing powder and seating depth tests, and been cleaning every 25-30 shots, there is two things that trouble me.
I had to go down nearly a grain on powder to get back to my velocity, but the barrel seems to copper foul more readily than before. Also the barrel seems not to group as well as with the moly.

Nothing has changed apart from the coating?

At this stage i am ready to put the HBN aside and use the WS2

Any suggestion are appreciated,
Jim
 
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I tried HBN and after i saw no advantage over a plain bullet. Tried it on the bags that didn't work either…….. jim
 
A number of us this side of the world have found HBN to have a number of issues:

  • It can be a bugger to apply evenly & consistently, far more difficult than moly.
  • While it generally results in simpler cleaning, once you work out how to apply it adequately, it seems to have about the same coefficient of friction as bare bullets.
  • In many cases, the accuracy obtainable with molied bullets can't be matched with those with HBN coating, particularly heavier bullets. In my case, the only loads I got to sing were my 155½ grain Palma loads.
I've gone back to moly.
 
I have never used moly.
I went from plain bullets to WS2 and then to HBN.
I found little difference between WS2 and HBN except that the HBN leaves our hands cleaner.
I have found the big difference between naked and coated is that the barrel requires less cleaning. That translates to longer barrel life as I see it. I am shooting 6PPC, .30BR, and .30X47 in the short range BR game. I have not seen any faster build up of copper. I have no trouble maintaining muzzle velocity.
 
I have used the same process, to coat the bullets, either Ws2 or Hbn, as you would with moly, the Ws2 coats evenly and with no trouble.
The Hbn seems patchy at best, and appears to rub off with your fingers or rag.
How would you coat with Hbn, there something i am missing.

Has any others seen a change when going to Hbn?

Many thanks
Jim
 
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I'm running a load of 111 .30 cal bullets (1/3 of a box of 333) in a vibratory tumbler for 25-30 minutes along with 5 pounds of #6 steel shot. I have my tumbler cleaned and dedicated to tumbling HBN. I first clean each batch of bullets in acetone and toss them in a towel so they are clean. I found tumbling for more than 30 minutes left the bullets looking patchy.
 
Uthink Uknow said:
I'm running a load of 111 .30 cal bullets (1/3 of a box of 333) in a vibratory tumbler for 25-30 minutes along with 5 pounds of #6 steel shot. I have my tumbler cleaned and dedicated to tumbling HBN. I first clean each batch of bullets in acetone and toss them in a towel so they are clean. I found tumbling for more than 30 minutes left the bullets looking patchy.
Click to expand...

Oh i have not used the shot,
Is it possible to coat the bullets with out the shot?
just in a jar?
What does the shot do, that the bullets bumping around can not achieve?
Is it quicker? or a more even coating?

I read may times that shot was also needed with moly, but i never used it.
I have always used a small jar as mentioned,
i also washed my bullets in acetone but i saw little difference in my results.

Many Thanks
Jim
 
I wash with dish soap. The HBN is patchy if I don't. I use ceramic beads instead of shot. In a humid climate, I don't like the idea of iron oxide in the tumbler, or in my barrel.

Cheers,
Keith
 
Zdog said:
Jim,

The shot or something like it is used because this method is called impact coating. The shot provides the impact required to make the coating material stick to the bullets. Never tried it without the shot. Oh, steel BB's work well too.

Washing in soap or some sort of solvent, removes any left over lube. Some bullet making clean them after forming and some don't. If you're not sure take a dozen and lay them on a sheet of white paper for an hour or so. If the paper shows grease spots the bullets should be cleaned prior to coating.

Noticing that most (IBS) competitors do not shoot coated bullets, I finished the last few matches of this season without coating mine, too. I didn't notice any difference in the load or cleaning. So, I'm not going to coat from here on out.

Zdog (Chris Mitchell)
Click to expand...

Zdog, i was thinking something similar....
I have had better results with Ws2 especially when the bore becomes firecracked. Most would just rebarrel for competition i guess.
From what i have noticed in two barrels i have, is that the Ws2 extends the time between cleaning.

Does Hbn provide any more than just white finger tips?

Jim
 
Oh com mon, Chris.
You're going to cause a rush to the analytical scale store by guys who have nothing better to do than weigh charred brass.
Well, winter is coming after all.
It's Veteran's Day, Not April Fool's Day.

On those long Michigan Winter Days I spend a lot of time in the basement tumbling bullets in HBN and practicing powder drops listening to the drone of the tumbler. Do you think the tumbler running on the opposite end of the basement affects my powder throws? Don't answer.
 
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