Does graphite work in the same way as molybdenum disulfide ("moly") as a bullet lubricant? I mean, it's black, powdery, and slippery; and it's used in many of the same applications as a dry lubricant. Smokeless powder is coated with graphite, so you are shooting bullets over powder fouling that has a little bit of graphite in it all the time. I doubt it could cause much damage. Does it do any good? Has anyone here tried it?

H. C.

Henry - Was attempted many years ago. Graphite burns under high pressure and heat. Obviously this becoms a problem for gun barrel applications. Mucks up barrels pretty go also.

A lot of coating have been attempted over many years of shooting. Moly is the best thing going for a friction reducer. That is if you don't mind the hassles of burnishing and cleaning the stuff.

Henry,
in a word, NO... and in two words.. HELL NO!

You see, graphit is a great dry lube, under normal circumstance. However, it has no "natural" lubrication properties, as it's "slipperiness" is actually a result of the carbon forming weak bonds with oxygen. NASA found out QUICK that a lake of O2 makes graphite as abrasive as mini-diamonds. Under extreme pressure (say 50,000 psi) there would be no O2 at the interface between the bullet jacket, the graphit, and the barrel.
can you hear it? fingernails-on-a-chaulkboard times 10k. this would be amazingly abrasive, like shooting firelap, but under tighter pressure.

dont do it
jeffe