IA_shooter,

Right now my savage wears a Lothar Walther .243 barrel, 28", 1-8 twist. So far it shoots everything I have tried in it excellent to very good. My most accurate load is with the 107 grain SMK's. For powder I have tried H4350, Varget, Reloader 22, and H4831sc. H4831sc has been the most accurate for my barrel. Reloader 22 did well, but just slightly less accurate than the H4831sc. I don’t have the info or target around but I don’t remember being impressed with H4350. IMR may be more accurate than the “H” but the slow 4831 and R22 seem to go very well with this bullet in my 243.

As for moly; I have used it way back when everyone first started coating their bullets. Some benchrest friends of mine used it and turned me on to it. Like most of them I do not moly any more. Not that there was a problem for me, just that it is one more step to do. Personally if I found a good deal on moly coated bullets over naked bullets I would take it.

You will notice lower pressures and increased velocity for a given load with moly. But realize that any load you work up with coated bullets will not shoot the same with the naked bullet, you will have to work up another load. As far as increasing barrel life, I don't think it will do that. The life of your barrel comes from throat erosion and moly can’t prevent that. It will however, allow you to fire more shots before the fouling starts to degrade accuracy. This is why the benchrest guys were using it.

Moly will also build up in your bore over time. A hundred rounds or so, not so much, but several hundred and it will. Once this happens you may find that accuracy suffers and you will have to strip the moly out of the barrel. You will have to manually do this and it is a bear to get out. (The reason a lot of benchrest shooters stopped using moly.) Once the bore is stripped of moly, it will take about 15-20rounds to settle down and start shooting again.

This is just my observations. You might want to check out some benchrest forums for more moly information from some guys that probably have used a lot of it. Hope this helps some.