DIY Moly Coating Bullets

N

nightwalker uk

New member
Can anybody give me advice or point me in the right direction for moly coating my own bullets?
I have a vibratory tumbler, what else do I need. (Guess there must be topics on this subject but cannot work out how to do a search?)
Thanks in advance...
 
If you only have one tumbler you can use small bottles to do the moly coating. I have customers that are using "pill bottles" from the pharmacy. The lids stay on and they are readily available. Going about it that way all you really need is the moly powder.

The bullets and the bottle have to be perfectly clean! I wash the bullets in hot soap and water, dry them and then rinse them with pure alcohol. Bullet makers use several different substances to lubricate the bullets during swaging and the residue will disallow the moly from sticking to the bullet.

Good luck, and if you have any other questions, either post or PM me.
 
Don't mean to get off the subject here but, do you feel you need to go to this much trouble for the next too non-existent benefits of moly?
 
Steve, Have you shot quite a bit of moly bullets to come to this conclusion or did you just read somewhere that "moly is no good"?
 
I use three dedicated tumblers. One for cleaning brass and bullets, one for moly coating, and one for wax coating (after moly coating). Works for me.

To get my bullets out of the BBs I use a kitchen ladle with slots in it.

Don't over do the moly or the wax.

Godd shooting.
 
When I did moly, I used the rotary tumblers. They worked much better than anything else. After 10+ years of giving moly every chance, I quit it. It has very little benefits and some serious downside.

Jack
 
I use my old Hornady tumbler with BB's(.177cal) and maybe a teaspoon of pure moly powder (from a supplier in Texas). You need to clean the bullets and your set.
 
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It has very little benefits and some serious downside.

Jack

You mean like if you have a chrome-moly barrel and you leave it set in a damp basement in Florida over the summer without oiling it down? Or is there another horror story about moly that I have yet to hear or encounter?

I do think, if you have a chrome-moly barrel you should run a Kroil-soaked patch through it before storing it. (probably a good idea even if you are not shooting moly) But in the years that I have shot with moly and the huge volume that I have shot, I have yet to see one "down side" to moly. It's a mess and a pain in the butt to work with but if you pay attention to what you are doing it will work great for you.

Jack, has mentioned, several times, that few of the winning bench-rest shooters use moly any more. That may be true, but there are many techniques that I use with success that would not work for bench-rest shooters. Much of the shooting that I do does not afford me the luxury of being able to clean my barrel as frequently as would be necessary without moly. It's not unusual for me to have nearly 1000 rounds through a barrel before I can get somewhere to clean it. Even after that kind of volume I still enjoy groups in the .5" to .75" range. That,in an of itself, is worth using moly.

I believe that Jack has used moly and for the type of shooting he does he has chosen not to continue using it. That's great, what works for me and my type of shooting may not work for you or Jack. It does bother me a little when you have people that read somewhere, perhaps on an internet bulletin board, that "moly is no good" the turn around and post it as "gospel" without ever trying it themselves.

I have shot, more than most, for about 45 years. I think I have shot about an equal amount with moly as I have without. I would think that if there were a serious "down side" to moly, I would have encountered it by now.
 
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Worked with it extensively Mike back when it first came out. We shot it in everything. Just could not see in benefits. Cost more to use, takes more powder to run them, no difference in accuracy, pain in the butt to put on, cleaning, having to shoot the barrels back in after cleaning, wasting ammo. Ran them side by side against non moly and could not see any reason for shooting them.

Don't know much about the downside factors that I have heard about. The ones mentioned were enough for us.
 
If it reduces 1000 round fouling in your barrels, use it. It did not reduce fouling in any of my barrels shooting up to 150 rounds between cleaning. I never go more than 150 rounds without cleaning. By then I need a break anyway.

It definitely increases corrosion in uncleaned barrels, which would not be a big deal except it won't shoot from a clean barrel. If you are going to shoot 1000 rounds, 10 foulers may not be a big deal.

For shooting 1000 rounds without cleaning it may be the cat's meow. I don't shoot like that and not many do.

It may have a place in ultra-long range shooting(1000yards and beyond) as it does seem to slightly increase BC. It is only a tiny difference but appears to be real. 1000 yards and beyond is the only place I still use it and may not continue even that.

So, 1000 rounds without cleaning or 1000 yards and beyond, give it a try.

Jack
 
Jack,

When you said you had to clean your barrel after 150 rounds, did you get any copper out or was it just moly and powder-fowling?

I don't "set out" to shoot up to 1000 rounds without cleaning. Prairie dog hunting, the way we do it, is high volume shooting. The last big town I was in was 15 square miles of prairie dogs. I was there shooting from 9 in the morning till 6:30 at night. We ate in the field and didn't have the desire or the need to clean our barrels. Hunts aren't always like that but when I did clean my barrel I did it with a couple of patches, no brushes and got no copper fouling.

I have never seen the need for fouling shots. I have shot, on paper, directly after cleaning. Even the first shot is well within 300 yard minuet of prairie dog.

What strikes me as odd is that people on both sides of this issue are so positve of their reasons for using moly or not. I have a couple of close friends, family memebers and many customers that are at least equally convinced of the benefits of moly as I am. We can't even imagine why anyone, doing the type of shooting we do, wouldn't use moly. From the sounds of it, there are people that look at us and can't understand why we us it.
 
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Worked with it extensively Mike back when it first came out. We shot it in everything. Just could not see in benefits. Cost more to use, takes more powder to run them, no difference in accuracy, pain in the butt to put on, cleaning, having to shoot the barrels back in after cleaning, wasting ammo. Ran them side by side against non moly and could not see any reason for shooting them.

Don't know much about the downside factors that I have heard about. The ones mentioned were enough for us.

SteveM, I'm sorry, I had forgotten about you. I wanted to commend you on your experimentation with moly. Your findings have nullified the findings of the combined efforts of Norma and NECO. I am just in awe that the bullet and ammunition manufacturers don't agree with you. When I started using moly none of the manufactures were offering moly-coated bullets. Now, every year there is more available. Ten years ago Black Hills started offering the 52 grain HP match in moly, now Black Hills is offering many different rounds with moly-coated bullets. Berger bullets have offered their whole line in moly. Sierra and Hornaday are now offering an ever expanding selection of bullets that are moly-coated. I guess they just haven't read your posts yet.
 
I didn't say I had to clean my barrels after 150 rounds. I just don't normally shoot any more than that between cleanings. At 150 I see no loss of accuracy shooting bare bullets and see very very little or no copper fouling.

Jack
 
Mike,
I hear what you are saying but the offering you are mentioning has to do with other factors that meets the eye. First on the BH's, I have known Jeff Hoffman before he was Black Hills and was visiting with him last week at his office while on a hunt. If you notice the offerings of Moly he has are all Hornady bullets except for a couple. They are bought from the factory that way. Also, most of these are large special contract loadings as well. Bullet makers are just like firearms makers, they need a new product to sell. Std bullets far out sell moly. There is more profit in Moly sales. In addition, to the best of my knowledge, Hornady only offers moly in 3 loads. .222, .220 Swift, and 243. All are varmint weight bullets.

I don't have anything against Moly, if you feel it works by all means use it. I just feel the extra expense and extra work it takes to use it is not worth it. Again, I have never seen it offer anything more than a regular bullet (except in certain special match load configurations) that any other bullet won't do. Most of this is like everything else, personal opinion. I can't tell you how many of these new things I see that turn out to be just that, "New". I have a buddy that swears by moly but when we are hunting PD's every year side by side using the same .220 Swifts and the same loads, my accuracy is just the same and we don't clean either for 4 or 500 rds or more.

I just look at it this way, if moly was so special you would not be able to buy a bullet that was not moly. Kinda like the bible, you have some that swear by it and others that don't.

When I get a break, want to talk to you about your rifles.
 
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