Copper Plating Lead Bullets

Copper Plating made easy ( well easier )

I know that this is a Motorcycle forums but most have guns here and some reload ammo,
and it is harder to find jacketed bullets at a reasonable price and why not plate them and just back down your powder load a bit to keep the plating from shedding.


The advantage with copper plating your lead bullets is you shoot them without lube or a gas check and you can load to a higher speed up to 2200 fps with .008 to .010 and 2800 fps with .010 -.012 .

This is an on-going experiment on how to copper plate lead bullets .

First you will need a 6V power supply ( I use my auto battery charger switched to 6v ).
some 12gauge solid copper wire
12v light bulb
an alligator clip
plastic container
Copper Sulfate (k77 root killer)
a few drops of Bleach
Acetone
Distilled water
your lead bullets resized .008 smaller (for .308 start with .300)

Mix 1.5 cups Copper Sulfate crystals to 1 gal Distilled water , shack well and let stand overnight ( or shack for 20 min. until dissolved ). Then add 20 drops of Bleach shack once. The chlorine in the bleach keeps the surface of the copper being plated smooth, without it the surface of the copper will be rough.

Make a hook at the end of a 6inch solid copper wire and solder the 12v light bulb to the side, then solder a flexible wire to the base and the other end to the alligator clip .





clean the coating off about 18inch solid copper wire and twist around then make a coil to lay on the bottom of your plastic container with the end up the side and clip the +(red) wire of your charger to it.
Fill to ¾ with the Copper Sulfate solution .
Using a copper wire , make a Rest that will go over the top of the plastic container with hooks to hold the edges of the top .
To make the hangers just make triangles just big enough so when they are hanging on the Rest , the bullets will be under the solution and keep the bullets off the coil that is resting on the bottom .





Next get some under size lead bullets ,, I use a bullet swedge to bring the 308-312 size cast bullets to .300 and make the channels that hold the lube smaller or take them off altogether.

This next step is a must... Before you clip them into the hangers you MUST clean the off with Acetone , it will take off the Oxides and oils that are on the lead and don't touch them after that , the oils from your hands will keep the copper from sticking to the lead, if you rubber gloves it helps a lot . As soon as you can after cleaning, clip them on the hangers and place them on the Rest and submerge in the Copper Sulfate solution .




Now all you have to do is attach the alligator clip to the Rest and the NEG- side of the charger to the light wire so the current will flow from the POS+(red) wire through the coil at bottom of the container picking up copper from the coil , through the Copper Sulfate solution onto the lead bullets and the hangers that are under the surface of the solution , then up into the Rest and the light bulb and back to the charger.



As you can see the light is not very bright but that is what is showing the current is flowing , and if you accidentally touch the wires the light bulb gets brighter and you will see a change and that will let you know something is wrong.

A word about the time involved ,, I leave them in overnight then resizing them in another swedge die to .3085 inch and then load with out lube but I use a min. load data .





IF or when you get a bullet out of the Copper Sulfate solution and (1).. it looks black and no copper is on it ,,, well you forgot to clean it with Acetone ,, or (2).. when you have just one side has copper on it and the other has none or is black , then oil or Oxides or on that spot..... Ether way Do Not try to clean and try again , just through it in the pot and melt it down and recast it then try it again.


If you try to micrometer the bullets and take them out when they are just the right thickness then it will take you a long time as the copper will be faster on some and take 4 hours and others will take 6-8 hours.

Do not drill a hollow point before you plate , some how the copper filles in the hole, i had to drill the hollow point after plating.

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here is a follow up on the plating, a bigger tank with a way to move the soultion in the tank with an air pump,




















25 bullets in 11 hours.

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To make the bullet swedges , just get some 7/8 x 14tpi thread stock cut into 1.5 inch long pieces , chuck it in the lathe and bore out to the size you want and taper ane hole in one end to .100 larger then polish with 600 grit , take it out and heat it to cheery red hot and drop into a bucket of cold oil.



that is the sizeing die now for the plunger chuck in a 3/9 bolt 4" long and cut the head to make it round then shave it thinner to make it fit into the press in place of a shell holder.



then swing it around in the chuck and turn the bolt down the removing the threads and making it just smaller then the die so it just fits inand is able to press the bullet out the top.






You will need two sets for each size bullet you are making , one .008 to .010 under and then after plating another to make them even and the right size for you cartridge.

I start a batch when i get home, then after i get up in the morning i shut it down and remove them to dry.

Good luck , I hope this helps someone , as bullets are getting harder to find.
Your friend , Horseman (Jonathan)

could you please explain all that again ........just kiddin bro.i must say,your quite the hobbiest !!

yea my wife told me (after we saw the transformer movie with our grand-kids) , "Jonathan you could make one of those couldn't you ?"
I'm ret air force , and am an A&P mechanic , so I said yes of course, .
That was the wrong thing to say in front of grand-kids,,,,,,Oops

ha ha,looks like your going to be busy for a long time now bro. talk about multi tasking lol.dont worry,they will love you for it !!

I'm still looking for two exciter boxes for J-78 jet engines

have you tried ebay?