Whatever happened to moly-coated rifle bullets?

When these things came out several of the accomplished Service Rifle competitors that I shot with went to them. Claims at the time included lower pressures, extended bore life, easer to clean, etc. However, velocities were lower so new loads had to be worked up, some said barrels had to be broken in for moly bullets and then there were some claims of bore damage if not cleaned properly. I never heard any claims for improved accuracy when using a similar quality match bullet.

Anybody had any personal experiences (good or bad) with moly bullets?

and those reports came out within a year of it going mainstream.
I've seen a few bores pitted by it. It's a bad actor in the typical rifle used only seasonally.
Rifles that saw constant use seemed to fair better.
It simply wasn't the solution for our non existent problem.

some are so jaded by it that they still look upon hi tek and powder coated cast lead with suspicion after years of solid service.

you are apt to find a good many reports condemning moly

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it just needs more voltage

The benefits vs problems didn't weigh out.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

As with the freezing of barrels, I have had no experience with moly-coated bullets, only because I never saw a need. Others used them; whether benefits were real or perceived, I don't know, but remain curious.

Nevertheless, it appears the general opinion might be that moly-coating was akin to a traveling medicine show concoction. Is that an accurate assessment?

pretty close to it.
for all that it jacked with, the only thing it could actually deliver is decreased barrel wear. However, this was only realized in rifles you fired year round.
Even then, frequent barrel replacement was still the norm.

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it just needs more voltage

I think Winchester still makes a line of moly bullets with a white tip but they cost as much as the Nosler top of the line bullets, excluding the Partition.

It will be interesting to see if it is still around in three years with the "Accu-Bond" giving it competition.

A big problem with moly. either bullets or applying it to the barrel or inner workings is it is near impossible to remove.

It is some of the most tenacious stuff ever, Yes, it is super slippery but lave it on industrial gears and such.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I think I've still got a box of 500 (or less) moly coated SWC in .430 I occasionally load for my .44 Special, don't recall where I even got them, but I still plink with them in a Blackhawk. They've been around quite a while. Can't tell if they have actually helped or hurt anything myself.

I've shot a lot of moly bullets in AR15 service rifle.

I don't get any better scores with moly.

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WWSSD?
What would Skeeter do?

Hope someone here knows far more about this than I do. I remember a Californian named Merrill Martin who used to write articles for PRECISION SHOOTING magazine about twenty to twenty-five years ago. All of his works were offbeat, though well-written and quite technical in nature; everything was based on his personal experiments.

As I recall (and perhaps not correctly), he had some involvement in the development and/or early use of moly-coated bullets. Seems he also did cast bullet work.

I've since disposed of my old PRECISION SHOOTING magazines. Anyone remember a connection between Martin and moly-coating?

Out with the old, in with the new.

They are improving bullet coatings all the time. I'm not sure where they are on velocity max right now, but there aren't nearly the downsides to coated bullets as there are to moly. Plan to switch soon.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

OK, Moly coated bullets. When they first became popular, I tried them (55 grain V-Max) in a new 22-250 Remington 700 heavy barrel varmint in the factory laminated stock. 1/3 to 1/2 inch groups using 380 powder. Consistently. Now I know this is the internet, and everyones rifles shoot 1/2 inch at 200 yards.....But....My experience is that when you find a consistent sub 1/2 inch rifle, you keep and treasure it. Is it the Moly coating? Cant say. Did try several un-coated bullets, and none shot as good.

Here is the thing I still have not found an answer for. During load development, I loaded about 60 once fired cases, of several different makes, with my 380 / 55 Moly load. Lightly neck sized only, no crimp. They were placed in a metal ammo can, along with some other, factory 22-250 ammo, and ended up in the garage for about 15 years, forgotten.

Last year, found them. Funny thing though. All the cases of both the factory ammo and my reloads look fine. No sign of moisture damage. BUT, the ammo reloaded with the moly bullets has weakened the case necks to the point most all the ammo could be "snapped" open, by putting thumb pressure on the side of the bullet, causing the case necks to fail. Factory 22-250 stored in the same can shows none of this problem.

Never seen nothing like it, and I have been reloading quite a while. Nothing I did wrong in case prep, as the dies are still set the same today, and have produced reliable ammo for years.

I can only guess the moly coating somehow interacted with the brass, causing this brass failure. Have no idea what else it could be. I do know that I still use that bullet in this rifle, I just don't let loaded ammo sit for years like I did that 60 rounds.

Larry

Another fizzled fad

The current coating on Winchester Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips and Accubonds is known as Lubalox. It's a black oxide coating similar to bluing on a rifle that supposedly reduces fouling, pressure, and friction.

It is unrelated to moly and used only on factory bullets. Component bullets were mostly moly coated.

You can get Lubalox on Nosler Bullets (silver tip)

Here is some FAQ about it.

Ballistic Silvertip Bullet

If I was into loooong range shooting I might try some but pretty pricey critters.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I use the "Combined Technologies" loading component bullets in 22 caliber, mostly in 50 grain. They are NOT moly bullets! They are a higher or at least different grade of ballistic tip. Like all things gun related, some gus like the some guns like something else. My 22 BR model 700 likes them better that any of the other 50 gr. poly tipped bullets, my 221 Fireball likes them best also. Several other rifles prefer Sierra, V-Max, or Nosler. I try the all and go with what works best.

I have a few 6mm slow twist rifles. I picked up a 500 pack of 55 gr Blitzkink that were moly coated at a very good price. My plan is to tumble them with wet steel pins to clean the moly off (or at least most of it) and us the for varmint use in 6 PPC and 6x284. They will need to perform as well as the bullets I already us or they sit on the shelf!

Ivan

The problem with moly is as with anything else, the users of that product.

A couple of guys go to camp perry and kick but and the next thing you know every plinker with a $100 beater is a 1000yd head shot on flies ***** kicker. Then when the it comes down to breaking into the wallet ($$$) cheap home brews with even cheaper bullets are the norm. Add to that improper/non maintenance and cleaning practices, things go south real quick.

Most reloaders being of somewhat of a sound mind and have the ability to think outside the box, should actually take 10 seconds out of their busy day and think about the merits/uses of such a product.

1,000,000's of bubba's out there have showed everyone what NOT to do & billion $$$ industry's have showed everyone what TO do with moly.

Have I ever used moly coated bullets??? NO, but I can absolutely see things like removing cold bbl 1st shot fliers a huge +. It's the industrial applications that are the real eye opener. For some odd reason moly extends the life of stupid things like engines, drillbits, gears just to name a few.

Hhhuummmm, I wonder why the big difference???? Bubba ruined everything he touched with moly and industry enhanced everything it touched with moly. Well after some hard thinking for a couple of seconds it came to me!!!! Bubba let it build up on the surface and never cleaned resasoned the bbl (fouling shots cost too much $$$). The moly attracted moisture and the rest is history. Industry on the other hand learned that moly is at it's best when it's impregnated into the pores of the metal.

Let's see:
Film on top of metal ='s bad
film impregnated into the metal's pores =' good.

Well, armed with that ground breaking, earth shattering, able to leap tall building in a single bound knowledge. It appears that evil "MOLY" has been tamed.

Now what on earth would that new found knowledge mean/do for shooters, reloaders and machinests that make their own sizing/swaging/bump dies.

Well, you might be an extremely smart redneck if you:
Use moly to treat the throats of your bbl's decreasing wear and greatly extending bbl life while maintaining accuracy for extremely longer shot/round counts.
Use moly to treat trigger parts after polishing them. It is a excellent lube after all and moly will keep your trigger work from wearing.
Use moly on bolt bodies, firing pins, firing pin springs. Again polishing these area's/parts and the treating them with moly will increase lock time and create more consistent ignition. And as some reloaders known, consistent ignition ='s accuracy.
Use moly to treat sizing and swaging dies, again less wear, less friction.

Anyway the only way moly can do more harm then good is by the dedicated hands of the user.

Say hello to my little friends.




Had a cz lux 22lr that I really liked, it was a 1/4" gun @ 25yds. Typical 5-shot groups @ 25yds.




Same shooter, firearm, rest, ammo from the same lot, etc. The only difference is that I polished and moly treated the throat, trigger parts and bolt assembly.



That's a 66% reduction in group size. And yes I did testing before I moly treated the parts and after. And yes there is a marked improvement in the treated parts over the polished non-treated parts.

Same rifle 9 months after the moly treatment using better ammo and in warmer weather doing 5-shot groups @ 25yds. Remember the " more harm then good is by the dedicated hands of the user" statement. All's it takes is 1 bad pull of the trigger like the operator error/flier in the top right target.



Anyway, moly has it's uses. It's nothing to take a 1/2# of trigger pull out of a trigger by simply treating the trigger parts with moly. Or watch the sd on the same load drop after treating the bolt group. For the last 9 years every rifle/pistol I want to keep I'll do the bbl's throat on them and the forcing cones on the revolvers.

There's nothing better than buying custom 1 in 10 twist bbl's for the dw's and redoing/polishing the forcing cones in them and then moly treating them. Long range sessions (400 rounds) of full house 357's and no leading/splatter/nothing but fun.

Back in the day (late 80s, early 90s) when I was playing in NRA High Powered Rifle matches a guy gave me some moly coated bullets. My group size doubled. Didn't have enough for any real load development so I went back to Hornady 68 grainers. My group size at 100 yards went down from 1 1/4 to 1 1/8 (10 shot groups). Magic.

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Foster Positivity.

As a somewhat related comment:
I have used Pufflon filler in low power (44 mag equivalent) loads in the big 444 case.
This compound of fine ground plastic also contains some MoS2.
After using this and then shooting normal loads, the first shot would be a little SLOWER.
Then all would settle down.
Cleaning patches quit coming out black after a couple of months (maybe 100 rounds).
I have given up on Pufflon.
Grex is a better filler if you are into that.

The comments on using moly as a lube are totally valid IMHO.
Thanks for the tip on moly paste. That's about the only lube I don't have.

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NEMO
"Everything 44"

I'm just playing around and joking about moly.

It has it's uses but I wouldn't put it on bullets. Now area's of the bbl with high stress/high heat or some of the moving parts, hell ya.

Anyway reloads are some of the smartest people out there and tend to use products designed for something else to their advantage in ways other than what's presented to them.

A blow dryer for a heat source and that moly paste along with a little common oil like 3 in 1 and a cloth to rub the moly into the heated/enlarged pores is simple enough.

Heat oil and apply moly to a piece of cloth and push/rub it into the metal. Clean the excess off and oil as normal. The moly gets into the pores of the metal just like in car motors (they put oil with moly in it into them and run them until hot). I started doing this in 2007 and haven't seen a spec of rust or pitting on anything I've moly treated. But then again there's a huge difference between putting moly on the surface of something and getting it into the pores of the metal.

You can actually see the metal change color when the moly get's into the pores.

Anyway, I was just playing about the evil moly. But it does have a place on my work table.

Except for the fact that some people have been using it a long time, it's amazing that it's even still used at all. I had them suggested to me early on but after some reading, decided to skip them.

It's kinda like I used a bitty autoclave to disinfect my soft contact lenses and when the eye doctor found out many years later, he said I was probably the only person in the whole state that still used that method.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Moly bullets produce lower pressure but also lower vel. So to get the same vel, you had to bump powder charges. If all you shoot is moly, then you won't have accuracy issues. If you go back & forth w/ gilding metal, you have to clean & recondition for best accuracy. So I swore off moly long ago, even tumbled off the moly on the rest of the bullets I had.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

One of the better known writers for Precision Shooting reported that a rifle of his which hadn't been scrubbed in 2 years had devoloped light rust in the barrel under the moly. Seemed it trapped light moisture. Once I was about to buy the materials when a ballistition for Sierra came as a participant in a high power match. He was questioned about moly. Since his employer sold kits and moly bullets he wasn't going to say anything negative but, he did say he wouldn't personally use them in his rifles.

I still have a good many Bear Creek (out of business now) 9mm bullets. They shoot good. I shoot them intermittently with cast bullets.

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Where we go one, we go all