moly-coated bullets

[Ozzieman]

A friend of mine that is giving up shooting due to health has given me a large amount of equipment for reloading.
I have been reloading for over 25 years and reload numerous rifle calibers and handguns from 380 to 45 LC and just about everything in-between but I have never used moly coated bullets.
He gave me a large Tupperware container of Remington 52 GR Bench rest bullets in 224 dia that had been coated. I will be using them in .223 in a bench rest REM 700.
They look like lead bullets when they are loaded (See photo).
I am looking for any information from the forum on what difference any one sees when comparing with and without lube.
I have read several articles on differences in velocity with averages ranging 100 to 150 FPS higher for lubed bullets when pushing 22’s out to 3400 FPS.
I also read that those barrels using moly lubed bullets have a great deal less jacket fowling.
I have inherited over 2000 bullets and I am going to shoot them even though my hands end up black from loading them.

[BLS700]

I got stuck with some. Personally I didn't care for them. I don't have a chrono but I would guess with the same load it was taking about ten percent more powder to get the same results as non-moly. That wasn't the issue though. I didn't care for that crap in my barrel. Yeah there's less fowling and supposedly extended barrel life. People that I know that do use them warned me to VERY THOROUGHLY CLEAN OUT THE BORE FIRST. Apparently (and you can find this on the internet) the moly was sealing in copper fouling and moisture and causing pitting I decided that since I did not get any better groups and that they were more expensive to end my little experiment with them.

[DaveInPA]

I won't touch them, for exactly the same reasons the above poster stated.

[Ozzieman]

Thanks BLS700,
That is one issue that I have not read yet, luckily the 700 I have has a new barrel and it’s only fired 50 rounds.
I will make sure the barrel is ultra clean before I shoot any of what I have loaded.

[cdoc42]

I was moly coating my own bullets for about 10 years. I saw a drop in velocity, due to increased lubricity, which was overcome by increasing the charge (and thus the cost). I did not see any increase in accuracy in .223, .22-250, 7mm Rem Mag, .270 win, and .338 Win Mag. I had a tack-driving 7mm STW in which the accuracy totally deteriorated and I blame that on the moly-coating. I believe the coating builds up over time as each bullet drives through the barrel. I cleaned that STW every single day for one solid week and I could not get the patches any color other than black. Some advocate just moly coating the barrel which makes more sense than coating the bullets, but I quit using the whole process. Any bullets that I coated I cleaned in my vibratory cleaner until they were all back to the copper color. You can do the same thing with the 2000 bullets you have.

[Don P]

Here is a link to moly coated bullets. Most of the USPSA shooter I have come across swear by them.
http://www.precisionbullets.com/

[Scorch]

Moly was all the rage about 10-15 years ago, less so now. One reason is that moly is a salt, and is hygrosopic (absorbs water) and can cause rust in barrels in high-humidity areas. If you are in a low-humidity environment (Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, etc) you will likely never see any problem with them.

Also, before you shoot moly bullets, you need to treat the bore with moly. If you don't have any moly to treat the bore with, don't fire the bullets.

[10 Spot Terminator]

+1 on the moly bore prep and deep cleaning of the barrel. All that being said it is true that more powder needs to be added to get the pressures up to where they are in load data printed for non moly coated bullets . This is indeed a slight increase in exspense but does in many cases pay off. The logic in this is increased powder volume in the case which as many can tell you if they quit focusing on the fact the bullet is moly coated , that this often increases accuracy potential. Another point to ponder is that unless bullets are seated touching the lands firmly the inital start pressure when the bullet breaks away from the case tends to be influenced by simple case neck tension on the bullet. This too comes into play for accuracy purposes and is more prevelant with moly coated bullets. I Have several rifles that I use moly coated bullets in exclusively and have done plenty of personal homework on during load work up letting my chonograph tell the true story. A "BIG" plus on moly loads is using the Lee factory crimp dies and putting a moderately heavy crimp on the bullets. In all of the cases where I tested this principal it tightened up the fps extreme spread considerably and tightened bullet grouping at the same time. I attribute this to more consistant start pressure on each and every round . Richard Lee in his load manuals addresses bullet pull in great detail in relation to bullet performance but not in regard to moly bullets in particular. The weapons where moly really accelled for me were those with longer barrels in particular my old swede and Moisen Nagant as well as a rare Savage sporter in 32-20 with a 25 in barrel . Less fouling and cleaning were indeed a plus here and as stated here by others contact with moisture can be a problem if not attended to. I have found Tri Flow to be a very moly friendly bore lube that I use for storing my guns and to prep with before I take these guns into the field. I moly coat my own bullets and do a better job as well than the commercially coated bullets I have seen. If you would like some more insight here PM me and I will be glad to help.

[Alleykat]

I bought into the moly craze a few years ago, and would only shoot moly'd bullets through my rifles. Won't touch the stuff now. For one thing, contrary to the OP's information, moly'd bullets require more, not less powder to attain the same velocity as the same bullet that's not moly'd.

It's also very easy to lull yourself into thinking that your barrel is clean, when, in fact, you have layers of moly and copper in your barrel.

My favorite .223, a Remmy VS, shot in the low 2s. I thought I'd cleaned everything out of the barrel, when I put the VS in the safe a couple of years ago. Got the ol' rifle out and could hardly get a patch to run through the bore. Fortunately, what I thought was rust a rusted-out barrel was only surface rust. However, after, literally, several hundred patches and several hours' cleaning time, I'm still getting green patches, using a mixture of Butch's, Kroil, and Sweet's.

I'd stay away from moly!!!

[GoldenRoyBoy]

A couple of years ago, I bought Lyman's Moly Coating rig; couldn't be happier. The process is simple enough; basically tumbling the lead bullets for a couple hours, or so.

I get MORE FPS!
There may be a reason. I MOLY before resizing. Then, I resize-MOLY COAT again; then, I resize again; lubing also; just to be safe.

Yes, tedious; but I generally average 50 fps faster than my loads useing just lube. I must confess, I don't reload for speed. Most of my lead loads average 1200 fps; or less in my rifles. I like the MOLY! The stuff helps save your barrels also.

GRB

[Alleykat]

Very few folks shoot lead bullets through rifles, in my humble opinion. I'm talking about molying jacketed bullets.

[GoldenRoyBoy]

AlleyKat wrote:
"Very few people shoot lead bullets through rifles"

Wow, did you really write that? You must not know many people who shoot Trapdoors, or Sharps!

I've never heard of anyone Moly coating brass bullets. What would be the point?

GRB