Moly Coating?

[B R Shooter]

There was a long time cast bullet benchrest shooter (now passed) that coated his bullets with moly only. He shot many perfect targets on a very regular basis. Anyone ever give it a try?

[ioon44]

I tried it in the 1990's with pistol bullets and ended up with a lot of leading in the barrels.

[quail4jake]

Been there, done that. I hope the gentleman to whom you refer left a record of what he was doing because we'd all like to know how to make that work. I've been molying for 25 years, works great to reduce copper fouling on jacketed boolits but could never get a good result on cast boolits...

[B R Shooter]

The fellows that told me about it didn't know any details, other than they had their butt kicked regularly.

[RED BEAR]

I must say didn't work for me either. But its not surprising that someone can get something to work i did not.

[Dragonheart]

I ditto that. To make it work, I have to think there was more involved than just moly. Since finding PC I have absolutely no reason to even consider moly again.

[gnostic]

I use the same moly in my bullet lube, that I coat my Jacketed bullets with. In effect, it works like Lyman Super Moly bullet lube. I don't think it's possible to moly cast bullets, as the process would likely deform a cast bullet. When you moly jacketed bullets, ball bearings are mixed with moly in a vibrating case cleaner. Otherwise, the coated bullet would have clumps of molly and carnauba wax rather than a smooth silver coat...

[Kraschenbirn]

In the 1990s, a good friend owned the old Bull-X Bullet Company and, shortly before he sold the operation, experimented with moly-coating cast boolits. IIRC, he said the it was kind of a hit and miss proposition...it worked for some boolit designs and, for others didn't. CJ was an old bullseye shooter (Distinguished Master in all three classifications, no less!) and was, initially, looking to produce cast HBWCs at a cost competitive with swaged. He'd pretty much achieved that and was working with Magma to develop molds compatible with their automated casting machines when a buyer with cash in hand made an offer to buy the business.

A few years back, he gave me several hundred moly-coated boolits of various designs that he'd found in his garage while preparing to move to a new condo. The .45 ACP SWCs shot just fine but left the bore pretty dirty, same was true for the .38 HBWCs...not anything in the way of noticeable leading with either, though. The .44 SWCs weren't bad in .44 Spls but not so hot in the .44 Mags (some leading and marginal accuracy). Interestingly, the moly-coats included something like 250 440 gr. .45 RNFPs which shot (without any serious load development) almost a well as the 465-grainers from an Ohaus mold that normally load in my .45-70s.

I never checked the moly-coated boolits for hardness but I suspect they were cast from the same proprietary alloy (very close to Lyman #2) as the company's lubed boolits and, therefore, fairly hard...which would probably account for the lack of noticeable deformation from tumbling. Unfortunately, I don't even have any samples; anything I didn't load and shoot was melted and recast into something I could use.

Bill

[B R Shooter]

For S&Gs, I had 10 cast 30 cal bullets I set aside as culls for the next casting session. I dug out my old moly setup, vibratory tumbler, moly with steel shot. I seated GCs and ran them through my sizer, as I would normally. Cleaned them then put them in the tumbler. I didn't add any powder since the steel shot was coated, and let them go for 30 minutes. They appeared to have a nice even coating, GC included. I didn't see any deformation and they mic'd the same as normal. I could see the difference in color in the bottom of the grooves that had no coating. So they took the moly OK it appears, whether they lead the bore is something else. I guess I'll have to shoot them and find out.

[gnostic]

For S&Gs, I had 10 cast 30 cal bullets I set aside as culls for the next casting session. I dug out my old moly setup, vibratory tumbler, moly with steel shot. I seated GCs and ran them through my sizer, as I would normally. Cleaned them then put them in the tumbler. I didn't add any powder since the steel shot was coated, and let them go for 30 minutes. They appeared to have a nice even coating, GC included. I didn't see any deformation and they mic'd the same as normal. I could see the difference in color in the bottom of the grooves that had no coating. So they took the moly OK it appears, whether they lead the bore is something else. I guess I'll have to shoot them and find out.

It's been awhile, but I remember having applied moly and carnauba to soft point bullets, as well as HP and I don't remember the point being damaged. The bullets I shoot from my pre 64 model 94 are lubed with Lyman Super Moly. I've shot at least 500 rounds without the need to clean. When you shoot them please update, I'd love to stop using grease as lube.

[country gent]

Moly coating is done thru impact plating, bullets are put in a tumbler with small steel shot and a small amount of moly and tumbled. then sifted from the shot they are tumbled for a short time in shot and canubra wax to seal the coating. I did it for several years in NRA High power. It did lessen jacket fouling and made cleaning easier. I never saw much more extended barrel life ( one of the early claims). With moly cleaning became a little more involved, you wanted to clean the fouling but not remove the impregnated coating in the barrel. If the coating was removed then it would need to reimpregnate before it settled down again.

A lot did a barrel break in with jacketed to smooth and season then a short break in with coated to get an even impregnation. SHooters choice / kroil oil mixed 50-50 was the recommended cleaning solution. Most didn't brush much but used a snug patch and wrap jag.

What I found was after impregnated first shot from clean cold barrel was in the same group as a fouled barrel. I found cleaning quicker and easier. Also slightly lowered pressures. I had to increase the neck tension in my 243 .0005 and add .5 grns powder to get the 600 yard load back to original performance. It did several things that made it viable, but as to longer barrel throat life I didn't see much.

[B R Shooter]

I will try it, but there is no point in shooting the culls if I want to see if they will shoot well. By the way, I use gas checks and linotype lead. Maybe that will help with the lead issue. I'll post about it.

[bangerjim]

Moly is a GREAT lube....................for anything but cast Pb boolits! Much better stuff (like power coating) out there that is much less mess and better accuracy. And no...........moly DOES NOT mix with PC!!!!!!!! Kills the static charge for BBDT. And makes a total mess of everything around in an ESPC gun environment.

Leave the moly for door locks and other mechanical sliding things! I use it on clock springs mixes with lithium grease when I repair antique clocks.

banger

[garandsrus]

There are several threads here and on the internet about using Moly with jacketed bullets. Some High Power shooters still use it.