Moly coating cast lead bullets

[GeneT]

Hi Guys,

I'm interested in moly-coating my cast (pistol) bullets. My reasons are twofold: I want the bullets to work well in my bulletfeeders and I want less smoke than I get with conventional lubes.

I have used several commercial moly'd lead bullets (masterblasters, bear creek, precision) so I know it can be done, and meets my needs, but I haven't found anything where someone is doing it in the home shop?

Any takers?

GsT

[sargenv]

The last time I did something like this, I did a tumble lube on some 9mm 125 gr RN boolits. I put about 200 boolits in my tumble container (plastic container that usually contained 2-3 pounds of peanuts). I put in a bit of JPW and about a 1/4 tsp of the moly lube that midway sells.. I tumble lubed em and put them out on wax paper to "dry" and they have been sitting since. I have not fired them as yet.. I will likely load them up for a Para D18 9mm pistol when I get back from vacation. They have been sitting idle in the garage for.. a few months.. too many projects, not enough time.. I don't know how they will work.

[vernm]

Let me say up front, I have not moly coated lead boolits yet. But I can pass on some things I learned from coating thousands of jacketed rifle bullets.

I use 40oz peanut butter jars. Soak in hot, soapy water and make sure all the oil is gone. Fill the jars about half full with bullets and add moly. Not too much. About 3/4 teaspoon per jar. Maybe a little more the first time untill the inside of the jar gets coated. Seal the lids with tape so the lids don't unscrew from the vibration. Place the jars in your vibratory tumbler. Just work them down into the media. Let the machine run for about an hour. Check the bullets to see if they are completely coated. If they don't look pretty much like your commercially molyed bullets. run them a while longer. If the bullets don't want to coat well. you may have to wash them in an evaporating solvent such as acetone before you moly. I use four 40oz jars in a Dillon large tumbler. If you have a smaller model, you might need to use smaller jars.

My molyed bullets look just as good as comercial molyed. I see no reason you can't do it in your home shop too. Be careful not to breathe the moly dust.

[vernm]

Let me say up front, I have not moly coated lead boolits yet. But I can pass on some things I learned from coating thousands of jacketed rifle bullets.

I use 40oz peanut butter jars. Soak in hot, soapy water and make sure all the oil is gone. Fill the jars about half full with bullets and add moly. Not too much. About 3/4 teaspoon per jar. Maybe a little more the first time untill the inside of the jar gets coated. Seal the lids with tape so the lids don't unscrew from the vibration. Place the jars in your vibratory tumbler. Just work them down into the media. Let the machine run for about an hour. Check the bullets to see if they are completely coated. If they don't look pretty much like your commercially molyed bullets. run them a while longer. If the bullets don't want to coat well. you may have to wash them in an evaporating solvent such as acetone before you moly. I use four 40oz jars in a Dillon large tumbler. If you have a smaller model, you might need to use smaller jars.

My molyed bullets look just as good as comercial molyed. I see no reason you can't do it in your home shop too.

[David2011]

Can you shoot them without wax lube after the moly coating? My MV is about 940 fps.

David

[WildmanJack]

Gene,
As one that does coat my cast boolets with molly, I'll say that I love the stuff. No need to do any lubing other than the molly. I use the powdered moly in a vibrator with ceramic media, then polish with corn cob media. Works great and although it'll get ur hands pretty dirty, ( I us plastic gloves ( those blue trauma gloves the medics use) when I load) it sure makes nice accurate boolets. At least for my .45 Colt lever gun...
Good luck..
Jack

[Elkins45]

Have you considered just using a moly lube? I keep the Lyman super moly in my old model 45 to do rifle boolits and I have been very happy with how it performs.

I don't know how well this would address your bullet feeder issue.

[Ron B.]

Midway once sold a Lyman Moly kit, suppose they still do. I really like the product. It came with the Lyman tumbler, ceramic media, and moly powder. A little moly goes a long ways. I actually like the smell of burning lube, so did lube my bullets as well. Very accurate. Used them in a number of calibers including 45 L Colt, 45acp, and 45-70. All bullets I cast myself. I'd suggest sizing your bullets "before" moly coating. If you decide to lube as well, you will need to do so "after" moly coating. So, can be time consuming.

I did a quick search at Midway; they've still got the kit!
I would recommend purchasing some additional Lyman Moly powder.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=162840

Good luck!
Ron

[Lee S. Forsberg]

Hi Guys,

I'm interested in moly-coating my cast (pistol) bullets. My reasons are twofold: I want the bullets to work well in my bulletfeeders and I want less smoke than I get with conventional lubes.

I have used several commercial moly'd lead bullets (masterblasters, bear creek, precision) so I know it can be done, and meets my needs, but I haven't found anything where someone is doing it in the home shop?

Any takers?

GsT

I moly coat cast bullets for one reason to make them slide through the sizing dies. I don't know about better accuracy, but it can't hurt. Less leading, higher velocity? I hope so. I use a round plastic contaner with a screw on lid that will fit inside my tumbler, one cap full of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol, get it from Safeway, and one 9mm case full of the Moly powder from Midway,and 100-200 bullets depending on size. Place the palastic contaner in my tumbler with the lid facing opposite rotation so it won't unscrew and tumble for about an hour. Remove the contaner from the tumble take off the lid and let the bullets dry. Work very well the bullets slide through the sizing die much better.

[Tom W.]

Yeah buddy! A friend of mine put moly coating on my cast bullets for my .45 ACP, and told me that I didn't need any other lube. The bullets sure looked pretty..and after about 4 shots my pistol wouldn't go into battery and it looked like there was silver spaghetti hanging from the muzzle. I went home and pulled the remaining loads, tumble lubed the bullets and didn't have any more problems. Never moly coated any more bullets, either.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, GeneT, I have been moly-coating both jacketed and lead rifle bullets since early 90's. recently, I have started to shoot my revolvers again. The calibers of the single action Colts range from .32WCF. to .45 L.C. These are fixed sight guns. I was going to moly coat for these but I tried the .38 spec. at 25 yds. off sandbags with uncoated cast. gun was shooting low & right. Almost made mistake of altering sights, until I tried it off-hand...groups right on top of front sight. With moly-bullets are slick & velocity is higher..barrel-time would probably be shorter, causing slugs to print even lower. Anyway with the loads I am using, moly isn't needed.

[.22-10-45]

Oops! forgot to say I lube (micro lube) over moly before loading. I never have tried loads with just moly coating for lube.

[prickett]

With moly-bullets are slick & velocity is higher

All I've READ says that moly results in lower velocity as the bullet exits the barrel before full pressure build up. I have no experience to back that up, however.

[Shooter6br]

Just a thought After tumble lubing dust with moly? i dust with graphite powder to cut the stickiness but not moly.To me moly is just too dirty to use i did moly coat jacketed bullets for BR shooting.The process did help keep my 6BR barrel like new after 1500 rds( checked thur a bore scope). For cast i dont think that comes into play

[leadman]

I used to moly coat jacketed and cast bullets for handguns and rifles. I tried just moly coating the Lee 22gr. tumble lube boolit and even at low (750fps) I got more leading than I liked.
I also coated boolits over Red Angel hard lube. There was no leading even at full power loads in the handguns.
With the jacketed bullets in the rifles I did get higher velocity and reduced copper fouling, but the moly would build up in the bore and after many rounds there would be flakes in the bore.
Moly was pretty labor intensive to remove from the bore so with that and the mess I gave it up.

[AABEN]

I use the moly powder from midway USA. I use it as a lube before sizing. I use it in my tumbler with some # 5 and 9 buck shot it goes a long way so a can will last you a life time. The buck shot helps a lot also lets the bullets move better so that they are lube. You will need a extra bole for the tumbler. GOOD LUCK

[Gadabout]

I used the Lyman "Black" Ideal lube for many years. I just fired up my pot for the first time in about 10 years (life happens). I know that I will need more lube soon, and was thinking about changing to the Super-Moly lube. Has anyone used it before? I cast pistol boolits now but am thinking about starting casting 150 gr boolits for 308/30-06. I don't know which Lyman mold to use yet, but that is a different question. Would the Super-Moly be good for 30 cal boolits also? BTW, I will take suggestions for molds for the 308 too <G>.

[Elkins45]

I have found the Super Moly to be a great lube for 30 caliber rifle, as long as you don't plan to bulk store them for a long time before loading. They can stick together and pull the lube out of the grooves if you just dump them in a jar together, but if you stack them then it's OK.

It seems to perform as well as any other commercial lube I've tried and far better than the red or blue hard lube most commercial boolets are filled with.

[Gadabout]

I might have to try some when I get my 30 cal molds. I think that I will stick with the Ideal lube for pistol boolits. I have some that I cast 10 years ago in boxes and the lube is still in perfect shape.
Thanks...

[Russel Nash]

Hi Guys,

I'm interested in moly-coating my cast (pistol) bullets. My reasons are twofold: I want the bullets to work well in my bulletfeeders and I want less smoke than I get with conventional lubes.

I have used several commercial moly'd lead bullets (masterblasters, bear creek, precision) so I know it can be done, and meets my needs, but I haven't found anything where someone is doing it in the home shop?

Any takers?

GsT

ARRRggghhhh!!!!

As soon as I saw you posted the word "moly" in the thread title, I knew exactly what you meant, and that more than half the posters in this thread would get confused with the molybendum disulfide powders that you could tumble copper jacketed bullets in to turn them blue, from about 10 or 15 years ago.

Two totally different things.

Do an advanced search here on this forum using my screen name as one search item, and then use the keyword "sandstrom" as the other search item?

If you were to ask around there among the USPSA'ers in the pacific northwest, you'll learn that masterblasters was originally started up there in your neck of the woods.

About three years ago, I stumbled across a post here on this very forum by some dude by the name of "Westerman". He was the first to mention the Sandstrom 27A liquid. How he came about to know that is what the likes of masterblasters, bear creek, and precision were using to coat their bullets, I have no idea. I tried to contact him via several different methods, but they were all unsuccessful. I contacted the Sandstrom company and they confirmed that some bullet companies were using their Sandstrom27A to coat their bullets. Sandstrom would not go in to detail as to what methods or techniques these companies used to coat their bullets.

I ordered a quart. I tried experimenting with it, but I didn't have much luck. I have heard through the grapevine that the 27A has been replaced by a 9 or 9A liquid. A couple of friends are mechanical engineers. One said that something like a heated metal concrete tumbler is used.

Tom Drazy of Wisconsin ended up buying the equipment off of Masterblasters. Then Tom sold it to a Chandler LaFrain of either Kentucky or Tennesse. I would imagine if you could sneakily get a hold of Tom Drazy or the original owner of Masterblasters (he is in Florida now) they might let the cat out of the bag.