WS2 info

[Sidewinderwa]

What can you tell me about using WS2 to coat bullets? I have seen posts referring to it but do not know anything about it. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using it? How is it applied? Do you use it?

[Glen]

sidewinder-- I brought this over to the Reloading Forum so you would get more views. Also if you go to WrzWaldo's profile page you can link to some WS2 info from there. HTH

[acloco]

I have not ran into any disadvantages yet.

Have been using this in my 204, 223 AI, and 300 Win Mag (shooting 178, 180, & 208 gr bullets at 1000 yards - best group to date - 7 3/4" - using WS2 coated bullets).

[Rick in Oregon]

Same here...the only disadvantage would be the time involved to coat your bullets, but if that's not an issue, it's "plusses" all the way.

I use it for all my colony rodent rifles, and depending on caliber, I can go 100 rounds without cleaning (17 Ackley Hornet), about 80 rounds in my 17 Mach IV, same in my 223 Ackley and 223 Remmy's, and about 50 rounds in my 243 Ackley. I shoot two 204's, but in my Sako, I'm still burning up some naked bullets before I had made my mind up on WS2 in the 204, but have a slew of coated waiting in the wings. My new "Silver Princess of Death" will also shoot coated, but I always go at least 200 rounds of naked bullets in a new barrel to burnish the bore prior to going coated, and so far she's only got 110 rounds logged (that will change big-time in a couple of weeks ).

I still feel WS2 is the "hot ticket" for extending shooting periods. Some feel it's not worth the effort, but for what I do, it certainly is worth any effort put forth, as I'd much rather be shooting in the varmint patch, than cleaning any day.

Here's some freshly formed, neck turned and annealed 17 Mach IV's coated with WS2....they look kinda purty, eh?



Late Add: I should note my coating method....
I use an RCBS Sidewinder rotary tumbler, equal weight of bullets to be coated and 3/16" steel burnishing balls (from any industrial bearing outlet), just a pinch of WS2 (I use a baby spoon with just the spoon tip covered), tumble for 30 minutes, use a colandar to separate the bullets and balls, then tumble again for 5 minutes in a dedicated drum lined with plain newspaper to polish the bullets and remove excess WS2, and wha-la, perfectly coated, shiny coated bullets. This method was recommended to me by Dave Dohrnan, the industrial chemist who runs Tru-Coat, supplier of BR chemicals and WS2. It seems to work just dandy too. I normally coat 200 bullets at a time, but could do more if needed.

There are other excellent methods using vibratory tumblers and glass or plastic jars, Silverfox illustrates in the below post.

[Silverfox]

Sidewinderwa--I'm still in the experimental stages with WS2. I'm giving it a workout in my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington and working up an accurate load for the 27.8 gr. BTHP Hammett bullets. It looks like it will take just a wee bit more powder to achieve the velocities I was getting with bare bullets.

I haven't shot enough of these coated bullets to tell if it is going to make a difference in how many shots I can put down the tube before accuracy deteriorates and the barrel needs a good cleaning. Some of these custom barrels like the super match grade Pac-Nor don't seem to copper up real fast even without the coating on the bullets.

The coating process is quite easy and really doesn't take a whole lot of time. I use my Midway Vibrating case cleaner in the process. I put 50 or so bullets into a pill bottle with a screw-on cap, put in 40 or so copper plated BBs, just a tiny pinch of WS2 (like what fits on a small screwdrive blade that is about 1/4" long by 1/8" wide) and put that into the container and let it vibrate. I have let it go for 1.5 to 2 hours. I don't know if that is too long or not, but the coating sticks pretty good and usually do other reloading chores while I'm coating the bullets anyway. I can put 4 or 5 of these pill bottles in my vibrating case cleaner at one time, so I can coat a bunch of bullets all at once and have them ready for reloading later.

[Lee C.]

Sidewinderwa, I'm shooting a 12fv with a pretty rough barrel. And the ws2 made it shoot like a new gun. Now i use it for about 5 other guns i have. It's pretty easy to coat your bullets with. It's smoe pretty good stuff.

[Sidewinderwa]

Thanks for the information guys, I really like hearing from people that have actually used it. I take it that it does not have the water issue that molly has. How much extra powder are you using to get the velocity up to where it was before? Where are you getting your WS2?

[acloco]

wrzwaldo has the WS2 in stock.