To moly or not to moly?

[Uncle Jack]

About ten years ago I was into molying everything and never noticed any problems. After a five year hiatus living in Mexico and a couple years of physical problems that kept me away from the range, I'm back at it hard and fast. I now read of problems with moly fouling and "Rings" and corrosion, etc.

I guess my questions are:

Is the fouling caused by the moly or the carnuba wax used by some?
If you clean your rifle at the end of a shooting session, is the corrosion still a concern?
What problems have you encountered using moly?

uj

[dcloco]

NO on moly.

Best would be HBN (hexagonal boron nitride). I have NOT used this yet, but when I run out of Danzac/WS2, this will be what I am going to use.

Next best - Danzac/WS2. Does NOT build up in the bore, leave the infamous ring in the barrel, etc, etc. How good is it? We have over 1000 rounds through a 32" Rock Creek barrel chambered in 338 RUM, that sends 300 gr SMK's at a touch under 3000 fps. Barrel has been ran hard when needed - has NOT been babied at all. Bore scoped the barrel and it still looks like it is ready for another 1000 rounds.

My 223 AI easily goes 400 rounds without cleaning or loss of accuracy.

[5spd]

Moly is all Ive used in my varmint rigs for the last 20 yrs.
I have never had any moly "issues" that so may naysayers bring up about it. Most of them have not used moly for any period of time as I have. Messy to moly coat bullets, it can be if you are messy in the 1st place.
I clean them completly when done, right back to the basic bore.
I had a documneted 35k + rounds through one of my .223s with nothing but moly coated bullets.
Its still in use today with the new owner, bore is perfect.
I have run 800-1200 rounds through both my .223s p-dogging with out a cleaning.
My new .223 has close to 4k moly rounds through it already and its just 6 months old.

There are other updated coatings as stated above that are more popular and your fingers dont get black!.

[Warthog]

Just my 2 cents

I don't use moly bullets because I've read about build up of moly where the bullet first encounters the rifling. I do use moly to coat my barrel using Sentry Solutions moly after I clean the barrel. I do not have any experience with moly bullets, so I can't comment on them.

[Uncle Jack]

".....I do not have any experience with moly bullets, so I can't comment on them."

??

What is the purpose of your post?

uj

[Warthog]

".....I do not have any experience with moly bullets, so I can't comment on them."

??

What is the purpose of your post?

uj

I can't comment of the bullets, but the barrel coating does seem to help. If you want moly between the bullet and the barrel, then coating the barrel is one way to do it. Moly bullets may be as well, but I have only read about the moly build-up. There are so many ideas going around about what is good or bad, so I didn't want to comment about the bullets and add to the confusion. I do like coating my barrel, which i think will add to the life and makes it easy to clean (reduce fouling).

http://www.snipercountry.com/Article...BreakIn_II.asp

[82boy]

I shoot moly, (Mostly custom barrels) and love it. I have found that factory Savage barrels respond well to it. I do not wax my bullet just use moly. I found with my method it don't come off on your fingers, or tarnish over time. I can not say I have ever seen a ring or corrosion in all the guns I have shot moly in.

I have found that all the myths about moly are untrue. I been flamed about this in the past. I do not remove the moly from my barrels I clean them when they start shooting bad. I made a mistake at the IBS 600 nats and cleaned the moly out of my barrel after 200 rounds.(I though dang it that is a lot of rounds it needs cleaned.) I had to shoot many rounds down the tube at the steel plate, and dang it I just did not get the barrel as seasoned as it should have been and I had a bad match.

I have had people point out a page by varmint AL about his problems with moly. I have two problems with his findings, one his test was not scientific. He never had a control in his test and he only tested one barrel stub, not a variety. Too add to this to be scientific it needs to be repeatable, he never retried his test. I mimicked his test and could not replicate his results. Second just because something is on the internet or someone say it, I am not quick to believe what I read.

I have heard a tale of a shooting team that moved around the country where they encountered different humidity's, and found that the moly in their barrels caused corrosion. I have never been able to confirm the story. I know I have shoot in hot sun, cold, rain and everything else in between and I have never seen damage to any of my barrels. The other Myth is that because Berger bullets stopped moly coating their bullets it must because of damage claims. well I talked to them at Berger, and they told me the reason why they stopped coating bullets was more so do to it being so easy for the consumer to do it, and that they felt why bother. I can imagine that EPA constraints also played a part in this as well. Sierra's moly coated bullets are actually coated by D Tubbs because of EPA concerns.

I have also shot HBN and Danzac and cant say I saw anything that would make me want to change from moly. For me HBN and Danzac it a ton harder to score than moly. I just don't see the point behind the stuff. There is still a lot of company's that sell moly coated bullets. (Hornady, Sierra, Nosler, ETC) I can only think of one company that sells there bullets with a different coating. (D Tubbs sells his bullets with a HBN coating, and yes according to David it is compatible with moly.) I think if any of the myths about moly was true the bullet makers would have stopped selling bullets coated in it years ago. Fact is they still sell bullets, and I am willing to bet between them all there has been a few hundred thousand moly coated bullets sold, and you don't read of hundred of ruined guns because of moly. I am willing to bet there has been a few hundred thousand guns that have fired moly down the barrels, if any of the moly myth's was true I am willling to bet you would read of hundreds of cases, not just one or two. The myths about moly is a small example, many of them are "I knew a guy," or "a friend of a friend of mine" stories. On the internet, I can not say I have ever read a thread that said moly ruined my barrel here is the prof.

All I can say is I shot moly, I love it, never had a problem with it, and don't anticipative ever having a problem with it, I will use it for a long time.

[Warthog]

Thank you 82Boy
I was sure someone would present the other side. Are the moly bullets messy to deal with?

[stevec]

I have shot moly,Ws2 and Hbn and it all worked well with no side effects on my barrels. I do not believe in the ghost stories and fairy tails about moly or the others. If it was going to damage a barrel, the thousands of rounds down my barrels should show proof, but they dont. In my fclass rig I will continue to coat bullets simply because I dont get to clean during the match. I dont use coated bullets in benchrest because I do get to clean during the match.

Steve

[82boy]

Thank you 82Boy
I was sure someone would present the other side. Are the moly bullets messy to deal with?

Well to coat them a slight bit, you will get your hands dirty but it easily washes off with soap and water. Once the bullets are coated, and you load them, or handle them as you shoot, only a slight discoloration of your fingers at best.