Painting bullets

[james2562]

I was thinking to painting, just he nose, of some rounds to help keep track of the different makes.

The bullets are lead. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts they would be willing to share?

What kind of paint?

Bad idea because even a tiny ammount of paint on the nose can foul the barrel?

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[MarkAd]

just keep them in seperate ammo boxes.

 

[Mark W.]

I use a SHARPIE marker to code the bottom of some of my reloads to keep track of what they are.

If you want to color your lead bullets you could do the same without any problems

 

[deadshot2]

Some do this with load development rounds so they can keep track of where they hit on the target. This can be especially useful when using the Audette "Ladder" to test your rounds, especially on a windy day. Since this test is best done at extended ranges, and you really don't know yet what the cartridge's performance is, just paint the tips different colors for the different charges being tested. When you pull your target the "grease ring" on each bullet hole will have traces of the paint so you can decipher which load hit where. With this test you're only concerned with vertical dispersion but it's difficult to determine which shot numbers landed next to each other (from the different accuracy nodes).

My problem has been finding enough different colors of a paint. Model paints work good if you want to dip the bullet tips and let them dry. For last minute use, the Crayola markers are OK but don't leave as pronounced a color mark.

As for color coding boxes? I don't bother. I keep all my loaded ammo in either boxes of 20 or boxes of 50, clearly marked on the outside.

As for fouling? Not to worry. Not unless you use really thick, gooey, paint or some non-skid that's filled with garnet (David Tubb sells something like that for "fire lapping".)