Bullet Coating

[ovenpaa]

I have read a few comments on forums in the past on the subject of bullet coating and still have no idea if it is worth the hassle of the preparation, revised cleaning regime or if it even makes a reasonable difference. We Moly coat for Christel's 22C to enable full case fills without over pressuring, truth be known we could go a fair bit quicker than the 3250 fps we see but it needs to stay UK range legal over here (1000m/sec) and I am not sure what the .224 SMK80's are going to do at very high MV's. The coating process can be quite messy but the results are always perfect and very consistent so we have no reason to change. Well no reason other than I am an Engineer by profession and have a natural curiosity..........

I have read about the alternatives such as HBN and WS2 so has anyone on the forum tried them or seen them in action?

[Alpha1]

I have re loaded .308 for my steyr using moly coated bullets but to be honest the results were no different to my normal Hornady A max 155grain pills.

[dromia]

Xlox or Liquid Alox is used by cast bullet shooters as a tumble lube for coating cast bullets it works reasonably well up to velocities of around 1400 fps. I use it to good effect on a non lube grooved heeled bullet of the .310" Martini Cadet. It also works well on some of my full bore indoor 25yrd cast bullet loads.

Of course beeswax is used on a lot of .22" ammunition. I use it for paper patched bullets mainly in the 45-70 and the 577/450 Martini loads.

[The Gun Pimp]

There has been so much discussion on moly over the years that I thought there was nothing left to be said.

I use moly bullets myself in some rifles where it can be useful to reduce pressure a little whilst maintaining a full(er) case of powder.

For example, in cartridges like the 6.5-284, which has a case-capacity of about 60 grains but only uses 52-53 gn with a 'clean' 140 gn bullet, moly-coating the bullet will permit another two or three grains to be added without increasing pressure.
(WARNING - please don't just bang in another couple of grains - work up slowly - every rifle is different!)

What else we can say about moly:

It will reduce pressure a little - and thus it will also reduce velocity.
It does not increase barrel-life in my rifles - though I have heard others claim it does in theirs.
It will not increase accuracy - though a rifle using moly bullets may stay 'accurate' for a larger round-count without cleaning.
It will not prevent copper build-up in a barrel.
Some say you don't need to clean as often with moly but serious competition shooters will clean regularly anyway.
100/200 yd benchrest shooters (arguably the most accurate discipline) don't use moly bullets.

Anything else?
Vince

[Sim G]

100/200 yd benchrest shooters (arguably the most accurate discipline) don't use moly bullets.

I reckon Vince said it all with that one line........

[woody_rod]

Yes, agreed if the BR guys don't use it, there is a reason for it. I have never seen any purpose of using coatings. Nobody that has won the queens here uses moly or other coating. It is all just talk, more work and time, and more crap to get out of your barrel, why bother?

[ovenpaa]

I am inclined to agree and apart from reducing pressure so allowing fuller cases it seems to serve little purpose, for me the other problem is cleaning, people have commented in the past that after a barrel is thoroughly cleaned it takes maybe 40-50 shots to 'foul' the barrel with Moly again and get it shooting true, so at what stage do they clean the barrel? For me the most I will ever shoot in a day before cleaning is around 80 shots and I would ideally have given the barrel a push through a couple of times in this period.

Cleaning - now there is a thought

[Christel]

I was told when handed my 22C that I had to. So surely there must be a reason for doing it. To reduce the pressure. Which I find to be a very good reason?

[woody_rod]

I was told when handed my 22C that I had to. So surely there must be a reason for doing it. To reduce the pressure. Which I find to be a very good reason?

Hey Christel, has this been tested and evidence shown that this does in fact reduce pressure? I would question anything that does not come with hard evidence.

I know I go on about this a lot, but it is wise to question anything without evidence to back it up. I would propose that using uncoated bullets in your rifle would make no difference to the performance, pressure or accuracy.

Someone telling you that it reduces pressure is not evidence.

[The Gun Pimp]

Woody,

I've certainly proved to my own satisfaction that moly coated bullets reduce velocity - which is another way of saying 'reduce pressure'.

It's easy enough to test this with a chrono.

Cheers
Vince