Kinda OT; Are moly bullets REALLY worth the extra $?

[abcollector]

I'm not too familiar with moly bullets... I've never shot any so have no personal experience with them. Are they worth the extra effort and cost as opposed to a standard plain jacket bullet? Thanks for your replies.

[Chuck 100 yd]

abcollector
First I should say I have not fired any of them either but have read extensivly about shooting jacketed moly coated bullets on BR Central.
http://www.benchrest.com/
Do a search there and you will find pages of info.
About ten years ago Moly coated bullets were the rage with Benchrest shooters. This lasted about two years. You will not hear or read of a competitor who uses them today. BR shooters push their guns to the max. . 60-65 K chamber pressures are not unheard of and are more the norm with these guys. If you try it and dont like it, I hear it is a real bear to get cleaned out of your bore. More than one barrel has been replaced due to the stuff coating the bore and when regular bullets are used the shooter was unable to get back to the accuracy that the rifle gave before.
After reading many accounts like this I never even gave it a try!

[J Miller]

Short answer .... no.

Longer answer ..... Not the ones I've tried. I have not tried any jacketed rifle bullets that have been moly coated. So... I'm not talking about them.

However I have tried the hard cast moly coated bullets as sold by Bull-X and others.
They lead the barrels just like unlubed cast bullets. After trying them and seeing the inside of my barrel I pulled them down and ran them through my Lube-A-Matic. After that they performed like regular hard cast bullets.

I won't waste my money on any of them again.

Joe

[Jaguarundi]

Another problem with Molycoated "copper" jacketed bullets is the coating is hydrophillic-ie attracts water.A bore so coated attracts the onset of RUST!

[Hobie]

Not for my retro-rifles.

[brucew44guns]

You might be able ( on-line) to fiund an article by Bryce Towsely, he covered Moly bullets in that article thoroughly. Seems I recall that he liked them and shot them a lot. Article was back about 2 or 3 years now, seems like it was in American Rifleman.

[PaulB]

I believe moly bullets still have a following, especially in sports with a lot of bullets downrange between cleanings such as High Power competition. I think they may also get some use from long-range shooters who use large cases and long bullets because they have better BC's than naked bullets (last I read anyway) and you can use more or slower powder in the case. Also, guys who shoot a lot of overbore rounds probably like moly because it extends the life of the barrel.

I tried them for a while, even plated some myself. I don't think that was worth the effort - anyway I no longer shoot them. I don't believe all the good and/or bad stories about them. I would never replace a barrel because I had shot moly in it; that's pretty crazy. Maybe a benchrester would go to that extent, but most of us don't even see tenths of an inch variation in our groups, never mind thousandths.

Another problem with Molycoated "copper" jacketed bullets is the coating is hydrophillic...

I think all powder residue is hydrophillic.

If I were to try moly again, I'd just do it in one rifle and only shoot moly in it. Switching back and forth between moly and naked is no good because it takes so long for your zero to settle down.

[rost495]

I shot tons in competition, AR15, 223. All jacketed.

Here is what Moly does. I still shoot it if I shoot competition and will shoot moly in most hunting guns.

It generally doesn't make a load more accurate. It doesn't lengthen barrel life by much if any.

It does extend cleaning intervals(one reason I use it as I HATE to clean) to around 500+ rounds in 223 and then its still running my typical .5/.6 moa groups at 200 and .5 or less at 600.
It combined with specific powders nets more speed at the same pressure level. Another reason I shoot it. 1 inch of wind drift isn't anything on game, but its the difference between win and loss at a match.

As to it attracting water, lets just say I load moly X bullets for a guide friend in AK. They keep tape on the barrel at all times, and it rains incessantly in seasons at times. He came back once with the safety rusted in the fire position(carries mag loaded, chamber dry, on fire for big bear backup) Anyway if it attracts water worse than anything else, we sure can't tell it at all. We in competition heard all those rumors but never could see that it did attract more water than normal at all.

For me on typical hunting guns I'll run moly if I want more speed.

BTW the difference for settling between moly and non in the same tube, you go through the correct cleaning process and then its 10 rounds or less. Not the 80 something mentioned at times. I've gone back and forth enough times to know that, and its not abnormal from simply changing powders or bullet jacket material, very much the same. Takes some shots but not that many to settle it in.

Jeff

[PaulB]

I got Precision Shooting magazine during the time moly became popular (still do). They looked into many claims pretty thoroughly. On the barrel life claim, there was a report from (I think) Norma that looked pretty authoritative, that showed substantial improvement. I believe they were using the 6.5x57 in those tests.

[Old Savage]

I tried the blue ones that Barnes sold with a series of loads in a 7-08 Model 7. Finicky to load level and didn't really achieve qanything the regular jacketed bullets didn't.

[rost495]

What barnes sold as blue was NOT moly. Thats not a fair assement plus it was prior to the tsx solving many of the finicky issues.

As to barrel life, I read all the norma stuff and yep it was all there, but all I can say is that barrel life remained the same to within appx 500 rounds or so with or without moly with hot loads in 223 barrels, of which after I switched to moly I probably went through close to 20 tubes.

Jeff