Hi-Tek coated bullets and leading?

[13brv3]

Greetings,

I've shot thousands of rounds of various brands of Hi-Tek coated bullets, using different rifles and suppressors. All of this is 300BO subsonic, and I've noticed quite a bit of leading in my suppressors. Initially I was using an Octane45 and the blast chamber was so full of lead I couldn't get the piston back in for pistol use. Later, I switched to the Saker762, and the blast chamber is building up a bunch of lead. The Saker is 4 oz heavier now than it should be!

Has anyone else seen lead accumulations like this with Hi-Tek coated bullets? I shoot almost entirely subsonic rounds, so I suspect that doesn't help. I've pulled bullets, and even chambered then inspected rounds, and I don't see any widespread loss of coating. I'm in the process of trying to make some gel blocks to try to capture rounds for inspection, and I have to believe I'm going to see coating missing at least on the rifling, otherwise I can't explain where the lead is coming from.

When these Hi-Tek coated bullets came out, there were plenty of reports that said they do not lead the barrel or suppressor, but I've seen no actual tests that have been done, and no pictures of recovered bullets. I've even looked for testing that's done for indoor air quality at ranges, since they're clearly interested in lead contamination. So far, I haven't found anything that mentions Hi-Tek coated bullets in those tests, much less compares them to other bullet options.

Has anyone seen leading themselves, or tests of these bullets. Has anyone recovered Hi-Tek coated bullets in water or gel to see what they look like? I can't be the only one seeing this.

Thanks,
Rusty

[strobro32]

Has anyone else seen lead accumulations like this with polymer coated bullets?

Yes, on the barrel muzzle and suppressor but not in the barrel, gas tube or bolt.

You do not need ballistic gel to test bullets. Shoot into a pool or fill a used 55 gal food grade barrel with water ($10 from a landscape supply store) and shoot down in it from a step later. It takes less than 3-3.5' of water to stop 300BLK subsonic bullets. It will put no damage on your bullets. You can then see of your coating is coming off.

I am currently testing lots of HTC and PC bullets. When I'm sure what's what, I will post the results.

[13brv3]

I can't believe I didn't think of the 55 gal barrel. I shoot on property that's on a mountain ridge, and I've rejected any idea that involved water jugs and such because I don't want to carry it out in the woods. Our house is still pretty isolated, and in TN no one would notice an un-suppressed rifle shot, much less a 300BO suppressed. I have raised decks on the house, and could easily just put a barrel below one of the decks. Doh! Must look for barrels now.

As for the lead, I agree that I haven't seen any on the barrel, even with a borescope. For the Saker, I use flash hiders as the mount, and in just 100 rounds, I have about 0.01" coating of lead on the flash hider.

Thanks for the 55 gal barrel idea!

Rusty

[13brv3]

It takes less than 3-3.5' of water to stop 300BLK subsonic bullets. It will put no damage on your bullets. You can then see of your coating is coming off.

There happens to be a landscaping company right across the street, and they were over grading our driveway this morning, so I asked about barrels, and for $15, there's an unused 55gal blue food grade barrel sitting in my driveway. It only measures around 36" tall total, so likely 35" or so of water depth.

Before a shoot my brand new barrel, I just want to confirm that you have actually done this, and know that I won't be shooting a hole in the bottom of it? I watched a number of high speed videos of various rounds being shot underwater, and some of them travel 6-8 ft. Those were mostly 9mm FMJ rounds, and they tend to tumble, so I can easily see a long 220 gr Leatherhead RN bullet tumbling as well. If the bullet tumbles, I can imagine is stopping pretty quickly.

I'm trying to think of what I can put in the bottom just in case, but I don't want something like sand that will hide the bullet since I was planning to retrieve it without emptying the water. Maybe I'll cut some round plywood or something similar.

Thanks,
Rusty (can't wait to try it)

[mars]

So, its lead and not carbon build up? I thought centerfire cans didn't need to be taken apart to be cleaned. Guess I better silicone my Deadair.

[13brv3]

So, its lead and not carbon build up? I thought centerfire cans didn't need to be taken apart to be cleaned. Guess I better silicone my Deadair.

What I've seen on the flash hider and on in the blast chamber of the suppressor is definitely lead. The suppressor is bubbling away in the dip as I type.

Rusty

[13brv3]

OK, I said I couldn't wait to try it, and that was true

I had some fairly heavy backed carpet that we were going to throw away, so I cut 4 pieces to fit the bottom of the drum. Of course they wanted to float a little, so I had to pin them down with a couple dive weights. I filled the drum to the max, and fired four 300BO rounds straight down into it. It makes a pretty interesting noise One of the bullets was resting on top of the carpet layers, and the other 3 were on top of the second layer. Most of the holes in the first layer of carpet were long, so the bullets were tumbling through.

I also shoot some Hi-Tek coated subsonic 9mm bullets, and I was a little more afraid these were going to punch through the drum, but fortunately they didn't. Out of the 3 I shot, one was on the third layer of carpet. One was on the 4th, and one was on the bottom of the drum with a slight dent, so it was close to punching through.

All I can say is there's definitely exposed lead, but I pretty much knew that already from the amount that's in my suppressor. There could be a number of causes, including my reloading process, or this particular rifle barrel, so I'll have to do more testing before I can come to any conclusion.

Thanks again for the 55 gal drum suggestion. Worked dandy, particularly for the 300BO subs.

Cheers,
Rusty

[strobro32]

I'm glad it worked out for you.

I used a cast iron frying pan in the bottom of mine for the first few tries but the bullets never deformed on it.

[13brv3]

For the record, almost every bullets tumbles, so it's not hard to capture most of them in water. However, I did discover one exceptional swimmer, and that was the Hornady ELD-X. Maybe it's the "boat tail" 3 out of 3 of those drilled a perfect round hole through the water, carpet, barrel, and 2-3 inches of wood. If they're that good in water, maybe I should try them in air

No harm done, and certainly interesting.

Rusty

[cdrissel]

I shot several hundred subsonic 147gn 9mm coated bullets thru my STI Steel Master. My comp was full of lead. The barrel wasn't not. So I'd say that they do deposit lead in your brake/comp with I would conclude that they also lead up baffles.

[hardcase]

How much leading,coated vs plain lead? I have shot a lot of coated 300 BO through my Yankee Hill Phantom and can see a few glistening flakes in the blast chamber, but not vaporize condensation of lead. So far, a mag of full power 7.62 has blown them out.

[13brv3]

I don't shoot plain lead, but I've definitely had a lot of leading with all manufacturers of Hi-Tek coated bullets. For the bullets I've captured so far, there's almost no coating left where the bullet touches the barrel. I even tried a few rounds with no crimp, and it made no difference. Pulled bullets have the full coating on them, so the coating is getting lost in the barrel I believe.

All of my 300BO barrels are 1:7 twist, so maybe that's harder on the coating? I wonder if it's possible for the bullet to move forward a bit before being fully engaged in the rifling, so maybe the coating gets scraped off? Just sort of guessing here, but others have reported no leading, so there must be a reason it happens to some and not others.

Cheers,
Rusty

[passgas55]

I powder coat pistol bullets using Harbor Freight powder. I use the plastic bb method for coating. Maybe Monday if I get a chance I will shoot some 45acp
rounds into some sand to recover and post pics. I do like the water barrel bullet catcher idea.

[JeffWard]

This is my concern. I have 1300 Leather Head 210gr loaded up. They are cheap/fun subsonic plinkers... but I'm concerned about loading up my Omega 30 with lead...

Will blasting a half dozen 110gr supers through the suppressor after each session help? Or no?

JeffWard

[yellowfin]

I haven't noticed this much with the King Shooter Supply purple coated bullets I use. It must be a harder coating.

[curtistactical]

And this is why we make our 762 suppressors user serviceable. I always take a bunch of crap for making serviceable rifle suppressors, which I agree if all you ever shoot is high velocity plated bullets there isn't much need for cleaning. In the case of lead/coated lead bullets you have to clean the suppressor as you found out here.

[Historian]

And this is why we make our 762 suppressors user serviceable. I always take a bunch of crap for making serviceable rifle suppressors, which I agree if all you ever shoot is high velocity plated bullets there isn't much need for cleaning. In the case of lead/coated lead bullets you have to clean the suppressor as you found out here.

This what separates quality +6 Sigma folks like you
from the " ... you really do not need anything that good for ( fill in ) ".

Same thing dismissively said when eons ago I bought 5 ton square double locking
jack stands to work under a 'light ' 280SL.

"Your car does not need that heavy a stand,"
"But I sure as hell do."

Way to go! Keep up the quality.

[Joker31D]

I have been curious about this for a while, I am a board member and director of shooting sports for a Wounded Veterans Charity, currently we're down to a rimfire and a single Rifle can (Pistol and other rifle can were stolen recently) so I was looking for a serviceable rifle can so we could use it for our hunting program. We currently use 300 blackout for most of our adaptive hunting because its easy on the guide and shooter and fits our wheelchair mounts (AR15 Mounts) I also use it because our take a vet to the range days will be cheaper because we could use coated bullets. I have been looking at several coated bullets for subs and they all make claims of not leading barrels but its interesting to see that they lead the cans. Thanks for your work guys, is there one that wont lead?