Building upon powder coating bullets, this post will focus on the traditional lubing of cast bullets. Just like with powder coating from part 2, the bullets will need to be checked before sizing and lubing. But without the added bulk of the powder coating I find that the checks slip on easily to the shank of the RCBS 6.5-140 SILH. Because of this I find it easier to slip a check into the sizing die itself.
Once the bullet is set on top of the check inside the sizing die I will gently lower the ram of the RCBS Lubrisizer right before the top punch makes contact with the nose of the bullet. Caution must be exercised to keep the top punch from shaving lead or worse, bending the slim 6.6mm bullet. I find it prudent to use my off hand to stabilize the nose of the bullet while gently lowering the ram until contact is made. After that it’s a simple matter of driving the bullet into the sizing die (I size to .265” for my rifle), giving a gentle crank on the lube reservoir handle, and raising the ram.
At this point I like to inspect my rifle bullets a little closer. This particular bullet has only one lube groove and will be under more pressure, and travel a much longer distance down the barrel than my cast pistol loads. If you are lubing a similar bullet it might be a good idea to ensure the groove is filled. This is less of a concern on bullets with multiple lube grooves.
And while we’re on the subject of lubes, the aspiring caster is faced with a wide variety of commercial and homemade lubes. The reader may also be familiar with lubes to some extent and assume that I’m at least using a rifle lube. Wrong. I had every intention of using a lube rated for rifle velocity but made a happy little mistake and lubed my first successful cast 260 Rem loads with RCBS 80008, a pistol lube which melts at 115 F. That’s hardly a rifle lube but it worked then and it works now. My advice to others is to try lubing with whatever you already have in the reservoir. Anyone who lubes bullets knows it’s a pain to switch lubes when you’ve just put a full stick in the lubrisizer. It may not work but at least you’ll know for sure.
Back to inspecting the bullets. The next item of interest is the gas check itself. Run a finger nail over the seam of the check where it sits against the bullet. If the check was seated smartly there should be no hangups. For any problems, run it through the sizing die again. You will also want to clean any lube which may have smeared on the bottom of the gas check. This has the potential to introduce lubrication into the powder charge. While I’ve never experienced a misfire I could attribute to lube contamination, its still a possibility.
So that’s the gist of traditional sizing and lubrication. Part 4 will cover cartridge case selection and preparation.
When the seasons change, one surely needs to be ready. And in the spring of 2020 there has been nothing but change. As far as the weather in Georgia is concerned the temperature tends to go from cold to hot. There’s a spring in name but name only. It may very well dip into the 50s at night but you can be sure of 80s during the day in late March when you least expect it. And being a one-gun kinda guy, I set about another season of dressing around the Glock 30SF. Until I didn’t. It became even warmer. I’m not doing this anymore. Thick polos, long sleeve button ups just to provide concealment, jeans to add rigidity to the belt line. Double magazine pouch on the opposite side, the added weight and all while suffocating under the heat. No more.
To keep this from rambling on I made the decision to adopt a two gun system of carry – albeit not at the same time. There would be a warm season gun and a cool season gun. I would let my attire dictate the tool, not the other way around. And because I had already been looking for a while, the Walther PPQ SC was already on the short list as the cool season carry pick. But since it was recently summer and the high temps in my part of the country can stretch into late October, I began with the summer carry option. I gave serious consideration to pistols like the Springfield Hellcat and Sig 365. But in the end it came down to dimensions, most notable being the grip length and form. There were more than a few pistols that fit my overall height requirements (nothing over 4.6”) but not all of them exhibited svelte rounded grips. I eventually clicked away from the PPQ SC long enough to check out the PPS M2. It met the requirements. A big plus was the weight of around 21 ounces and a grip that didn’t resemble a wood plank. After carrying the CZ 75 Compact, I’ve come to appreciate a few more ounces and shapely grips. With a height of 4.4” and a width of 1” I was ready to go in. The two largest issues that gave me pause were lower capacity and it did not have the reputation of a great trigger. Not bad by any means, just not great.
Unfortunately, I could not go into a gun shop and handle before I bought. There’s not much available considering the current paranoia; much less for concealable pistols in 9mm. So I waited, and waited, and waited. It took more than a couple of months but I finally scored a PPS M2 online and had it shipped to my FFL – all for $350, an excellent price considering the times.
Shown with 7 round magazine.
My particular pistol shipped with two 7 round magazines and one 6 round magazine. The pistol feeds from single stack magazines so each additional rounds adds a noticeable amount of length to the grip. My M2 version sports the American-style push button magazine release, no removable back strap inserts, and a trigger safety found on a lot of striker fired polymer pistols without manual safeties. Missing from the M2 is the accessory rail, Walther opting for a scalloped frame forward of the trigger guard to slim the profile.
A polished feed ramp comes standard.
The slide is steel treated with tenifer. A black oxide coating covers the exterior and interior. The serial, country of manufacturer, and year of manufacturer are stamped on the right side of the frame. DE stands for Deutschland (Germany) and the CA prefix.
indicates my pistol was made in 2020. Slide serrations cover the front and rear of the slide. Sights are steel with 3-dot white painted inserts that are not luminescent.
The finish is nicely done.
When examining the slide the first item of immediate notice was the finish and machining. The black oxide coating is very smooth and even. The machining is exact. The interior of the slide is perfectly smooth and free from any marks that don’t need to be there. Another thing that struck me about the machining is the fine details on the exterior of the slide. The edges aft of the rear sights are not rounded, but faceted. It looks like a lot of work went into taking off unnecessary edges and it shows (or doesn’t in this case) when carrying concealed.
Considering the other options I really took a gamble on the trigger. Walther advertises it at 6 pounds so I figured a bit more than the Glock standard of 5.5 pounds, plus a few more ounces of felt pull due to the smaller size. What I feel when I depress the trigger is not much over a standard Glock trigger. On top of that, it’s the same weight all the way to the break. And upon arriving at the break there is no stacking or increased resistance. The PPS trigger is a solid pull with a clean break. I would describe the trigger reset as longer than my Glock 30 but only just so.
Shooting the PPS M2 is a lot like any other single stack polymer frame 9mm. There’s not anything especially noteworthy. I like it a lot better than the Glock 43 I reviewed a few years ago. The added mass in the PPS recoils less and I would expect it to be softer shooting than the lighter Sig 365 and similar models. Overall weight was a consideration and a heavier pistol will generally shoot softer. From the reviews I’ve read on this pistol from others it seems the 7 round magazine is the preferred method of carry. While I feel the 7 rounder gives the best combination of balance and shootability, it didn’t meet my requirements for concealment with summer attire. I found the 6 round magazine to give up little in terms of control and with a little practice, it was no problem to curl my pinky finger under the base of the magazine when shooting. This type of grip worked for shooting my Uberti 1873 SAA clone and it works for the Walther.
Grips are rounded and have adequate texturing.
The slide interior showed a lack of tooling marks.
I’ve put a couple hundred rounds through the pistol so far and have experienced only one ammunition-related failure to chamber. Once I have some more time with the pistol a follow up review will be forthcoming.
In the initial review of using cast bullets in the 260 Rem I discussed barrel cleaning and stressed the importance of removing copper prior to shooting cast. I also touched on some of the problems encountered during reloading and shooting, and mentioned bullet deformities and their effect downrange. If you have stumbled upon this article and want a comprehensive guide to the subject of shooting cast bullets in modern cartridges, I suggest you start with the previous post here.
In part two of this review I wanted to cover the bullets themselves. Most notably – lubrication and alternative coatings. There have been some advances with coatings for cast bullets over the past 10 or so years that have negated the need for traditional bullet lubes. For whatever reason, mention of these coatings does not appear in any of the reloading manuals I own.
I had success with electro static powder coating for 9mm so naturally I tried it with the RCBS 6.5-140 SIHL bullets. The process for powder coating is fairly straightforward but it would aid the reader to view many of the videos posted on sites like youtube to get a better understanding of the process. In any event I’ll try to offer my way.
Powder coated with Eastwood Light Violet
Since electro static powder coating involves using static to coat the bullets, one must take care during the casting procedure as to not let the oils from your fingers make contact with the bullets. The use of leather or nitrile gloves during the inspection process is recommended to avoid oils or other contaminants from collecting on the surface of the lead. A plastic sandwich bag can be used in a pinch as a makeshift glove for this purpose. If you inadvertently touch the bullets, they will need to be tumbled with an amount of rubbing alcohol or similar solution and dried before powder coating.
After inspection, the bullets will need to be warmed in order to take the powder coating more easily. This is accomplished in a toaster oven for four minutes. For my particular model I turn the knob to “bake” and “warm.” After the bullets have come out of the oven I place them into an old plastic container with a lid that once housed yogurt. Any similar plastic container will do. The next thing I do is add in a small amount of powder. Start with a small amount, maybe three tablespoons for 50 bullets. Too much will result in clumps. I then seal with the plastic top and swirl the bullets vigorously for about 30-45 seconds. The bullets are then strained on a piece of metal gutter guard cut to fit the toaster oven. Give it a few shakes to dislodge excessive powder which will cause the bullets to glue together if not removed. You may have bullets which are touching in your tray. This is not a great concern and they can be pulled apart after baking without a detrimental effect to the coating. After straining, the bullets are loaded into the oven which is set at “bake” and “400 degrees.” I set the timer for 20 minutes and pull them out once done. After about 15 seconds I flip the tray and tap the bullets out with the back of a spoon. Again, some bullets may stick together. They can be unstuck with a twisting motion or simply plopped on a hard surface like concrete. You may notice that the coating has rubbed off in places where the bullets stuck together or the coating did not adhere completely. In my experience this has not resulted in problems with leading unless the coating was substantially lacking.
The next step in the process involves attaching gas checks and sizing. I tried shooting powder coated bullets without gas checks and the accuracy was disastrous. It’s worth comparing checked versus unchecked since each gas check runs around three cents these days. I didn’t work for me but that shouldn’t stop you from experimenting.
I noticed with powder coated bullets the gas check bullet shank was a tad thicker with the coating and it helped to manually slip on each check before sizing to keep them from seating off kilter. You then run each bullet through a sizing die which sizes the bullet and crimps on the gas check. Through experimentation, I found that my rifle prefers bullets sized to .265”.
I mixed two Eastwood powders, Light Violet and Neon Green. The color is splotchy but the coverage is fine.
Jumping ahead, I have found no benefit to powder coating for 260 Rem thus far. Groups even suffered under some loads of Unique and A5744. As such, I’ve suspended powder coating for this rifle as it takes more time and costs slightly more. I may take it back up in the future but traditionally lubed bullets fill my needs for now. With that said, part three will cover traditional lubing of cast bullets.
Back in August, 2016 I concluded my multi-part review of the Savage TH XP with a note about cast bullet loads in the 260 and a review to follow https://landngroove.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/savage-trophy-hunter-xp-in-260-rem-conclusion/. Little did I know how difficult the process would be or how long it would take to iron out all the details. It took me four years (off and on) to get cast bullets shooting accurately. I made multiple attempts, failed several times. At one point I had written off the project but kept coming back with new ideas. Casting for handguns is one thing, casting for 19th century black powder rifle cartridges another, but for modern smokeless rifle rounds? It will take everything you know about shooting, ammo, reloading, casting, and then add new challenges.
Some reloaders and those who cast for pistols may ask, why even bother? If you have to ask its probably not for you. But if the proposition of such constantly eats at your mind, or if like me, you’ve failed to achieve ballistic harmony with cast in rifles – read on.
So picking up where I last left off, I had been loading cast projectiles in the 260 prior to posting that previously mentioned conclusion. One of the things I had failed to do was properly de-copper my barrel. According to my records there were approximately 1,900 jacketed loads through the rifle by fall 2016. I always cleaned it but never to the degree I should have. And I previously posted that the 12 bhn bullets I was using were too soft. I know now that is incorrect. The hardness of the alloy wasn’t the issue. But back to the bore. To be up front, I figured out all of the problems and had working ammo prior to de-coppering my bore. The issue was the accuracy was not all it could be. So for the aspiring cast rifle shooter I recommend removing all copper from your bore before developing loads. That way you remove one possibility for poor performance later on.
It can take a while with marginal copper solvents but starting with a clean bore is well worth the wait.
There are specially designed bore cleaning products for this job but if you have regular old Hoppes 9 and a lot of time that works too. It took me about a week of running a soaked patch through the barrel when I got home from work, followed by a dry patch to remove copper several hours later. I would then run another soaked patch before bed, let it sit overnight, then dry patch again first thing in the morning. I stopped when the patches stopped coming out green.
Next, you will need cast bullets. The mold I had been working with was the RCBS 6.5-140 SILH which drops a bullet at approximately 140 grains. The alloy I use is composed of three parts range scrap to one part linotype. The resulting Brinell hardness number (BHN) is approximately 12.4. I use the same custom alloy for 357 magnum and 480 Ruger loads. After casting is complete you will want to inspect your bullets for defects. And here is another step that I did not complete with enough scrutiny during my previous efforts. To shoot a cast pistol bullet with a minor defect such as wrinkling or a minor divot isn’t a big deal. The velocity and range of pistol loads will not allow those defects to effect the point of impact within reason. But up the velocity and go much past 50 yards and that small imperfection begins to have a bearing on the center of rotation. That leads to destabilization in flight. You need to be looking for sharp bullet bases, filled out edges, and imperfections like wrinkles. Pay close attention to ensure proper fill out of all parts of the bullet. If you’re on the fence, toss it back in the casting pot. You can always recast later.
Small imperfections can contribute to large groups down range.
That concludes this part of the review. I intend for this to be a multi-series examination of the process and hope to offer a specialized look at 6.5mm cast bullets in particular. There’s not a whole lot out there for aspiring cast rifle shooters who shoot modern 6.5mm cartridges (like 6.5 Creedmoor shooters) so I wanted to put this out there as a resource. I’ll be sure to cover all the mistakes I’ve made along the way and some of the load data I’ve developed. Part two next.
Land & Goove 