I tried some Hornady Varmint Express moly coated ammo the other day in my .223 they shoot awesome. I am concearned about moly build up in the barrel ive never shot molu coated bullets before. Are they ok to use and how do you clean your barell if you use them and how ofter any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Lawman103,

I use moly coated bullets in all of my high volume varmint rifles. I have heard of some shooters having problems with moly build up but I have never witnessed this problem.

While I am sure it is true to some degree, I feel it is not the big problem some make it out to be.

The first thing to do if you want to shoot moly coated bullets it to make sure your barrel is absolutely clean. I mean new from the factory clean. If it is not the copper fouling left in the barrel will cut through the moly and cause the bullet to foul just as much as if there was no moly on it.

If your bore is bare metal clean, the moly will perform much better at preventing or at least limiting bore fouling.

I clean my barrels in the conventional mannor but since I am a gunsmith, most of my barrels are custom barrels that foul very little to start with. For the factory rifles I do use, I clean every 25 rounds using a powder solvent such as Hoppes #9 and at 50 rounds I will clean with Hoppes and then with Tetra copper remover.

Every 200 rounds I will use Sweets copper remover to clean the barrel back to bare metal and repeat the process.

I have on ocassion shot over 300 rounds down the barrel using moly bullets and have cleaned the bore in 15 minutes after wards.

I will use nothing but moly coated bullets in all of my high volume varmint rifles and will continue until I see a real reason to stop.

Good Shooting!!

50

There are really smart and really stupid people on either side of the "to moly or not to moly" camp.
It must have something to do with trading one set of problems for another, and how good some people are at dealing with or are aware of, each set of problems.

Myself, I am outraged and frustrated that I can't get the copper out of my barrels. It seems to me that with moly, for a small fee, and few inconveniences, I get great groups and no more copper trouble.

There must then be others who are outraged and frustrated with all the trouble they had when they tried moly, and saved money and effort going back to non moly.

Which suggests that I do not know enough about how to clean out copper, and the moly haters did not follow the right proceedure when they did try moly.

Things to read about moly

I agree with the above posters(as usual).

As far as cleaning, just clean as you normally do. I clean a bit more often between shot strings than many folks do(every 9-18 shots or so), but that is just me.

When you complete your cleaning, lightly grease or oil the Bore. Then follow with two dry patches so as to remove any excess. This should be done whether a person is using Moly or not.

People who claim they need a "Fouled Bore" for their rifle to shoot with Hunting Accuracy actually have some kind of rifle problem. They probably also believe a BoreSnake is a good thing. Avoid those people and stand behind them at the Range when they are shooting.