HBN Coating Bullets

[Joec7651]

HBN is Hexagonal Boron Nitride, it is a white powder and is EXTREMELY slick when used to coat bullets. They are actually hard to pick up it’s so slick. Also as pressure increases the slicker it gets. It is a ceramic and does not melt. It lowers chamber pressures, almost completely eliminates copper fouling, does not attract moisture like moly, is not messy, is inexpensive, extends barrel life in the throat, and is easy to do. As the bore gets seasoned by the first 10-20 rounds of coated bullets pressure will drop substantially. This will in turn lower your velocity, so you will need to increase the powder charge to get back to the velocity you were getting before coating. But you will most likely be able to use a higher powder charge, and get higher velocities before pressure signs show. Here is how I coat my bullets.

1. Wipe off the bullets in a rag damp with alcohol to remove any oil.

2. Put the bullets in a small container with a screw on lid. I use a large Tylenol bottle.

3. Add 1/4 teaspoon of .5 micron HBN to the bottle with the bullets and screw the lid on tightly.

4. Place the bottle in a vibrating or rotary tumbler for an hour or so.

5. Take the bottle out and dump the bullets on a small towel. Roll the bullets in the towel to remove excess HBN. Don’t worry about removing it all. The HBN particles are so small that it fills the microscopic pores of the bullet. I leave mine with a light powdery coating.

6. Load the bullets as normal and work up your load as you normally would. Pressure will not show until high in the charge scale from my experience. It’s common to achieve higher than book velocities without pressure signs.

It has helped accuracy in ALL my rifles. Some more than others, but all showed improved groups and consistency. Copper fouling is essentially a thing of the past, cleaning is a snap, and due to lower pressure and friction throat erosion is lessened. From what I’ve read and researched it can increase barrel life by 30-40%.

There’s a lot of information online so you can do your own research and make up your own minds, but after starting to coat, all my rifles showed improvement.

 

[Brinky72]

I have ran moly before and gave it up because it is so damn filthy. It’s like having finger print powder or copier toner on everything. Right now I have a 280 Remington, 270 Winchester and a 35 Whelen which is my primary boom stick.
My question is this. How much more powder on average do you find yourself adding to get your velocity back to what your velocity was without the HBN coating and how much more can you load safely on average. My current loads for my Whelen are about at 100% as is so the benefits would be for accuracy, fouling, and barrel wear. Not that I’ll ever wear out a Whelen barrel.

 

[SJB358]

Great write up Joe. Thank you. I’m going to give it a shot.

Can you throw out where you’re getting HBN kits?

 

[Joec7651]

I have ran moly before and gave it up because it is so damn filthy. It’s like having finger print powder or copier toner on everything. Right now I have a 280 Remington, 270 Winchester and a 35 Whelen which is my primary boom stick.
My question is this. How much more powder on average do you find yourself adding to get your velocity back to what your velocity was without the HBN coating and how much more can you load safely on average. My current loads for my Whelen are about at 100% as is so the benefits would be for accuracy, fouling, and barrel wear. Not that I’ll ever wear out a Whelen barrel.

Working with HBN truly isn’t dirty in the slightest. Very clean.

I’ve found that 1-1.5 grains more powder gets my rifles back to non coated velocities. I won’t tell anyone to exceed a book max but since I’ve started coating with HBN I’ve not seen a max load with any pressure signs at all. As an example, I’m getting 2980 fps from a coated 150 grain bullet with a 22” barreled 308 Winchester without pushing the envelope at all. The primers are rounded on the edges, no case stretch, and they extract perfectly. You can forcefully place a fired case in the chamber, raise the muzzle of the rifle and the shell casing will slide out of the chamber. I could take it further and get more velocity but it shoots under 1/2” groups.

 

[Joec7651]

Great write up Joe. Thank you. I’m going to give it a shot.

Can you throw out where you’re getting HBN kits?

http://www.microlubrol.com/drylubricants.aspx

Also it goes a long way. A couple ounces will last years. A little goes a long way.

You don’t need a kit to do it. Get the HBN, a Tylenol bottle, put 100 bullets and 1/4 teaspoon HBN in the bottle. Then throw it in your tumbler for an hour or so and it’s done.

 

[SJB358]

Great write up Joe. Thank you. I’m going to give it a shot.

Can you throw out where you’re getting HBN kits?

http://www.microlubrol.com/drylubricants.aspx

Also it goes a long way. A couple ounces will last years. A little goes a long way.

You don’t need a kit to do it. Get the HBN, a Tylenol bottle, put 100 bullets and 1/4 teaspoon HBN in the bottle. Then throw it in your tumbler for an hour or so and it’s done.

Solid copy. I’ll give it a shot!

 

[AFG270]

Great write up Joe. Thank you. I’m going to give it a shot.

Can you throw out where you’re getting HBN kits?

http://www.microlubrol.com/drylubricants.aspx

Also it goes a long way. A couple ounces will last years. A little goes a long way.

You don’t need a kit to do it. Get the HBN, a Tylenol bottle, put 100 bullets and 1/4 teaspoon HBN in the bottle. Then throw it in your tumbler for an hour or so and it’s done.

Yes, excellent write up, Joe. Thanks for posting, I just ordered some.

FYI, Amazon has it as well.

 

[Electron]

Are you using the fine or ultra fine hbn?

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[SJB358]

Great write up Joe. Thank you. I’m going to give it a shot.

Can you throw out where you’re getting HBN kits?

http://www.microlubrol.com/drylubricants.aspx

Also it goes a long way. A couple ounces will last years. A little goes a long way.

You don’t need a kit to do it. Get the HBN, a Tylenol bottle, put 100 bullets and 1/4 teaspoon HBN in the bottle. Then throw it in your tumbler for an hour or so and it’s done.

Yes, excellent write up, Joe. Thanks for posting, I just ordered some.

FYI, Amazon has it as well.

Shoot me a message at what you ordered, please.

 

[Rednek rampager]

Tagging this one for follow up.

Anyone tried this on hard cast lead bullets yet?


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[Joec7651]

Are you using the fine or ultra fine hbn?

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I use either .5 or 2.5 micron HBN. I can’t tell the difference in performance between them, if there even is a difference. Most people don’t realize that the HBN is shot peened into the bullet jacket and microscopic crevices by vibrating against each other for 1-1.5 hours. This process can be enhanced by adding steel BB’s with the bullets. The steel BB’s are much harder than the jacket and magnifies the shot peen effect. I haven’t found it to be necessary but you can use them if it makes you feel better. You can actually wipe it off the bullet and still reap the benefits of the coating. I myself leave a very light layer of HBN residue on the bullets and it works great. I lightly roll them in a towel when they are finished but don’t completely wipe them off. I also use the same towel, so it’s impregnated with HBN dust as well.

 

[Electron]

Thanks for info, after rereading your post I see you mentioned .5 micron. Which with research is obviously the ultra fine product.

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[lhsako]

Joe, What's your cleaning procedure now with this coating? Number of shots between cleaning, product used, etc. Great write-up!

 

[Joec7651]

Sorry for the delay. I still clean as usual with Sweets it’s just easier. I fired 100 rounds of coated loads and still had almost no copper fouling. I tested with one of my 7mm RM’s, 175 gr ELD-X, RL-25 at 2960 fps from a 26” X-Calibur #5 sporter barrel with 5R 1:8 twist(not max but very accurate).After cleaning and before firing I’ll wet a patch with alcohol, coat it with hbn and run it down the bore a few times to make sure it’s spread evenly over its length. Remember though, that as you fire the hbn coated bullets, it’s forced into the microscopic surface imperfections of the bore that can’t be seen by eye. So it’s still there even after cleaning.

I can’t say with certainty because I’m not shooting a high volume right now due to supply availability, but it looks like it slows throat erosion in my 7mm magnums. No measurable erosion after a couple hundred coated loads. Still has the lip at the case mouth before the throat. No cracking but you can tell it’s been fired. Also no carbon ring at case mouth. I was however able to stockpile enough powder, primers, brass, and bullets to get me through the next 5-6 years for all my calibers but have cut back a little on range trips.

 

[Joec7651]

I don’t think you can say I’m exactly scientific in what I’ve found with it, but I’ve been loading for 25 years and still learning. I will say that it lowered chamber pressures NOTICEABLY with all my E-Tip loads which are as follows. 150gr ET at 2955 from 22” barreled 308 Win, 130gr ET at 3150 from 24” barreled 270 Win, 140gr ET at 3245 from 26” barreled 7mm RM(3200 from 24”), and 55gr ET at 3350 from 24” barreled 223 Wylde (223 Rem). I haven’t tried coating for my 45-70’s or 30-30 yet. Not sure I will because they are easy on a barrel.

 

[ronc80]

I have a quick question. Does tubling the bullets in a rotary tumbler effect ballistic tipped bullets?

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[Joec7651]

I have a quick question. Does tubling the bullets in a rotary tumbler effect ballistic tipped bullets?

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Out of the 5000 or so bullets I’ve coated in the tumbler, I’ve had one polymer tip separate from the bullet. That was a 130 grain .277 Ballistic Tip. Other than that there has been no tip damage or deformation. Even with sp bullets like Partitions, Hot Cor, or Gold Dot. That BT would have probably been a flyer anyway. The polymer tips are by design very tight and have no movement. If they were able to vibrate or cant in flight the bullet would disintegrate in flight due to the tremendously high rpm’s created by the spin of rifling. The jackets and core are swaged very tightly to the tip to prevent this.

 

[ronc80]

I have a quick question. Does tubling the bullets in a rotary tumbler effect ballistic tipped bullets?

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Out of the 5000 or so bullets I’ve coated in the tumbler, I’ve had one polymer tip separate from the bullet. That was a 130 grain .277 Ballistic Tip. Other than that there has been no tip damage or deformation. Even with sp bullets like Partitions, Hot Cor, or Gold Dot. That BT would have probably been a flyer anyway. The polymer tips are by design very tight and have no movement. If they were able to vibrate or cant in flight the bullet would disintegrate in flight due to the tremendously high rpm’s created by the spin of rifling. The jackets and core are swaged very tightly to the tip to prevent this.

Thank you for your explanation on my question and your use of this slippery stuff. I really like the idea of easier clean up of the rifle barrels.

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[ShadeTree]

Very interesting. Doing what your experiences has shown it does I can see the advantages of using it all the way around.

Excellent tip to try. Thank You.

 

[Joec7651]

Tagging this one for follow up.

Anyone tried this on hard cast lead bullets yet?


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I bet it would help if you added some to your melted bullet lube. I had not thought about it but it makes sense that it would help with leading. I melt White Label Carnauba Red and pan lube my hard casts, I may give it a try and see.