Any chance of duplicating this 'mark' on the target and posting pics of it? It would be real interesting! An additional test would be to see how close and how far this mark actually shows up. Or maybe I could try twist my mates arm into duplicating it with his 22-250!

If the marks on the target are the "comet tails" that appear next to the bullet hole, they've been described (and photographed) at some length in articles in Precision Shooting magazine.

Quite a bit of friction heating occurs in a rifle barrel, in my experience. After a string of shots of moly bullets in a 30" Palma barrel, the muzzle is cool enough to be grasped with a bare hand. Not so when I shoot bare bullets!

YMMV, of course

Mark

Thanks for the interesting input, redial.

This makes me think of my hornet and its barrel heating phenomena. The barrel would heat very rapidly and evenly, including the suppressor. Surprising for the caliber. Then one day I increased the powder charge a tad (an already compressed charge) and the heating went away! All of it - including the suppressor! Go figure! My first thought when reading your post was perhaps the charge was somehow affecting the lube (I lube the hornet bullets) but if that were so, why would the suppressor heating also change? So that one remains a mystery.

Now to find some Precision Shooting magazines.

redial

That is exactly what they look like a curved comet tail.

I have also noticed how much cooler a rifle bbl is when shooting Moly coated bullets.

Have you noticed, at long range how much less they climb up or down in a cross wind?

quote:

Have you noticed, at long range how much less they climb up or down in a cross wind?

Excuse me? Are you saying the moly coating affects air friction as well! Holy Cow! Here I was thinking the air flow effect was a function of shape alone.
And you mention climbing up or down. I was wondering about that but didn't get around to asking or actually testing it. Mmmmm.... that's interesting!