so i put it here. first off, i dont reload, i just thought you guys would know the best answer. i was just wondering why ive heard so many bad things about moly coated bullets. not for the reloading aspect, but the shooting aspect. does it do something strange to the barrel? i have no idea. lets hear what you have to say.

Moly coated bullets were all the rage about 10 years ago or so. It was claimed that they reduced barrel wear and copper fouling, increased accuracy, gave higher velocities and made for easier cleaning. Nobody ever said that they could cure cancer or restore lost hair, but there were quite a few other claims made for them.

I shot, and still shoot, moly coated bullets out of a couple of varmint rifles ( a .223 and a .22/250) and have noticed no ill effects and the rifles do seem to be easier to clean due to a reduction in jacket fouling. I have switched back and forth between moly and non-moly bullets in those rifles with no problem. Some say that using moly will ruin the bore for use with "naked" bullets, but that has not been my experience.

The verdict seems to be (and there will be others who will probably have better info than I) that moly coats the barrel bore and is difficult to remove. If that is true, I have never seen any problem with it.

Moly coating may reduce bullet friction but it won't improve barrel life because it is the hot high pressure gas from the combustion of the powder charge eroding the throat that kills barrels, and moly won't help that. Barrels are not worn out by jacketed bullets, they are worn out by throat erosion.

I guess moly coated bullets were a fad that didn't bring the benefits promised, and they were messy to handle and expensive.

The major problem with cleaning barrels is in the user not the moly. Most comlplaints come from people who don't know how to clean a barrel!:confused:

You need a water based cleaner like 409 or purple magic used for heavy duty cleaning. Just like using ammonia for removing copper from barrels. Any oil based solvent will not remove the moly. All you need is the cleaner and a nylon brush to remove it. One must remember to flush the barrel clean of any cleaning agent and oil it.

sooooo, pretty much what youre saying is if i know how to clean my barrel properly then theres no problem with them? cool. im gonna order some up then. i used some once in my .223, i think they were hornady. they shot pretty ok, but they were a different weight than what i zeroed with. that is probably to blame(and partly my fault too). but ill get some for my .300WM and see what kind of results i get. thanks.

I still use them too. They do a couple of other things than just extending the number of accuracy shots between cleanings. One is that because they reduce friction they reduce the reaction force to building pressure. As a result, the powder doesn't burn quite as easily and you wind up losing 25-50 fps of muzzle velocity. That means the barrel time changes, so if you had a sweet spot load with plain bullets and sub in the moly bullets, you may need a few tenths of a grain more powder to get the velocity back up and onto the sweet spot.

The other odd thing about them is they average slightly higher ballistic coefficients than plain bullets. It isn't much, and not enough to be game changers, but what is interesting is why that happens. Walt Berger is convinced the lubrication lets the bullet nose line up a little better in the throat, so it tends to straighten the bullet out better. Kind of what seating out near the lands does, though I don't know it happens in the same degree? In any event, a straighter bullet has a less helical nose path; less coning motion. That reduces the BC slightly. The straightness by itself can indeed affect accuracy, as those using runout gauges have found. Well-loaded and straight seated plain bullets will do just as well, but for those who aren't using competition seating dies, if Berger is correct, then they will see groups shrink in at least some instances from using the moly bullets. It just won't show up in comparison if the ammo is all properly seated and straight.

Moly coated bullets were all the rage about 10 years ago or so.

I shot, and still shoot, moly coated bullets out of a couple of varmint rifles ....

I guess moly coated bullets were a fad that didn't bring the benefits promised, and they were messy to handle and expensive.

In line with my thoughts, the cleaning aspect is important but I get accused of over cleaning when its WWE night oh well...

Think they are good, just could take them or leave them?