Ok, I don't want this to be another thread about wolf ammo, but rather about the coatings put on the ammo.

When I got back from the range the other day, I had some empty casings of wolf ammo with me I hadn't thrown away.  I took one and out of curiosity, threw it in my tumbler with some .45 brass.  I was expecting the polymer grey coating to come off after a couple hours in the tumbler, it didn't.  So I started wondering how resilient the coating on those cases actually is.

So I put the case back in my tumbler, a thumbler’s vibratory one, with walnut media and let it run over night.  Well, I forgot about it in the morning and let it go until some point the next day, over 24 hours of tumbling and the coating was still on there.

At this point I thought I might have to try a series of tests to see what it takes to get the coating off this ammunition.  It would be nice to compare it to the older green lacquer cases but don’t have any around, so I need to find a few of these.

Plan is to subject the cases to temperatures in a series of ovens/muffle furnaces in my lab to expose them to high temperatures to see if I can melt off the coatings, I can go up to about 1000C in my lab.  Might need to do this under an inert atmosphere as I don’t want to combust the coating, but rather melt it.  Also, try different solvents to see what does what.  As for the solvents I have all the good normal ones, and will try some firearm solvents as well.  I was thinking about trying some acids but it would be hard to say if the acid is attacking the coating or the steel substrate underneath.  Another abrasive test would also be worth while, but I might have to use a stronger abrasive than walnut hulls, like rock polishing media in my rotary tumbler.

If anyone can think of another test to try that would be meaningful I would like to hear it.  Mostly I was wanting to run a few tests that reflect normal conditions the casing would see.  If anyone has done this before I would be interested in the results, especially as it would be less work for me.  I was thinking of an additional test of exposing the casings to controlled humidity environments to look for corrosion, but I don't have the time to do this before I deploy again.

Thanks all.

I have seen from running them (223) in the DILLON with walnut, they clean up nicely.. I do not want any bashing here either.  The coating (depending on your sensitivity to feel) seems to have a smooth-slick rubber feel.

I have run them through a LEE FL sizing die, with RCBS lube, and have not dragged any coating, and this a bit more extreme than what you find in the operation of the rifle, as the round is dimensionally smaller than the chamber, gets expanded on firing to fit-seal the chamber, and removed, all in a split second.

I can tell you that it is possible, very easily to wear the coating off...... just toss them in a wet tumbler (RCBS Sidewinder) and roll them, the cases rolling together will eat the coating right off,  not much concern with a dry media tumbler.

Man you need to take up reloading with all the spare time you got on your hands

Go for it.  I'm interested in the results!!

I am convinced that neither the laquer coating or the polymer coating are of any concern to us.

Both work fine.  Neither "coats" the chamber.

For more information, see this: www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=246820

That thread is what got me to thinking how durable the coating actually is.

I was thinking it would be nice to have some solid data on the temperature and solvent resistance nature of the coating.

And I don't really have much spare time on my hands.  I just don't sit idle well.