Hi there.. Help wanted. I moly all bullets for my 270W, and have had no problems making the moly stick and stay on the bullets (hornady, woodleigh aso.) But Barnes bullets seem to shed the moly right off. Or at least it rubbs of very easily. I clean, degrease all bullets in alcohol before I tumble with moly.

Has anyone had the same trouble with Barnes? And what did you do to solve the problem?

Best to you all

Hey Niels, I've not tried to Moly Coat any of the "TSX" bullets, but had similar problems over the years with other brands. Unless things have changed, Sierra is the only Bullet Manufacturer that "washes" the Forming Oil off their bullets before sticking them in their Green boxes.
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I put a box of two of bullets in really hot water with "Dawn" dishwashing detergent and let them soak for about 10 minutes. Then I go hand stir the bullets a bit and let them set another 10 minutes. Do the stiring a couple of times while I'm doing other things, so the time isn't critical as long as they soak in the hot water and "Dawn" for 30 minutes or more.

Ease them into a collander and rinse with more hot water while swirling them around without touching them. Once they start the rise process, I DO NOT touch them with my hands until they have been Moly Coated and the Carnuba applied.

I carry the collander outside into the sun and gently pour the "washed and rinsed" bullets on a towel or some kind of soft material. The sun combined with the hot water rinse causes them to dry quickly.

Once dry, they go into the Bowl for Moly Coating.

I can only speak for "Original Dawn" to remove the Forming Oil and it works great. If you use anything else, you are on your own as far as the results.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks. Daen is not available over here in europe. What kind of detergent is it?
Carnuba...!!? You wax the bullets after moly?? Why? How?


Regards NIels

Daen.... Is misspelled DAWN

Hey Neils, Not sure what it is called or if it is sold in Denmark. It is made over here by "Procter & Gamble". Ask someone who washes a lot of dishes "by hand" which product tends to dry their hands out the most - removes the most oil from their skin. Then try that.

You can run the test on just a few bullets to see if what you try works. No need to do an entire box for a test.
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After Moly Coating, I get the bullets separated from the BBs (without touching them with my hands) using a Spaghetti Fork. I put them into a Corn Cob media that has been previously treated with "Liquid KIT Car Wax". You may not have that in Denmark either. Just look on the Car Wax label for the highest PerCentage of "Carnuba".

Put clean Corn Cob(maybe 6 cups) in the bowl and add the Wax(maybe 1/8th cup). I like the Liquid for this, but Paste would work just as well. Let it tumble for 30-45 minutes to distribute the Wax onto all the Corn Cob.

Feel the Corn Cob with your bare fingers. If it feels dry, add more Wax and let it tumble again for 30-45 minutes. When it feels Waxy, but not wet, it is just right.

Place the Moly Coated bullets in the Carnuba Waxed Corn Cob and only tumble for " 1 minute ". Do not tumble longer.

Now you can remove the Carnuba/Moly Coated bullets with your fingers and box them up.

Place the Waxed Corn Cob into a Zip Lock plastic bag and it can be reused a good bit. It will get dark from the loose Moly, but that won't hurt a thing. Just add more Carnuba when the Waxy Feel diminishes.
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I'd intended to try Carnuba on regular "washed" bullets without Moly to see if it would be of any benefit, but I've just never gotten around to doing it.

Forgot the Why. I'd read about Moly Coating in "Precision Shooting" many years ago and they recommended doing it. It eliminates the loose Moly which allows you to handle them without getting the Moly all over you. And it seems to "seal" the Moly onto the Bullet. For me it is worth the extra bit of effort.

Not sure if Carnuba helps in the barrel or not. That is why I'd intended to test just putting Carnuba on some bullets and shooting them. Just never got it done - yet.

Okay.. So the Carnuba is "only" for sealing the Moly. Then I am not sure I will do it. Getting to many different layers of different material into the barrel cannot be any good for it or it's precision, I think.
Thanks for the advice.

Regards Niels

But what is your reason to want to moly TSX bullets in the first place, if you don't mind me asking??

Moly, to my mind, might (?) have a place where you want to shoot large number of rounds without needing to worry about copper fouling destroying your accuracy. Some sort of competition shooting springs to mind.

The combination of moly with a TSX sounds a bit strange to me?? After all the TSX is a hunting bullet, so you just clean your barrel when you are done shooting. I may be wrong, but I doubt there will be hundreds of roe waiting for you to shoot this fall??

TSX bullets do not foul anywhere near as badly as the orginal X bullets did. So, you should already have part of the problem under control by using the newer bullet. A can of WipeOut also makes cleaning your barrel a lot easier...

I don't know if you have used moly before, but don't forget that not only is the process fairly time consuming, it also requires a certain number (more than just 1 or 2) of shots to be fired after you eventually clean your barrel to ensure your POI comes back to where it was before you cleaned. Furthermore, once you have moly in your barrel, it is all hell to remove, should you ever decide you've had enough of it.

A couple of years back, Precision Shooting concluded there was no appreciable effect on barrel life from using moly, even though that is sometimes claimed. So the reduced copper fouling is really the only benefit, and I don't know if that is significant for a (presumed) hunting rifle??

Enquiring minds would like to know...

- mike

P.S I just re-read your original post, and I saw you molied all your .270 bullets. I guess then you are pretty much forced to do the same for the TSX. One of the reasons I stay away from the stuff, but to each his own.

quote:

Enquiring minds would like to know...

- mike

P.S I just re-read your original post, and I saw you molied all your .270 bullets. I guess then you are pretty much forced to do the same for the TSX. One of the reasons I stay away from the stuff, but to each his own.

That is the reason..! I moly all my bullets for that rifle. It is not a good idea to mix mollied and non mollied ammo in one gun.
I started doing it a while back and hav found some good loads doing it, but if I knew then what I know now I wouldn't do it again. But what the heck experimenting learning process is one of the things that are so appealing about Reloading. If you have never done it how can you know anything about it? Right

quote:

Originally posted by mho:
...Moly, to my mind, might (?) have a place where you want to shoot large number of rounds without needing to worry about copper fouling destroying your accuracy. Some sort of competition shooting springs to mind.

Hey mho, I agree with you. For the casual shooter that goes to the Range 12 times or less a year, Moly probably isn't worth the effort.

For me, I "normally" go to the Range 1-2 times a week during the Off-Season and hunt 3-7 days a week from 15Aug - 1Jan each year. Don't do it right now though cause I'm tied up with a family issue.

quote:

I don't know if you have used moly before, but don't forget that not only is the process fairly time consuming, it also requires a certain number (more than just 1 or 2) of shots to be fired after you eventually clean your barrel to ensure your POI comes back to where it was before you cleaned. Furthermore, once you have moly in your barrel, it is all hell to remove, should you ever decide you've had enough of it.

After a quick cleaning, I burnish MOS2 Powder into the barrel with a patch lightly covered with Moly Grease. I just sprinkle it on the Moly Grease and give the barrels a few strokes and then a clean dry patch to remove any excess grease.

Doing that, I've not needed any additional shots to get my barrels back to hitting where I want them to. But I can see how it would be easy for someone not to know that routine and then need the shots you mentioned.

I've no desire at all to remove the Moly from my barrels, so that isn't an issue for me.

quote:

A couple of years back, Precision Shooting concluded there was no appreciable effect on barrel life from using moly, even though that is sometimes claimed. So the reduced copper fouling is really the only benefit, and I don't know if that is significant for a (presumed) hunting rifle??

Now that is indeed interesting. Precission Shooting is what got me started Moly Coating. I remember the Berger ads keeping track of the shot count on Mrs. Berger's Match Rifle with "no appreciable accuracy degredation". I believe they were near 4500-5000 shots on it the last time I saw it a long time ago.

Also remember PS had a link to a NORMA site where they were running some kind of extensive Life Test on a "Hot 6.5mm" of some sort. They were close to 10,000 shots the last time I looked(also years ago) and had the same quote as Mr. Berger, "no appreciable accuracy degredation".

That is what caught my attention and got me started Moly Coating. I have a particular 7mm-08 that I dread the day I will need to replace the barrel on it. It is one of those rare barrels that likes about any bullet/powder combination you put in it. The Moly has saved it so far and I shoot it a lot.
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But, I agree with you that for the casual shooter, Moly probably isn't worth the effort.

I checked the Barnes site out and in the FAQ section they don't recommend moly on the tsx since it already reduces pressures and once moly is applied the pressures might increase more. Hope this helps out

Scott

Moly or not.. My 270win Sako 75 with a Schultz & larsen Barrel likes TSX with moly on the side.. Just tested yesterday and they printed in at 16mm. (little more than 1/2") at 200 meters The load was 54grs MRP mollied TSX 140gr. CCIbr2 in a Norma case. Not a fast load though. Will test more in the faster end of the range

Niels

I soak my bullets in rubbing alcohol for about 10 minutes, drain, and pour on a towel. It evaporates quickly and no rinsing, I haven't had any prolem getting Moly to stick after doing this.

quote:

Originally posted by DennisF:
I soak my bullets in rubbing alcohol for about 10 minutes, drain, and pour on a towel. It evaporates quickly and no rinsing, I haven't had any prolem getting Moly to stick after doing this.

That's what I usually do, and did with TSX too, but the moly rubs off very easily. Have you tried that method on TSX.

Regards Niels

Sorry but I haven't tried it on Barnes bullets. You might try to contact Ms Moly about their product, it is a spray and I've used it without any problems. Their phone number is 800-264-4140.

Hope this helps

Dennis

quote:

How to make Moly stick to TSX ??

A friend's wife's name was Moly and he bought her a .257 Roberts and loaded some TSXs for her. She went out and bought corelokts to shoot and he had a fit....

He finally threatened her with divorse...it was the only way he could "get Moly to stick to TSXs"

Hey Vapodog, Really good, Thank You!

If I might suggest one syntax mod to "is", unless he killed her:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
...A friend's wife's name was Moly ...

I have one rifle that likes Moly'd TSX's better than non-Moly'd ones. I use a Midway tumbler with Midway Moly and the stuff just works. My cheap Moly setup works better than my buddies expensive one. My advice is to check out the Midway setup it's not fancy but it works even on TSX's.............DJ

DJpaintles

I use a lee vibrating case cleaner

Niels, Midway suggests using different bowls for lead bullets and hollow points. If you are using the same bowl that you are using for normal tumbling that might be the problem. See if you can buy an extra bowl for your Lee tumbler and try that with the Midway Technical grade moly, it might be easier and cheaper to just buy another tumbler though.
Another hint - After tumbling line use a spagetti strainer to filter out most of the excess moly, I have a plastic one that I drilled a hole in to fit over the threaded rod on the tumbler. After shaking off most to the excess moly, line the strainer with paper towels and roll the bullets back and forth. This polishes the moly on the bullets pretty well.
On TSX's the Moly doesn't usually coat the bottom of the grooves totally but this doesn't seem to adversly affect them at all...........DJ

I have no trouble at all coating TSX bullets or any other kind. Cleaning is what counts.

The best way to clean new bullets is to put them into a plastic collander( noodle strainer) place the collender into a plastic hand wash basin.

Put in 2-3 tbl spoons of Cascade dishwasher detergent(this is not soap) only used for automatic dishwashers. Any sort of soap detergent nor alcohol will do as good.

Poor boiling water over the bullets to cover them.Let them soak for 5 minutes and the brush them with a plastic kitchen brush for 5 minuts.The bullets are as clean as can be, no oxide or lube will stay on.

Rinse with hot water and let dry on a clean towel and rub off the water and keep your hands off the bullets. Tumble with steel shot as per NECO instruction for 1-3/4 hours.

Rub them clean on an old towel and tumble them for 3 minuts with Carnauba wax. See my web page for more details.

Thanks ' all, for your help. I will try detergent for cleaning next time. Carnuba I am not sure about. I mean wax my barrel !??

vapodog - good funny!

As a retired Procter & Gamble employee I have to cast some serious doubts about the mention & use of the compettive product noted above for degeasing bullets to be Moly coated.



DAWN dishwashing liquid is marketed & sold In Europe as FAIRY Dishwashing Liquid. (No comments please - there is serious marketing research that goes into a Product's name and, yes the names are based on LOCAL country/region culture.)

Niels,

In addition to cleaning your bullets, you might want to try spray on moly, from Midway.

I moly solids for my large bore rifles (to help lower friction and wear), and the spray on stuff really, really sticks.

It comes in a can similar to spray paint, and after it dries (several hours), you stand the bullets up (on their bases) and bake in a toaster oven. It has a very even, professional apppearance (doesn't look like a home job), and doesn't flake off in the box of loaded ammo.

I wouldn't do 500 bullets that way, but I've done 100 at a time that way.

Garrett