Hello everyone. I have quite a few sierra matchking hollow point boat tail 69 grain and 77 grain .224 diameter for my .223 that I moly coated when I was competing as a high power service rifle shooter. Since I have decided not to shoot moly in my rifle any longer, I wanted to remove the moly from these bullets to save money. Also these matchkings are hard to get in today's market so if I could remove the moly, it was a win win for me. It was recommended to me to try "bar keepers friend" to remove the moly with the caveat of dumping the bullets immediately into water to remove the bar keepers friend. I had tried everything else and to my amazement, the bar keepers friend works really well. It removed almost all the moly from the bullets. That was very good; however, the bullet jackets were very dull and looked almost tarnished so i decided to tumble them in my tumbler with walnut media. The bullets came out looking fine, but i noticed that some of the tips are now plugged up. Will these plugged tips cause any inaccuracy or tumbling of these bullets in flight? Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Ray.

Well, I can't say for sure, but I would guess it wouldn't help any. Probably wouldn't be noticeable for informal shooting, but might for serious target work.

Can you clean out the hollow points with a safety pin? Maybe try tumbling some without media, and see if the media in the tips works its way out.

Larry

The Center of Gravity and the Aerodynamic/Ballistic Center of the bullet has probably been moved toward the plugged up tip...... very, very slightly and assuming the tip is plugged uniformly. The unbalanced bullet might also have a slight “wobble” to its spin and flight. For informal shooting, it’s not worth the effort to clean out the tip, assuming a lot are plugged. Shoot ‘em. For long range competition shooting, clean out the tip.
My 2c.

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I too used the moly coated bullets in Service rifle Matches......didn't bother to remove any coating when I used them in prairie dog towns....They never noticed.

Where you already tumbled them, again I would simply load and go shoot them.

Just "MY" thoughts......

Randy

There’s one sure way to find out how they’ll perform...

Load 20 rounds as is, 20 rounds with the hollow point cleaned out and head to the range.

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Shoot a few groups. I doubt you'll see a difference. That's a very tiny hollowpoint that I think is done from a manufacturing perspective rather than anything else. That's probably the reason they are not recommended for game or varmint shooting. The "hollow point" in these bullets was not designed to expand reliably.

One of the major bullet companies helped support our junior shooters for a number of years at Camp Perry.I was in charge of the reloading for the teams.We would get bulk packed bullets twice a year.Many times I would find a kernel of media in the tip while running through a progressive loader.In testing we never found it to be a problem.That being said if it would happen with 80 grainers for long range and you cleaned it out fine,but for short range I feel it does not make a difference.

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SWHF#407

Wow! Safety pin. Great idea! Thanks!
Ray

Thank You! As you say, If I was still competing, It would probably matter, but this is just short range stuff. 100 yards to 200 yards. Thank you for your help!
Ray

Thank you for your response. I shot moly in service rifle competition then the reports of the moly attracting moisture in the barrel started surfacing so I quit shooting them. I just stored them away. I have been using the non coated 69 grain sierra matchkings since then because they were plentiful and pretty cheap. You could get them on sale for $90/500. Now, however, they are not readily available and are not very cheap, so I decided to remove the moly on my approximately 1000 bullets. I finally found a product that does that (with a little bit of elbow grease) and I am quite happy with the results. After tumbling, the finish is a little bit duller than straight factory ones but I am ok with that. I will try the safety pin idea from a previous poster. I never thought of that. I know that we used kroil when we were using moly but the kroil would not remove the moly from the bullets. Now I dont remember why we use kroil. Thank you very much! Ray

Good Idea. I plan to do just that! Thank you.
Ray

Thank you for your response. The hollow point was highly tauted as being ballistically superior to the regular pointed bullets for long range target work. I took sierra's word for it and the 69 grain worked great out to the 300 yard line, then I had to use the 80 grain HPBT sierras at 600 yards. Now Sierra is making ballistic tipped bullets that are supposed to be superior. Ok, then!
Ray

Good info. How interesting. I never was good enough to go to camp perry. I dreamed about it but I didnt want to embarass myself. That was very nice of you to reload for the junior shooters. Varget was what all of us were shooting in Texas. What powder were you using?
Thank you
Ray

Hello Ray,we started with H4895,then Varget became our #1powder.The last 3 years I was involved with the program we were moving towards Reloader 15,Remington 7 1/2 match primers Lake City or Federal Brass 77 grain for short range and 80`s for 600 and beyond.Between my two sons and myself plus my share of the loading for the juniors averaged about 20000 rds a year.Lots of time at the bench.We used to field 2 or 3 6 person junior teams.As a side note one year I had 6 junior shooters, all himasters all distinguished rifleman and none were over 17.If you are still shooting you should make the trip.There is room for all skill levels/competitors.The better your competition the better you will preform.Good luck,hope to see you on the range.

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SWHF#407

If you tie fly's, there is a tool called a "Bobbin" that is a fine needle with a handle, found in the fishing dept. in some sporting good stores, if you can't find a small needle.

It will go through the eye of a #22 dry fly hook, so it will have no problem with a HP bullet !!

good idea! i will try it. Thanks!
Ray

Wow. Good info. I like varget and as long as I can get it, I will use it. I also use 8208 XBR when I cant get varget. If I cant get either of those then I will try your recommended powders. I use Rem 7 and 1/2 primers but they have been discontinued. I am using CCI 400 small rifle primers but they have some indentions when I seat them. They are a little soft in my opinion. You did a really good job with those junior shooters! All high masters? Wow! Maybe you should have trained me (lol). I only made sharpshooter. I routinely shot expert at the matches but I could not do it 3 times in a row which is what was required. Thank you for inviting me to camp perry, but my competition days are over. I competed when I was a lot younger, in my 40s and 50s, but now that I am 74, I cannot get into the sitting position. I can do standing and prone, of course, I cant get out of the prone position once I get in it. No, I am very content to sit on a bench seat and shoot at the 100 and 200 yard line. I remember I was shooting at the 200 yard line one time with iron sights sling supported and the gentleman next to me had an enormous scope and a huge metal rifle rest. I was in my competition mode shooting every 10 seconds and he was shooting every 5 minutes because he was doing his pseudo sniper designated markman role. We went together to check our targets and he was surprized at my sling supported iron sighted group. I marvel at this younger generation that have never shot iron sights! I had never shot with a scope until last month when I finally gave in and bought an AR15 with a rail. I still prefer iron sights, but shooting with a scope or an acog is really nice! Ok. Sorry for the rambling, but you brought up some fond memories! Ray