Moly Coated Bullets

Main purpose of Moly coated bullets? Less drag=more velocity, better accuracy, extract more cash from the reloader?
Got bored yesterday and decided to load some more ammo for my 25-45 Sharps. I had loaded a bunch of 70 gr. Sierra Blitzkings developing a load when I first built the rifle. Sometime after that, I ran across a really good deal on a box of 500 70 gr. Blitzkings but they were Moly coated. I loaded them to the same specs as the original non Moly coated and as soon as weather permits I will shoot them across my chrony and see if the velocity is the same. What experience and/or conclusions have you guys had with Moly coated bullets? No big deal one way or the other. The only difference I have seen so far is my fingers wind up Moly coated after the reloading session.

Suposedly they foul the barrel quicker or so I have heard. I haven't shot any and likely never will.

If its the same bullet may try throwing them in a tumbler to clean them off.

Moly does 3 things.

1- It coats the bullet to give it less friction in the barrel to gain some speed in comparison to a naked bullet.
2- It coats the inside of the barrel to reduce fouling for prolonged shooting between cleanings.
3- Because a "slippery" substance has been added to the bullets and barrel, ammunition becomes less consistent from round to round and your extreme spreads (ES) will increase greatly. ES is the difference between your highest and lowest velocity. This becomes very important if you are shooting longer ranges (600+) since you will begin seeing vertical stringing at longer ranges simply due to the higher ES numbers.

Moly is kind of a fad. Many comp shooters went to the moly or Boron Nitride coated bullets in the 6mm (.243") rounds. I saw many shooters chasing their tail with high and low shots at 1000 yards with them. Most did away with it.

If you are a Rick Bobby shooter ("I wanna go fast!"), then it's for you. IMO, the big negatives out weigh the positives of moly.

Thanks, Chad, I figured you would have a good grip on these. I understand ES, I have been handloading for over 40 years and figured that could be a factor with these bullets. I did notice I was having a hard time getting a consistent COAL with these bullets compared to the same non moly bullets. It seems the neck tension as set with the non moly bullets was barely enough to hold the moly bullets at set seating depth against a full powder charge. The load I am using is 28.8 grains of H-335 and I use a drop tube and tap the cases to get a uniform COAL with the non moly bullets but it was much harder to maintain it with the molys. I loaded 50 rounds of these to give the barrel time to foul to the coating and am going to compare velocity with my original load. I would not have bought these but as I was looking for a bulk pack of the Blitzkings, I ran across these for about $20 below the 500 rd box of the non molys so I grabbed them. As much of a task as it was to load these like I wanted, I may try redchevy's suggestion and tumble them. Thanks for the replies guys.

If moly can be tumbled off, what keeps it from coming off or being inconsistent when seating? I imagine the neck would scrape it off, partially at least.

Good question, I don't know. I am tumbling some now to see how it works out. Checking online, tumbling is the most common answer to removing moly from bullets. I have no idea if it will work or not. If it does, fine. If not, I guess I'll shoot 500 moly coated bullets.

Yes, tumbling with the right media will get it off. But the media will be done and useless afterwards with the moly on the media. That's how moly is applied, by tumbling the bullets in moly beads.

Ok, so if you are running 28.8 grains of powder with a naked bullet and it's a compressed load, the compression of the powder will easily push these bullets further out after they sit for a while. So measure them 24 hours afterwards and see if they are "growing". If they are growing, then that powder and bullet combo wouldn't be ideal, IMO. I would switch to a faster burning powder.

Also, Say your load is 28.8 with a naked bullet and that is a max or near powder charge. With the moly bullets, you will be able to increase your powder charge easily beyond the 28.8 grains. I don't use moly, so I can't tell you precisely, but you should get another grain or two over the max of a naked bullet. This is where you can get the increased speeds from.

If you are going to "play" with the moly bullets, commit to them for the 500 rounds and give them some time to work into your barrel.

These type of bullets are similar to the Combined Tech black coated bullets and such. It's a coating on the bullet that will wear into the inside of your barrel. It's great if you 100% commit to it, but doing it half way with only a few rounds will not result in good accuracy/consistency early on. And will then impact the naked bullets when you switch back to them after your barrel is coated up with moly inside. Getting it all out is a PITA and requires the deepest of deep cleans to get it out. Moly works for what it is intended for. It certainly does increase your speeds by at least 100 fps. But there is a big cost for that extra 100 fps, and it's certainly not worth the hassle for me to mess with it. (I clean a rifle when switching powders so I can start on a clean barrel and shoot only one set up).

After posting this yesterday and seeing the replies, I bailed. I did a lot of searching about moly bullets and found a bunch of posts about trouble cleaning a barrel after shooting moly bullets. Also, the seating issue concerned me. I put about half of them in the tumbler with walnut media for a few hours and they cleaned up pretty well. I will pull down the 50 rds I have loaded and tumble the rest of the box. After that, I will change the media and tumble them all again. I think that will pretty well strip the moly off to the point it does not become a barrel fouling problem. I could switch to a faster burning powder but I have a lot of H-335 and it works well with the non coated bullets so I will stick with the load and not pick up any more "deals" on moly coated bullets. The COAL I am loading to is what the load data from SRC calls for which is 2.245". I can easily load out to mag length with no ill effects. Also Chad, I am going to measure the COAL again before I pull the loaded rounds just to see what they did. Thanks to all for the replies.

My personal experience with Moly.
First let me say i'm not a competition shooter, but i do enjoy shooting bug holes and varmints.
I worked up prairie dog loads for 4 rifles about 10 years ago using moly bullets.
223, 22-250, 220 Swift, and 204 Ruger.
My results:
1. Moly did increase my velocity without increasing pressure (was able to load to max ranges with no pressure signs)
2. Once the barrel was fouled, 10 rounds or so, the accuracy was very good (.15-.35 MOA), and stayed very good for 200+ rounds
3. Barrel cleaning was very time consuming after pushing moly for over 200 rounds (JB Paste,etc)

I no longer shoot moly bullets, but not because i din't see a benefit, it's just harder to find them now.

I have just now started to switch these rifles over to naked bullets so someday i will be able to compare them.

I pulled the 50 rds I had loaded and tumbled all the bullets for about 3 hours or so in walnut media then finished them off with a 2 hour soak in hot water with dish soap and a little Lemishine. They cleaned up well. After my last post above, I did remeasure the COAL and there was no "growth" that Chad mentioned. I just decided it was not worth the extra effort and to limit a barrel to nothing but moly bullets in the future so, lesson learned. Besides that, tearing down all the ones I loaded and resizing for neck tension gave me something to do to take a break from book work for end of year reports for taxes. Yuck!

Washing them in hot soapy water first will remove most of it before tumbling. Most have a layer of carnauba wax that the hot soapy water will cut.. Sure keeps the media cleaner longer.