Now that people have been shooting moly coated bullets for awhile now, what's everyone's feelings? ie., are the corrosion concerns founded? Are bbrls. showing the claimed longer life? Feel free to comment on any of the other issues such as cleaning, switching between coated and non-coated etc.

Thx!

I have over 4000 rds through my Mike Rock 5R barrel in .300WSM with no loss of accuracy. I am sure moly is a factor but my rate of fire at the range is also relevent. I seldom fire faster than 1 shot per 3-5 minutes. I am going to rebarrel now, with another Mike Rock Barrel, as preventitive maintenance,

My barrel is stainless and that is a consideration when discussing corrosion. If you never apply oil to any bore you are going to get corrosion, with or without moly, even on stainless but especially on carbon steel. I usually clean with 2 oiled patches follow by 5 dry ones. I occasionally use Hoppes BR but have never managed to pull out any copper.

Only negative I see with moly is it takes more powder to reach consistency in burn. Up side is it takes more to reach max pressure often at higher velocity.

I've been trying these moly coated Btips that were custome done out of a 280 A-bolt. Awsome accuracy with IMR 4831. I did not increase the charge and just went with the book max.

.425" was the best today. No work done to this rifle. Out of the box.

TGScott: I use Moly and recommend it! I am sure it slows down barrel wear and keeps field accuracy intact longer.
But for an amazing set of testimonials and much more scientific experiences than what I relay go to the Small Caliber News site and read the lengthy story there regarding Moly-coating! The author simply QUIT cleaning his custom 17 MachIV! He has two or three seasons on it and 800 or 900 rounds down it with no loss of accuracy! And the leades of his Rifling have only progressed up the barrel .001" of an inch during this regimen of the 900 rounds! Those two contentions by the author simply amaze me! I own a 17 MachIV (and I shoot Moly bullets out of it) but ......... well just read the article!
I know I can run at least twice the rounds through a Varminter in the field using Moly than I used to when I did not Moly. Its a pain - I think its worth it! But this article is flat startiling! I hope you can get over and read it. I will try and post a link to it or get the correct address in my next post.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

TGScott: Dang just in the last day or so the feature article on the site has changed! The Moly article is gone and so far I can not get it back! Sorry!
I will keep trying!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I tried moly coating on my 7mmstw and actually found more copper fouling with moly.It also took several rounds for the velocity and accuracy to stabilize after cleaning.As such I stopped using moly altogether.

I found moly to be akin to a kid with a calligraphy (sp?) pen. Sure it's fun to play with, but DAMN! It gets everywhere! I had it on my fingers, on my hands, on my face... It's simply not worth the time and effort to me. Perhaps if I had a RUM or such, but even then...

If you want your Bbl to last longer, just load it to slightly lower pressures and see the increase for yourself.

Turok

a lot of advantages to using molycoated bullets especially when shooting long range with loads usually wearing out barrels quickly .
I use the molykit I designed of course ,and half the ISSF 300 meters shooting team doing it at my range, hence I can claim an experience in excess of 100 000 rounds within 3 years with:
.308 Win
6.5/ 284
6 mm BR Norma
7/08 Rem
.338 Lapua Magnum
.50 BMG
everybody noticed that the claims of molycoating are justified in terms of higher speed, greater accuracy because of less speed deviation,lower pressure, less fouling and longer barrel life.

There is moly and moly , like there are cars and cars....

In the december 2000 edition of the shooting times there is an article where two 22-250s were tested for 2000 rounds each-one with moly coated bullets and one with uncoated bullets.The results were that accuracy was the same before and after the test and the condition of both barrels at the end of the test was the same.The testers concluded that at least in this case, that using moly did not improve accuracy or increase barrel life at all.

Hey stubblejumper, I can see where that kind of article would influence a person not to waste their time with Moly.

I had a link to an old article in Precision Shooting which was very in-depth concerning NORMA's Testing of Moly in some kind of HOT 6.5mm. (The link is no longer active.) It mentioned the Test Barrel had just shy of 10k rounds through it "with no appreciable signs of accuracy degredation". And I remember seeing Walt Berger keeping a running Talley of shots in his wife's target rifle in the same magazine with a similar comment. She had about 5k through her barrel the last time I saw one of the magazines and that was a very long time ago. She was still winning matches with it back then too.

Due to that, I got into Moly for my rifles. I don't normally dread getting rid of a rifle or swapping a barrel. BUT, I have one rifle which likes nearly any primer/powder/bullet I put in it. I REALLY DON'T want to rebarrel it or swap it in on a new one. So, I'm hoping the Moly will extend it's useful life considerably and so far - so good.

I use Moly in all my centerfire rifles and will continue to do so until something better comes along. Using Moly does not mean you can give up cleaning the barrel when you shoot it. You need to clean it as you normally do. Though, in my rifles it takes much less effort and time. And I still lubricate the barrel after cleaning with a good oil or lightly grease it.

I'm a bit puzzled "why" you would see more copper fouling when using Moly. That doesn't compare with my experience at all. I do spend agood bit of time "conditioning a virgin barrel" with Moly in the beginning. Maybe that is the difference.

But, I am surprised you had problems with it.

Hot Core-Some of the suppliers of coated bullets actually make their bullets undersized so when they coat them they are the proper diameter.I was coating full sized bullets which did result in a slightly larger coated bullet diameter.The barrel on the rifle in question is a kreiger which may be closer to minimum dimensions than most factory barrels.The combination may be the cause for my problems.All I can tell you is that when I did clean the barrel it was very difficult to remove all the copper.

UNDERSIZED BULLETS????????????
GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok smartass try www.lazzeroni.com and look at the first page information about the bullets they sell.You will notice that their bullets are manufactured dimensionally undersized before being coated.Theres your break.

Alright Stubby!

I see there is actually ONE manufacturer that does undersize their bullets, before they put on their own "special" coating. They need a lot of that stuff to work eh?

Excuse me! I thought the subject matter here was "MOLY", not some Thick Propriatary coating!
How much of that stuff gets left behind in the barrel?

I sure can't see a Major bullet Manufacturer re-tooling just to "Moly" coat, or need to, for that matter.
Since the moly that's burnished into a bullet is measured in "Microns" and probably doesn't exceed more than 1 or 2 Ten-Thousandths of an inch at the most.

I used the term coatings and not specifically moly when I mentioned undersized bullets.I did not bother to look for any more manufacturers after finding one but it is possible that others also use undersized bullets.

I just got an earful for making such blanket statements on another thread .

Regarding moly, what happens when I have worked up a load for it and the stuff wears off the bullets I hunt with. To me the necessity of such things in regards to big game hunting is questionable at best.

Doesn't old lazz use a teflon concoction on his bullets?

Chuck

[ 07-14-2003, 02:31: Message edited by: Chuck Nelson ]

I read the article of ST and I can't understand how such things were printed; the test took place at different moments , under different conditions, with recut and set back barrel to redo the throating etc..was less than 2000 rounds shot on a long period of time.

Norma test was more realistic, they supplied two brand new rifles in 6.5 x 55 , they gauged the barrels and everyweek the rifles were shot by two ISSF shooters during training and contests.
every weeks , there was a complete check of all critical measurement and an optical fiber was used to look at the throating , rifling etc.
more than 10 000 rounds were used, one rifle with moly bullets and the 2nd one without..
now , that's a serious comparative test.

Chuck Nelson-I said some of the manufactures of coated bullets used undersized bullets.If I had said all as you did when condemning all bonded plastic tipped bullets as you did in the other thread I would have been doing the same as you did.According to the lazzeroni website they use some sort of electroplating to coat their bullets claiming it is much more durable than moly.I have not used the lazzeroni bullets but I have used barnes xlc's and they actually reduce the coppering in my barrels.Their coating seems thicker and much more durable than moly coatings and does not leave a mess.I carefully removed the coating on one bullet measuring before and after and the diameter seems to be about .001" smaller without the coating.I have e-mailed them asking how thick their coatings are supposed to be and whether or not they coat regular sized x bullets to make xlc's.

stubblejumper, I'm giving you a hard time (in fun). My experience with moly has been identical to yours, ie increased difficulty in getting barrels clean as well as the need to rattle a dozen rounds or so down the bore before things start to tighten up.

As to the XLC stuff, it has done wonderful things for me as well and I shoot Barnes XLC's in my 300 win mag. Now if those tripple shocks would just arrive......

Chuck

[ 07-14-2003, 02:31: Message edited by: Chuck Nelson ]

While I find that the xlc's do not foul my barrels unfortunately they do not group all that well in my guns either.They average 1-1/4 to 1-1/2" groups while the same rifles average 1/2"groups with other bullets.My friends 300ultramag really likes the 165gr xlcs and they average 3/4"groups at 3450fps.

Gents;

I didn't expect such an energetic response!! I really appreciate all of the first hand experience, and realize that, as in all gun related things, personal preferences and biases play a big part, and that's OK, that's what makes it fun. I do, however, still wonder about the corrosion concern, based primarily upon a "test" done by Varmint Al (I think) that showed an increase in corrosion potl. I am also a little unclear about the relationship between proper bore cleaning and the 10 or so rounds it takes to moly "season" a bore. ie., I'm used to striving for "cleaning to bare steel". Does that not also remove the moly film (coating, or whatever we want to call it)thus requiring another number of rounds to re-apply the moly?

TGScott;
First lets get this misconception out of the way.
One should NEVER use just moly coated bullets to coat or "Season" a barrel. On a clean naked barrel a moly bullet will only coat a few inches at each firing, thus laying down copper the rest of the way, next firing, a few more inches of moly then leaving copper jacket behind and so on, thus shingling moly over copper. To be done properly a clean naked barrel needs to be treated with Moly prior to firing.
I've been using "Moly" for 5 years now, and I have experienced no corrosion of any kind, way, shape, or form.
Simple, normal rifle maintenence is all that's required. All I do is run a wet patch of "Hoppes" let it set a few minutes to work on what little powder residue there is, a couple strokes with a bore brush, a couple clean dry patches to clear out the solvent and residue, one lightly oiled patch, that's it!
Next trip out, I just run a tight clean dry patch to remove as much oil as possible, and I'm ready to shoot.
I use the "Neco" brand products as my source for moly because they use nothing but "Labratory" grade moly powder and Bore Paste, which is the finest[Measured in Microns] and most pure moly available.
Varmint Al, I believed stated he had purchased the Midway Kit, I don't know about their purity, so I can't what else is in it, but I do know Midway's is a more coarse form of moly powder.
There's no need to clean to bare metal, a properly treated barrel and bullets will leave vertually no copper fouling.

TG,
You really shouldn't clean to bare steel (except when switching from uncoated to coated bullets) anyway. Moly or no moly, most factory barrels take a long time (like 20+ shots) to settle in once they have been cleaned like that.
After seasoning your bore with moly, don't ever clean it with anything but Kroil and JB Compound or things similar. About the only time I hear of problems is when that cleaning regime is varied, usually with some sort of copper solvent.

I received a reply fron barnes today and their coatings are from .001" to .0015" on their xlc bullets.They use standard sized x bullets to make their own xlc's but they supply both lazzeroni and federal with undersized x bullets that are later coated and sold by lazzeroni and federal as bullets or loaded rounds..

stubblejumper
Good job on the follow-up. I learned something new. Always good to learn, seems when it comes to reloading there's always more to learn.