Moly coating and cast for AR15

[rvpilot76]

With all of the concerns regarding lube in the gas port and such, can anyone see why a fella wouldn't be able to run moly coated cast down an AR? Mines got a chrome lined bore and chamber, and stays pretty clean even with condom projos.

Kevin

[armoredman]

Interesting thought. Experts' opinions?

[garandsrus]

Kevin,

I use moly coated jacketed bullets in my AR-15 all the time. It does eliminate most of the fouling.

John

[andrew375]

I used moly coated cast through both an M1 carbine and MP43 with great success. The by-product of having all that moly blown through the action was that all moving parts and surfaces aquired a glass-slick plating of the stuff. With the M1 and normal bullet lube the tappet would start to stick after a couple of hundred rounds and was solid and needed dismantling after about 600. With moly coated cast bullets the tappet remained perfectly free for thousands of rounds.

[Lloyd Smale]

I dont know what the prices have done lately but a guy used to be able to buy ball bullets so cheap it wasnt worth the bother. I picked up 10000 of them years ago and have never shot them all up and have accumlated more since. A guy can even pick up bulk ww and rem soft points faily cheap at least you used to be able too. I guess in my opinion my ars will probably never need to be used in defense of my home but i want them able and ready and dont want to take a chance on them gumming up and am not the type that is going to clean them after every time at the range.

[Blammer]

223 Ball ammo is now about $400 per 1000....

[armoredman]

Yes, but the fun is in casting. Sure, I can get j-word bullets all over, some cheap, some expensive, but the moly coating idea means I can build my very own rifle boolits that won't gun up a gas action. I like that, not because I have to, but because I can.

So, how much is moly coat, and how is it done?

[nicholst55]

Lyman sells a spray Moly coating, intended for use on cast boolits. I bought a can but haven't got around to trying it out yet.

[James C. Snodgrass]

I did some in 30 cal kind of a joke to get another caster worked up because he swore moly was bad stuff. I cdid mine with the midway kit, ie- tumble with moly powder and about 2 lbs of BB's and they work very well in my contenders they seem to foul very little. Good luck:)

[Scrounger]

I have had no problems at all shooting moly coated jacketed bullets. I just put the bullets and some moly in a container and set it in the vibrator for an hour or two. I think the people having fouling trouble were the ones using a wax coating over the moly, in the way over-priced kit NECO sold some years ago.

[Larry Gibson]

I'm of the opinion the "concerns regarding lube in the gas port and such" are mostly between the ears. I've been shooting cast bullets lubed with Javelina and other alox based lubed through gas guns of many designs for almost 40 years. I've yet to have "such concerns". With regards to the AR; I've also shot thousands of .22LR rounds through them with M221 devices and been running ranges where 10s of thousands of .22LR were shot. Never had a plugged gas tube. The TM for the M221 even says that firing 1 or two M193 rounds will clear up a sluggish functioning M16 after firing large amounts of .22LR. No damage will occur to the M16.

However, I would be interested in how moly coated cast bullets shoot, especially at higher velocity than 2000 fps.

Larry Gibson

[snuffy]

Hmmmm, sounds like a winter project, starting tomorrow, 12 days off work for Christmas holiday!:-D

I have the midway kit, actually that's how I started to tumble brass. Didn't have a tumbler, wanted to try molly, so I got the kit. I used a 500 count ibuprofen bottle with a couple tablespoons of steel BB's and a teaspoon of molly put in with a regular load of brass/media. The instructions that came with the kit said to put the bare bullets in with molly in an empty bowl. The racket it made was awful. Then the tips of the v-max bullets would get broke off!

I have a lyman mold,#225462. I will cast a couple hundred, molly them, then find a load that makes sense. Need to polish some brass, so I can kill two birds with one stone. I'll try some in my bushy AR, and my Contender super 16.

Umm, any tips on a load that would stay around 2200?

[garandsrus]

Snuffy,

I have moly coated jacketed bullets in a tumbler bowl with no trouble. I normally do 500 .223's at a time. I don't add anything except the bullets and the moly. There is no need for the bb's. I have tumbled .30 cal Hornady SST's also and never broke off a tip. I think that the secret may be to have enough projectiles in the tumbler that they can't really "dance" too much. It's more of a shake and shimmy.

John

[armoredman]

Fascinating.

[Scrounger]

I always put the bullets and moly in a sealed container; leaving them loose in the bowl produces a black cloud in the garage. My tumbler lid left me years ago.

[shotstring]

I haven't used moly myself in my rifles, mostly because of the bad rap they got if have a need to switch back and forth between moly coated and regular jacketed ammunition. I can't remember what the major problem that switching caused, but there was definitely a problem when switching without completely cleaning the bore first. Anyone remember what this argument was?

[Scrounger]

I haven't used moly myself in my rifles, mostly because of the bad rap they got if have a need to switch back and forth between moly coated and regular jacketed ammunition. I can't remember what the major problem that switching caused, but there was definitely a problem when switching without completely cleaning the bore first. Anyone remember what this argument was?

Some people just didn't like it. My experience was that shooting un-moly bullets after moly bullets, it took four or five rounds to settle down and be accurate again; shooting the "uns" first, it took four or five rounds to settle in with the moly bullets. No negatives that I know of.

[felix]

Mostly a BR issue. No concern with 99 percent of the guns we use. Different friction = different acceleration = different ignition. Must adjust charges in BR guns to compensate. ... felix

[snuffy]

I think that the secret may be to have enough projectiles in the tumbler that they can't really "dance" too much. It's more of a shake and shimmy.


That was probably the reason I got busted tips! IIRC I only had maybe 30 bullets in there!

Anyway I found the steel BB's peened the molly onto the bullets better than using the bowl. Less of a mess as well. I never used the wax that it called for, just went straight to loading them.

[jh45gun]

I heard that moly could cause bad fouling that was a bugger to get out any truth to that?

[Forester]

I have moly coated a few cast and jacketed for my 45-70 and I saw a slight velocity gain especially in the jacketed bullets. The biggest change I saw was that the barrel did not heat up as fast.

I have also done some experimenting with moly coating lead for .45ACP. I tried some with no lube with very poor results. massive leading. I then tried moly coating after they have been sized and lubed. They shot fine with a slight reduction in smoke from the lube, not enough gain to be significant though.

[James C. Snodgrass]

To clean my barrels that I shoot the moly in I use Ed's Red which is 1 part mineral spirits, 1 part acetone, 1 part automatic transmission fluid, pretty cheap to make and it does a fine job on all powder fouling, and a fine job of getting the moly out also. Good luck. James:)