I am about to receive a $300+ TC barrel. I have about 300 or so moly coated bullets that I had planned to shoot (this was my feeble excuse to my wife for buying the barrel). I have read various threads on the net that talk about the destructive effects of Moly if not throughly cleaned out of barrels. What's the real skinny? It goes without saying, that I would be extremely pissed, if these bullets somehow left a residue that damaged my barrel. Help?????

I went crazy when the moly thing first came out. Heck, I molyed everything. I never had any problems regarding anything "bad" happening, but it just wasn't worth all the hassle. I had a drop in velocity and pressure and it was just as hard to get the copper out of the barrel.

I went wild with it too, but still use it quite a bit. Just not as much as I used to.

If ever there was a product with more wives tales, urban legends and outright lies associated with it than moly, I don't know what it is. Campaign finance reform, maybe.

Load 'em up and shoot 'em! Moly isn't going to hurt your barrel. When you're done shooting moly, clean as normal and never look back. Then again, you might want to stay with moly!

Redial

Properly done moly works...

What does it do?
1. Reduces copper fouling to zero.
2. Enhances barrel life.
3. Increase the amount of firings between cleaning and cleaning is faster and easier. (as long as you can stand a bore with a layer of moly on it)

What doesn't moly do?
1. Ruin barrels
2. Increase Velocity
3. Improve Accuracy

There are several simple rules for working with moly. One is to understand that you need a layer of moly on both the bullet AND the barrel in order for it to do what it does. Shooting only coated bullets will eventually get you a layer of moly all the way down the bore BUT...you will be laying it on top of copper from previously moly'd bullets that had their moly worn off the first few inches down the tube. So you MUST prep your bore with a moly spray or other prep BEFORE firing bullets.
Second...you can only use Laboratory grade moly. Moly designed for automotive use or other purposes usually contain sulfer and this WILL cause you problems with rust and other pitting...which is why you MAY have heard bad things about moly...people didn't use Lab grade.
Third...if you shoot moly...you must ONLY shoot moly...there is no benefit from shooting plain and moly bullets in the same barrel...its an all or nothing deal.
Fourth...you cannot clean your barrel down to bare metal with moly...once you get a layer in the barrel you WANT it to stay...if you are a clean freak moly will diappoint you for two reasons...it takes a LONG time to get a white patch from a moly barrel and two you only need to remove the powder fouling...metal fouling will be almost non-existant.

I shoot moly exclusively in my match rifles where I used to get somehwere around 4200 rounds before the throats were gone but now the barrels are lasting around 5500-6000 rounds. I do lose about 50 fps with the same loads using moly vs. bare bullets. My hunting rifles use plain bullets...I've worn out 5 barrels on HP match rifles but not a single one on a hunting rifle...

That's my take...

[ 11-26-2003, 08:21: Message edited by: Kentucky Nimrod ]

I have an article from precision shooter that layed out how it works - there was somthing in there about breaking down under high temps - which are not reached when shooting - and some toxic gas release. I would forgo it if for nothing other than the pain of cleanup... as the saying goes there are no free rides.

Speed is money - How fast do oyu want to go?

I agree with Kentucky Nimrod on all but 2 points.

1. Moly does improve accuracy. The increased accuracy with moly is not likely to be apparent with a simple 3- or 5-shot group. It is when you shoot 15 or 20 such groups, without cleaning, and the last measures about the same as the first, you will be a moly convert.

2. Increased velocity is possible. Moly reduces pressure and moves the point of peak pressure a couple of inches further down the bore. More powder is required to reach the same velocity as with uncoated bullets but still at a lower pressure. Loaded to SAAMI max pressure moly will give a very small velocity advantage.

When cleaning my bore, I use 1 oiled patch followed by 3 dry ones. Breakfree CLP, penetrating oil such as Kroil, or any light gun or machine oil is satisfactory. Round count on my last .300WSM barrel exceeded 4000 and accuracy was still fantastic.

Like RuffHewn, I have seen moly maintain my rifle's accuracy. I had just shy of 500 rounds thru the barrel since the last cleaning when I won the state service rifle championship a month or two ago. The fellow who beat me last year was second this time and he NEVER cleans his barrel until he puts the rifle away for the winter. As an old Marine, this makes me cringe. I do like winning though, so I suffer through it

Something else - I've seen examples of moly decreasing velocity for a given load and other examples of increased velocity! Weird.

I too use "bare" bullets in my hunting rifles since they get comparatively few rounds thru them at infrequent intervals. No real advantage in moly there.

Back to the original post - my advice is still the same. Load 'em and shoot 'em up, then decide if you want to continue. Cool to have choices, huh?

HTH

Redial

I burnish the bore with Lyman moly bore paste before a shooting session.

When shooting, I do a powder solvent patch every 20 shots.

After a shooting sesion, I remove the dissosiated moly with a baking soda and water.

It all reduces down to: "Would you rather fight copper or moly?"

[ 11-26-2003, 11:20: Message edited by: Clark ]

Hello,
Anyone else hear that moly in CM steel barrels will cause pitting, if not cleaned soon after shooting. Moly did not effect stainless steel barrels. I will double check, but if memory serves Varmint Al's website did a test by placing moly on the outside of a blued CM barrel. The moly caused minor pitting. No damage to stainless steel. I hope this is wrong, because two of my rifles have CM barrels.
P.S. I just checked Varmint Al's website. He used a moly/water slurry combo and placed it on a bare metal spot on a barrel. It showed minor roughness after one day. Don't know if the water alone or moly/water did it. Lesson is: Keep moisture away from your barrel.

[ 11-30-2003, 08:19: Message edited by: Varminteer ]

Under "what does moly do..." I would add:

4. get all over your fingers
5. get all over your pockets
6. get all over your face.

It's kind of like a fountain pen to me. I really don't find the extra effort worth the minimal gain in most rifles.

Turok

The bore paste gets all over the chamber, which gets all over the fired cases, which gets all over my hands, which gets on my clothes.

It is still better than copper fouling, which makes bad groups.

I am convinced that burnishing the bore with moly paste before shooting makes the rifle settle in in one shot instead of fifty with moly bullets.

The penalty, for me, was the red bore in morning. That acid etching must not be deep, because I got it every time before I learned the baking soda and water treatment, and the rifle is still sub .5 moa.

Just getting the red out of the bore was as much trouble as getting copper out.

I have not caught up with HotCore yet and moly every rifle, but it is spreading from my most accurate rifles down through my collection.

I have tried moly myself and copper fouling was still present.As well accuracy dropped off so I stopped using it.As well some long term testing has shown that moly does not necessarily increase barrel life.

I purchased a used 22-250 that was a molly only barrel. I could not get it to shoot the tiny groups that I was told it did. I even got the molly ammo from the owner he used.

Visually the barrel looked clean. Ran a bore brush down it with some bore cleaner solvent. Black goop began dripping out.. After a bunch of swabbing, I started seeing COPPER fouling.. Switched to Sweets,, Soon it looked clean again. Decided to use the brush just to see...

Black goop again, more swabbing, more copper fouling. I gave up; it was digging into my day of shooting.

Couple of days later, I continued with my cleaning. I lost track of the amount of cleaning cycles I had done. I have no idea how many layers of molly were in that barrel.
When I finally got it cleaned, the bore looked bad.
Etched with rust and pitted.
I have yet to see if it will shoot again.

I am not impressed so far.

To much fun�

[ 11-30-2003, 23:54: Message edited by: Mauserkid ]