I have been casting bullets for the 9 and 10mm for about a year and a half and tried several different bullet lubes that work but are not ideal. I have even paper patched bullets. I can get lead free or pretty cheap when I have to buy it. Tin is harder to find than lead but I can get it really cheap when I can find it. So I am willing to try different ways of doing things and the epoxy coated bullets peaked my interest. A can of Rustoleum Appliance epoxy paint is $4 so I bought a can along with a can of enamel that was 96 cents. Duplicolor makes a adhesive premotor primer that is the best primer I have ever used when it come to metals that do not take paint well $6. So I cast around 200 pure lead bullets, sized them and used acetone to make sure they were clean. Gave them one coat of the primer and three coats of the epoxy paint and 2 coats on the bullets I sprayed with enamel. For epoxy paint to fully cure it takes 5 to 7 days. After drying you can add strength to the epoxy paint by oven baking them but it still takes 5-7 days for it to fully cure. So I put them in a 200 degree oven for an hour after a day of drying. The enamel I didn't even let it fully dry before I put them in a 200 degree oven for an hour. Let them cool and ran them through the sizer die again. I inspected each bullet after sizing for exposed lead but they was none. The best I can figure is that the bullets swaged down after spraying because they measured .402 to .4025 when I miked them before sizing after spraying oven curing and giving 5 days to cure. After sizing they were .401. I took one of the bullets with the enamel outside and on the concrete pad for my front steps I took a hammer and flatten it to about the thickness of 2 quarters. No paint came off zero I couldn't believe it.This was what I was wanting but when you pay $1 for a can of paint you really can't expect much, but I was surprised. The epoxy I wasn't so concerned about wax and water is about the only thing epoxy paint won't stick to. The thin paints seem to be the best because I tried some of the 2X the coverage and it is hard to keep the coverage even and not to thick. I estimate 1 can of the epoxy paint will do 500-600 bullets and the 96 cent can of enamel 300-400.

I loaded 50 of the epoxy and 50 enamel toady. With the the coating the bullets weighted 148 to 149 grains. I wanted to keep these around 1200fps so I used 12grs of A#7 which probably pushed them closer to 1300fps. I fired 16rds of 135gr Nosler JHP's to give myself a standard for group size these were loaded with 13.6grs of A#7.I am just trying to us up a couple pounds of A#7 I bought. My favorite powder is LongShot. I used a sheet of notebook paper with a 2 inch red square at 15 yards one target for each load. I fired the JHP's first 16rds total. Then I fired 50rds of the epoxy coated, after each mag at slide lock I would look down the barrel to check for any signs of leading and then fire the next mag full until the 50rds of the epoxy painted bullets were fired. They grouped just as well as the JHP's and there was zero lead in the barrel. So I started on the enamel checking the barrel each time after slide lock no leading.

I brought my pistol in and disassembled it for cleaning. I ran a dry patch down the barrel twice and checked it for leading under good light and there was none. I have pics but they are on my phone I will try to add them later. The barrel cleaned very easily since all I had to remove was powder fouling.

1000 Berry bullets cost around $140. If I have to buy lead and the rest of the things I need I can easily do 8000 bullets for $140. These bullets are probably at there max velocities because of the pure lead. Any faster they will start plowing through the rifling. I will be trying a good alloy mix for a hard cast bullet and coating them the same way to see if they will lead the barrel at higher velocities. If anyone had told me that you could use a rattle can paint on pure lead bullets and have zero leading I would have to try it for myself before I believed it.

With the price of components going up at a steady rate I was willing to give this a try and now I am glad I did. With 3 of us in the house and practice being a very important part of keeping our skills this is a welcome find for me.  Just thought I would share for anyone looking to add a little more shooting without shooting holes in your budget. Has anybody else tried this? Or if you have a better way tell me about it.

I powder coat.  Buy the powder from powder by the pound, usually black.  Put about 1/4 tsp in a Tupper ware container and shake them for 4-5 minutes.  Then I bake them at 400 for 15 minutes.  Size and load.  Barrel is shiney.

10mm, 30-06, 300 blackout and soon 358 Winchester.  Treat them like copper jacketed.  Favor the heavier bullets and slower powders.

Yes the powder paints can be applied in several different ways.
Powder paint gun and electrostatic application, then bake at the appropriate temp and time recommended by the particular paint!  (lower temp paint may be better for not melting the bullets)

Then there is the dry shake and bake method like what sqlbullet uses, add the powder paint dry tumble and bake at appropriate time and temps.

Then there is a liquid transfer, where you use either MEK or Acetone along with the powder paint to coat them allow to air dry until not sticky, place on screen wire rack or basket then bake at the required temp and time!  While they don't look as smooth and pretty they do work very well.  Oh BTW that is the Bayou Bullets method of application...

I'm thinking I may use the wet transfer for my next batch...but using the Star Sizer and the carnuba red lube (good to 2700 fps) has worked well for me over the years...

I have seen the powder coat, some use plastic containers some just put them in their tumbler. The convenience of a rattle can is nice. The enamel surprised me. With the spray cans there's no mixing measuring no mess. I was wanting a system that was simple readily available but work. Just pick up a few cans when I'm  in town Wally World or parts store. I was wondering how this would work on the AR. Guess I will have to get a model and give it a try.

Yes, I did the rattle can spray for the zombie rounds a while back, there was some flaking of the paint as they were being jostled around and loaded in the magazine, I actually ran them through the sizer lubricator to fill the lube groove and they shot well with no leading...

I'm taking a different approach SWC and only coating from the shoulder down so there is only very little paint showing on the bullet after they are seated. For punch holes in paper or popping steel I was looking for the cheapest way to get good results. I was hoping the paint or epoxy on the base of the bullet would act like a gas check. Whither it is burned off before the bullet has left the barrel I don't know yet because I haven't retrieved any. I can tell you this when you hit a 1/2" thick steel plate it leaves a good 1" lead splatter. They hit hard enough that the IDPA steel I have hanging by 2 trampoline spring each  I could only get 2 shot on them before it took them off the springs from 15 yards. For 500 bullets it takes about 3 hrs to cast, size, coat, bake and size again. For practice ammo as long as it continues to preform like it is now I don't plan on changing anything. When I find a good hollow point mold for a good alloy bullet pushing it to top velocities we will see what I have to change. I have around 500 9mm that I am going to try next. And I plain on only leaving about 1/32 of an inch of paint or epoxy showing.

I tried the wet method with acetone.  Wasn't impressed.  Bullets needed a couple of coats rather than one, and tended to get "clumpy".  Perhaps my technique could use some work.

An ES gun would clearly be the cadillac method, but I don't sell, and the shake-n-bake method produces servicable bullets even if they are a bit ugly.  They fly true and hit hard!

Shadow, let me know how the wet method goes for you.