SmallCaliberCentral

Apologies in advance if this already has been covered. I searched but didn't find the detail I'm looking for.

Has anyone here experimented with hot loads in order to determine whether bullets coated with moly, tungsten or boron can stand a hotter-than-max load (for a naked bullet) without producing signs of excessive pressure?

Considering a max load is based on SAAMI's max pressure, and coated bullets generate less chamber pressure than naked bullets, it seems to me the elephant in the room is that a naked bullet's max load doesn't apply to a coated bullet. Lyman as much as says the opposite is true but they stop short of saying the coated bullet has a heavier max load:

It is safe to use existing load data developed with uncoated bullets with moly coated bullets, but not the other way around.

I'm loading WS2-coated Nosler 32-grain pills with BL-C(2) and would like to see what I can get by creeping a bit past the naked bullet's max load (30.7 gr). I see there've been a number of threads here discussing the merits of coated bullets but I can't find one with someone out-an-out saying, "Yeah, I'm hot loading coated bullets half a grain over max and with no ill effects." Still, I'm hard pressed to believe I'm the first one who's thought you could get away with this.

So fess up. Who's overcharged the .204 shooting coated bullets and found it wasn't doing any harm?

I'm shooting 28 grains of H-4895, with a 39 grain SBK, coated with WS-2, and Remington case in my Cooper with no signs of excess pressure. This load is .5 to 1.5 over max. depending on which manual you look at.
Not saying it will work in your rifle.

Bitman wrote:I'm shooting 28 grains of H-4895, with a 39 grain SBK, coated with WS-2, and Remington case in my Cooper with no signs of excess pressure. This load is .5 to 1.5 over max. depending on which manual you look at.
Not saying it will work in your rifle.

Thanks, Bitman. I'm not looking for guarantees, just a little assurance that it's not that wacko of an idea.

What kind of MV are you getting with that load? Right now I've only loaded to .5 over max in .1 steps. I'd hoped to test it today but we've got a front passing and it's too blustery fo such a small bullet. I could still test for excess pressure but there's not much point if I can't also test for grouping.

Fred,

I've been shooting moly coat bullets for 13 years or more. Haven't switched to WS2 because I've got so much moly left. No doubt in my mind that there is some friction reduction and therefor less pressure generated by your load. There may also be less friction in flight too. This could be interpreted as an oportunity to crank up the load with more than max powder charges. I've done that. The difference to 500 yards is so slight that I no longer am interested in that aspect of coating bullets. The benfit to me is less cleaning and cooling time in the prairie dog town. I use a bore snake often(40-70 shots) then do a good cleaning in camp each night. Beats the old days when I had two 220 Swifts and two 22-250's so that I could shoot longer while several rifles were waiting to cool down or needed cleaning. Those powder burners could only fire a half dozen shots on a hot day before getting too hot and needed cleaning every 20 to 25 shots with naked bullets. This opinion is worth every penny you paid for it.