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Posted: 5/29/2008 9:18:23 PM EDT
I have purchased a few 62 gr steel core bullets and was wondering how difficult it would be to paint the tips green!
 I did a Archive search just for fun and couldn't find anything for the past 3 years about the subject. I find it hard to believe that ARFcom doesn't have a "how do I paint the tips green" thread at least once a month! It seems like it would rate right up there with "what is the BEST AR-15!" Or maybe not...  - Clint |
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Posted: 5/30/2008 3:31:19 AM EDT
[#1]
Make a template the same size as your loading block.
punch a bunch of 12 caliber holes in it. Krylon. I dunno, it's what I cam eup with off the top of my head.
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Posted: 5/30/2008 9:28:47 AM EDT
[#2]
I would either put them on stripper clips, and dip 10 at a time, or dip them individually as they came out of the press.
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Posted: 5/30/2008 10:45:06 AM EDT
[#3]
Ummmm Ok, forgive me for sounding stupid here, but I fail to see the purpose behind painting the tips?? Can someone enlighten me on this??
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Posted: 5/30/2008 11:19:05 AM EDT
[#4]
fast identification??
Again, i don't knw, I'm just guessin here. |
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Posted: 5/30/2008 11:31:58 AM EDT
[#5]
It's like painting a car red. Makes 'em faster.
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Posted: 5/30/2008 11:40:34 AM EDT
[#6]
We, in Mother Army, used the markings for identification.
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Posted: 5/30/2008 11:50:15 AM EDT
[#7]
Too much time on your hands? |
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Posted: 5/30/2008 11:54:03 AM EDT
[#8]
Ever wonder why ammo cans are never carried on a mission? Anyway, the painted tip is for Identification purposes only, and Krylon should work should you keep your ammo in the ready condition which is in the magazine.
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Posted: 5/30/2008 2:32:59 PM EDT
[#9]
We carried .50 and 7.62 in the can. Belted, of course. The reason for the green tip was transitional when the A2 was introduced. A2s could use either M193/196 or M855/856. A1s could only use M193/196 as the longer, heavier 855/856 will tumble in flight, reducing accurate range to 100 meters or so. In reality, since M193/196 was NEVER NATO standard, they could have relied on the head stamp as these non-NATO rounds have no "circle-cross" stamp of NATO conformity. But Marines know colors...
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Posted: 5/30/2008 2:50:33 PM EDT
[#10]
Actually, some M193 did come with the NATO cross on the headstamp. I have some LC 91, 92 ad 93 headstamp M193, that I received directly from the OKARNG, that has the NATO cross.
Forgot to add, I painted some by putting them on stripper clips and then holding a piece of paper over all bu the tip and then hitting it with the spraypaint. Flip it over and do it again. |
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Posted: 5/30/2008 3:08:51 PM EDT
[#11]
Ehh, granted I can understand why the .mil does it but for reloading your own I can see that you could do it as well. I guess I just dont really see the need for it myself. to each his own I say on this one, not offend anyone by my thoughts on this.
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Posted: 5/30/2008 5:47:12 PM EDT
[#12]
Like I said, after seeing thread after thread titled "which is the BEST AR" I just assumed there would be a pletera of threads in the reloading section asking how to paint the tips green. I was surprised when I didn't find any!
 - Clint |
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Posted: 5/30/2008 6:38:25 PM EDT
[#13]
I'll either lock 'em, or send them to the DIY forum.  |
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Posted: 5/31/2008 7:54:14 AM EDT
[#14]
what kind of paint do you use then [water, oil] ,if you dont use the right paint could it do any damage to the weapon?
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Posted: 5/31/2008 9:25:40 AM EDT
[#15]
just get a sheet of paper and a holepuncher or something and put a buch of holes at the same spacing as your ammo trays and spraypaint it.
The paint will never do damage to the gun. It never acutally contacts anything. |
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Posted: 5/31/2008 9:46:43 AM EDT
[#16]
I'd think there would be *some* contact on the feed ramps and the top of the chamber where the tip hits before rotating in line with the bore. Otherwise, why would soft point bullets get beat up?
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Posted: 5/31/2008 6:21:46 PM EDT
[#17]
You could just paint or sharpie a handfull, then used the painted rounds for the top two rounds in the mag.
I started a thread on this a few months ago, but found painting to be a PITA.... maybe worth the effort for some SHTF ammo, but not for normal fodder. |
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Posted: 5/31/2008 6:37:44 PM EDT
[#18]
Not I...we carried belted 5.56 in the drums, and the rest in magazines when we were out of the Command area. BTW, I thought we were talking about 5.56, not 7.62 or .50...but I guess I over-generalized with simply stating "ammo cans". HAHAH! |
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Posted: 6/18/2008 5:14:03 AM EDT
[#19]
i would be worried about the paint rubbing off in the wrong places or heating up and clogging up the barrel. how are they painted from the factory? do they just use regular krylon paint?
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Posted: 6/18/2008 6:27:21 AM EDT
[#20]
Just had a strange thought. What about soaking a sponge in paint then just pressing the tip in a bit to get the paint on the round. I would think it would be somewhat mess free as it would be easy to regulate the amount of paint by how hard you press. Although I am not sure what paint would be right for the application.
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Posted: 6/18/2008 6:33:55 AM EDT
[#21]
I never did paint those... I loaded a few mags and colored the first round with a sharpie to let me know what they were. I also put a piece of colored tape around the bottom of the mag as well.
Most of my SHTF ammo is Hornady TAP and has a black brass so it's easily identifiable. But I do have a lot of 55 gr plinking ammo that I wouldn't want to confuse with the 62 gr stuff. I have all of it in ammo cans that are clearly marked as to what is inside of them! - Clint |
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Posted: 6/18/2008 7:41:10 AM EDT
[#22]
The paint is a light pigment, medium body nitrocellulose lacquer with green tint. The difference between it and primer sealant is the tint color and pigment.
You could use nitrate dope with a bit of green and some white butyrate dope for pigment. Where to find this? Hobby shop, radio controlled aircraft. It is way old school but SIG still makes it. Tinting? You are on your own. Experiment. Start at full concentration and dilute until the thickness comes out just a bit thin. Why nitrate dope? It is flammable, any residue in the chamber will be incinerated. It is the same nitrocellulose as the base propellent. |
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Posted: 6/18/2008 8:01:43 AM EDT
[#23]
I'd go with model paint, since I have yet to see a nail polish that's anywhere near the right green, and all the "green" polishes I have seen have been pretty nasty. Since the GI paint isn't a problem, using any commonly available paint shouldn't be a problem either, just so long as you do the painting right. It's a very thin coat on GI bullets, so make sure whatever paint you use gets you that thin coat. Model builders' paint pens might be a good way to go... And I can see a lot of reasons for identifying individual rounds by bullet weight or whatever, and that painting the tips would be pretty much a smart way to do it. If you can't tell by the ogive whether you're looking at a 62 grain or 77 grain round, wouldn't you really want to know which it was BEFORE you chambered it? |
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Posted: 6/18/2008 3:07:30 PM EDT
[#24]
Use a paint pen, it is fast and easy. I paint my rounds with different color tips for
identification as I load mine all in stripper clips. When I go to the range I just grab what I want to shoot and toss it in my range bag. Easy to tell then what I have. I have never had a problem with the paint messing anything up either. |
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Posted: 6/18/2008 5:47:00 PM EDT
[#25]
This could get really fun, take a few rounds and paint the tips hot Pink, purple, or some other odd color. Next, find a "special" container for them so your friends are sure to notice them. Then proceed to have fun with your shooting buddies when they ask about the pink tipped ammo...
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Posted: 6/18/2008 7:21:04 PM EDT
[#26]
soak a sponge in the paint, poke and go. I would dry them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes
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Posted: 6/18/2008 7:28:41 PM EDT
[#27]
I tried something similar to this (soaking a paper towel) but the paint would not show
up evenly on the bullet tips. Maybe jsut the paint I was useing (Testors model paint) |
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Posted: 6/19/2008 2:35:44 AM EDT
[#28]
How about using green nail polish thinned with laquer thinner or acetone and just dip them?
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Posted: 6/19/2008 8:36:57 AM EDT
[#29]
The stencil over the loading block idea seems reasonable.
I'd use a piece of cardboard and some krylon. |
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Posted: 6/19/2008 8:53:56 AM EDT
[#30]
I was suggesting something with less man card revocation potential. Nitrate dope is the same thing as most nail polishes and should be much cheaper. |
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Posted: 6/19/2008 10:07:18 AM EDT
[#31]
Yeah, I guess you're right. I bet nail polish will be easier to find, though. These days, I don't think anybody would even think twice about a guy buying nail polish. Unless you're doing huge quantities of ammo, I wouldn't think cost is much of a factor. |
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Posted: 6/19/2008 10:59:14 AM EDT
[#32]
(OTOH, I've found both good reds and good blues in nail polish, and those will go into my "primer sealant" project later this summer, as will a sampling of nitrate dopes.) |
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Posted: 6/19/2008 1:36:40 PM EDT
[#33]
Yeah, in my case, going to the hobby store to buy nitrate dope would not be cheaper...it is just as bad as the gun store.
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Posted: 6/19/2008 1:58:13 PM EDT
[#34]
Are you kidding? Sparkly bullets in girly colors would be great! Heck, I think your man card gets a reinforcing lamination on one corner if you shoot that stuff in the presence of witnesses for a season. A few years back, there was a high power shooter down in Dixie that shot a pink match rifle. I think he shot well enough to stop the gigs and guffaws with a little shootin' match for cash. |
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Posted: 6/20/2008 4:42:52 AM EDT
[#35]
It would be interesting for one of you who has a few green-tips to briefly hold a removed bullet green-end to a lighter to see if it flares up a little. |
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Posted: 6/20/2008 5:14:33 AM EDT
[#36]
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Posted: 6/22/2008 6:16:05 AM EDT
[#37]
Buy yourself, or find a friend who has, a box of Hornady LeverRevolution rifle ammo (I have 30-30, so that's the only one that I can testify to). Inside the box the cartridges are housed in a black plastic housing, and those pesky little tips, all twenty of them, stick out the bottom of the plastic housing giving you access to paint all 20---if you so desire.
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Posted: 7/19/2008 8:47:19 PM EDT
[#38]
Well, I finally finished loading all 1000 rounds of SS109's that I started on the other day. I decided to try painting a few of the projectiles just so I could top off the mag with some "green tips", to let me know at a glance what was in the mag.
I went and bought some Acrylic paint from the paint store. I tried it out on a few bullets and ran the same 30 rounds manually through my AR to see if it would rub off excessivly on my feedramps... it didn't. I experimented with different methods of getting on the projectile and finally decided that it was easiest using a paint brush. The first method I tried was just dipping it in the paint and then twirling it in a paper towel till I got the desired thinness. That way sucked. Using a paintbrush you are able to get it very thin and pretty uniform. I wouldn't want to attempt to do 1000 rounds that way but instead I did approx 200 rounds which gives me enough to put a few in each mag near the top so I can see that these have the steel penetrators. Here's a few pix so ya'll can see what they look like! - Clint     
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Posted: 7/20/2008 1:27:42 AM EDT
[#39]
Good update.
My method of how to tell which bullet is loaded in a case, without looking at the load data on a 3x5 card in the ammo box is SS-109 only in Nato + cross mil case. Hornaday 55gr FMJBT in LC non Nato case. Bulk whatever 55 gr FMJBT in any mil non Nato case. Target loads in plastic 50 and 100 rd plastic boxes in ammo cans. Winchester, Remington brass, |
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Posted: 7/20/2008 4:00:56 AM EDT
[#40]
Looks good! But having all your rounds lined up that way makes me think that you could simply roll them underneath the paint brush (using a suitable wood block to keep 'em in line) and get all of 'em done without too much trouble. Just line up the rounds and roll! No, I haven't actually tried that with 1000 rounds, but it seems like it should work fairly well, especially if you can work out a way to just pour rounds out into a straight line. *That's probably the catch in the whole process.*
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Posted: 7/21/2008 4:17:59 AM EDT
[#41]
Easier/faster way is to soak a thin sponge (3/16-1/4" wet) in green paint and press the loaded cartridge into the thin sponge. The bullet tip bottoms out on a hard surface contolling the height of the ring and making it somewhat uniform.
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Posted: 7/21/2008 5:28:48 AM EDT
[#42]
 
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Posted: 7/21/2008 7:16:02 PM EDT
[#43]
This "jig" took about 5 minutes of looking around the house, and 60 seconds with some Krylon paint. Using a better suited paint and refining the technique would, no doubt, yield a better finished product. I just wanted to show what I came up with "shooting from the hip."
 The "jig." I just stuck the tip of the bullet through one of the holes.  Finished product could be better with a better suited paint. Good luck! jonblack |
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Posted: 7/23/2008 1:29:58 AM EDT
[#44]
I'm tinking you guys need a girlfriend!
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Posted: 7/23/2008 3:53:29 AM EDT
[#45]
them theres is for the kittens 
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Posted: 9/26/2008 2:41:27 PM EDT
[#46]
i tried to find the brush on krylon paint but couldnt find it anywhere! I opted for their short cuts spray paint in the green.
what i did was take an old plastic pistol ammo crate 40 s&w (ones that come with a box of ammo) and drilled holes in each of the spots. i then placed a round upside down in each hole thus making the bullet pop out of the bottom. after loading 50 i flipped the ammo and crate over and protruding through was just the tips of the ammo. next step was spray from a few different angles and wa la it was done. i did 250rounds in about 30 mins. |
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Posted: 9/26/2008 3:03:35 PM EDT
[#47]
For ID I use a permanent marker on the primer.
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Posted: 9/26/2008 5:57:36 PM EDT
[#48]
Im not a fan of people painting their own green tips, I was sold 500 rounds by someone, and they WERE not acutal SS109 bullets I later found out... shady gunshow dealers.
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Posted: 9/26/2008 8:42:57 PM EDT
[#49]
my father inlaw worked at olin( winchester) in east alton he did actualy paint the green tips for the ss109"s ill ask him how he did. hell now youve got me curious too
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Posted: 9/26/2008 8:59:28 PM EDT
[#50]
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