OT - Any experience with moly-coated bullets?

[airedaleman]

I doubt if there are too many moly-coated.30-30 ar .45-70 bullets in use out there, but I know you folks do have a few high velocity rifles, so here's my situation: I just picked up a Savage Model 340 (well, it's actually a Revelation Model 225 with no serial number - pre '68 gun) in .222 Remington. The rifle is in near-new condition. Ammunition is a little scarce in this neck of the woods (and expensive), but I did find two boxes of Hornady cartridges loaded with their 50 grain V-MAX Moly bullet. (I didn't read the label until I got home.) I never gave much credence to the advantages of moly-coated coated bullets, and never used any or really followed what was being written about them, EXCEPT that there was a problem with the moly fouling barrels. QUESTION: I've got 40 rounds of this stuff (not going to buy any more), which is going to be used to sight the rifle in. Will my normal cleaning procedures (thorough, but not anal) suffice for those 40 rounds?

[Warhawk]

I experimented with moly coated bullets some years ago when I was shooting in a rifle league. Calibers used were .223 and .243 Win.

You will want to clean your bore thoroughly before shooting the moly bullets.

It will take several shots to get the bore "seasoned" with moly and get the groups to settle down, but zero won't change much, if at all.

The big advantage of moly is that you can shoot many more rounds before you need to clean the bore, often as many as 100 rounds before accuracy starts to fall off.

When it's time to clean a bore that's shot moly, the best solvent is Kano Kroil. And I would recommend cleaning it before shooting uncoated jacketed bullets.

I don't know anything about that model of Savage, but would it be possible to rub a 223 reamer through it and resolve this hard to find ammo issue?

[PaulB]

I went into moly-plating my own bullets with a tumbler, back during the moly rage.

Warhawk has the right idea on cleaning.

I would use or at least consider moly in these circumstances: very long range shooting (moly actually improves BC on a bullet due to it not being torn up as much by rifling,and reduces bore erosion with the big bangers); any competition where a lot of shots are made between cleanings; whacking prairie dogs (again, for less bore erosion and less cleaning). Anything else, I've come to the conclusion that moly is not worth it.

[JB]

I played around with them for a bit in a 22-250 and 223, but really didn't find them to be worth the time or money.

[airedaleman]

Thanks for all the responses, guys.

The 40 cartridges I have will be the first and last moly-treated bullets the Revelation sees. Dies are on order, and I have a slew of "normal" .224" bullets on hand. Next thing is to take it out and see if what I bought can shoot!

By the way, the Model 340 was chambered for the .223 late in its production run. I prefer the .222 in any event. The 340 was also chambered for the .225 Winchester; I bought one new about 20 years ago, and shoot a fair number of woodchucks with it. I must admit that I never really felt comfortable with that rifle/cartridge combination and sold it after a couple of seasons. Most of the rounds I put through it were conservative handloads; the .225 in factory form got some bad press back then regarding erratic pressure spikes...