I recently bought 3rd hand an M-70 Winchester in .225 Win. caliber. With the rifle came an el-cheapo Tasco 6-24 scope in Redfield rings with Redfield base, and 150 rounds of hand-loaded ammo with old, moly-coated Hornady bullets, and another 100 pieces of brass.

It's remarkably accurate as is (I shot better than 3/8 MOA on my first outing, and I'm betting it's good for 1/4 MOA . . . assuming I don't screw something up).

Which gets me to my question . . .

Can I expect to screw up the barrel by shooting un-moly bullets? If so, I'll go through the hassle of coating bullets. If not, I'd just as soon NOT coat them because of the hassle.

Thoughts?

(Yeah, I know . . . I shouldn't shoot rounds loaded by another person, but I'm willing to gamble.)

Brian

I never heard of screwing up a barrel by shooting "un-moly" bullets in it.

You may want to take extra care in removing all the moly from the bore, I've heard rumors of fouling issues.
Regards, Joe

I don't think anything bad will happen to the barrel by shooting un-moly coated bullets.
But, if it shoots as good as you mentioned, why not continue using moly coated bullets?
I've never shot any moly coated bullets in any rifle. But, the accuracy your rifle is getting would have me begin using them, for that rifle.

Here is the theory.
If you mix shooting moly and un-moly bullets, the copper will stick to the moly in the barrel, and increase copper build up. The prevaling wisdom is to either shoot all moly bullets, or no molly bullets in a barrel. Is this really wisdom, or just legend? That's probably the real question.

quote:

Can I expect to screw up the barrel by shooting un-moly bullets?

no way....shoot what ever you like. Moly coating can be ignored.....

IIRC,
moly can be a problem when combined with water in a barrel. May want to be sure to run a patch through the bore saturated with kroil after you shoot, and keep rifle stored in and humidity controlled environment.
GWB

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
moly can be a problem when combined with water in a barrel. May want to be sure to run a patch through the bore saturated with kroil after you shoot, and keep rifle stored in and humidity controlled environment.

That is True whether or not you have Moly in the barrel.