Moly Coated Bullets - Good, bad, ugly?

[TLARbb]

I have never used any ammo or bullets that are moly coated in any of my rifles.  What are the upsides and the downsides of shooting these bullets?  If you use moly-coated, I would think you would have to start with a pristine bore to realize any gain. 

What about using moly and non-coated in the same rifle (different loads) as I tend to have more than one load or even more than two for my rifles?

I see a lot of the new, high-priced, high-tech bullets and ammo is moly coated.

EJ

[84Jim]

I know a lot of people who use them in AR's for NRA highpower shooting, and swear by them.  I once bought a 1000 69 MK's, and exclusevely shot them until they ran out.  Didn't really see any advantage.  People who use them say they don't have to clean as often, and it eliminates copper fouling.

Shooting Times ran a test years ago where a guy purchased 2 new match barrels in 22-250.  Got 1000 each of coated and uncoated bullets and shot them through each barrel without cleaning for the entire 1000.  100 10 shot groups were measured (from a machine rest) for each barrel/batch of bullets.  He bore scoped each barrel after he was done.

If I recall:

1)  Moly coated bullets had lower velocities.

2)  Group sizes didn't vary much between either bullet, even after 1000 uncleaned rounds.

3)  Groups did get slightly bigger once the bores got dirty, but not by much.

4)  The throat erosion was less for the Moly coated barrel.

5)  There was still some copper fouling in the Moly barrel

[84Jim]

What about using moly and non-coated in the same rifle (different loads) as I tend to have more than one load or even more than two for my rifles?

Mixing non-coated bullets would defeat the purpose by removing the coating from the barrel.  The people that I know who shoot them only use coated bullets.  Cleaning is an issue also because you need something that will remove the moly.

[stimpylu32]

I made the mistake of shooting moly bullets and then had one hell of a time getting it out of the barrel so I could go back to standard jacketed bullets , I will NEVER do that again !

I do have friends that shoot nothing but moly bullets and just love them , myself I don;t see any real advantage to them other than they cost more . 

stimpy

[Catfish]

Like Stimpy said, you have 1 heck of a time getting it out of your barrel. I tried them in a .17 Rem. and eventually lost all accuracy due to Molly build up. I put over 24 hrs., not all at once, in scrubbing the barrel with several different soulvents and brushes. I used alot of JB bore past and could not get it to shoot. I findly salvaged the barrel by fire lapping it. I will not ever fire a Molly bullet in any of my guns. At least with copper a little Sweets 7.62 will remove the copper.

[TLARbb]

Well, those last two posts got my attention.  I guess that is kind of what I was concerned about.  For those of you out there that use coated bullets, what do you clean with?  My inclination is to stay away from them and just use conventional uncoated bullets.  I do have some Winchester moly-coated hollow point bullets for my .204, but haven't shot any of them.  Probably won't now unless someone can tell me how to clean this stuff out of my bore short of firelapping.

EJ