223 and Moly bullets

[Buckfever]

Gentleman, I am very new and about to get it to re-loading so I will probably have some dumb questions.  Here goes.  A friend told me that you can reload Moly covered bullets for a 223 and they dramatically reduce friction and barrel heat.  Is this true and if so will it cause any problems for the gun barrel or something else?

I thought the cure for too much heat was to bring 2 guns for the range or prairie dogs.  Any thoughts?  

Buckfever

[KN]

Molly will probably give you a little more velocity than a normal bullet. But it comes with some problems of its own. You have to condition the bore before shooting them, Its nearly imposable to clean it all out after shooting them, You need to watch out for build-up of molly in the chamber throat.etc. After all that it doesn't seem to me to be worth the effort and expense. I can clean my barrel an extra time easier than doing all that. I have also never read of any test that concluded that molly was any more accurate than std bullets. To me its just not worth it.  KN

[Wlscott]

Molly will decrease friction in your bore, thereby reducing pressure.  You can USUALLY then increase your powder charge safely, and increase velocity as a result.

Now, once your bore is "seasoned" with moly, you will see a decrease in the amount of copper fouling in your bore.  This will not increase your accuracy any, BUT it will increase the number of shots that you can take, while maintaining your accuracy.  You won't have to clean as much in order to maintain decent accuracy.

The down side is that moly is EXTREEMLY tough to clean out of your bore.  You can't switch back and forth between moly coated bullets and non coated bullets.  If you go to non coated bullets you need to get all of the moly out, or you'll have moly trapped under copper.  This will seriously degrade your accuracy.  Some are even claiming that moly will attract moisture, and cause corrosion in your bore.

I tried the moly coated bullets in my H&R Ultra in .223.  I eventually cleaned the bore up really good, and went back to uncoated bullets.  Didn't really see that much of an advantage to moly bullets.  

Hope this helps.

[JoeBru]

It all depends on how much you shoot, if you most weeks barrel  cleaning  can be a pain. I've been using moly coated ballistic tips for several years in my L461 Sako with good results.
I run a couple of patches soaked in Hoppes #9 through the bore when I get home and put the gun away, the Hoppes removes the residues and protects the barrel from corrosion.
I give the barrel a serious clean perhaps every 200 rounds.

[Catfish]

Forget Molly!!!!!! I ruined a .17 cal. barrel with Molly. I spent over 24 hrs. of scrubbing on that barrel and could not get my accuracy back. I did save the barrel by fire lapping it but I will never shoot a Molly coated bullet in any of my guns again. It is far harded to clean from a barrel than copper and why pay money for something that will not better your accuracy, and make you spend more for powder. Sweets 7.62 will remove copper from your barrel in a matter of min. and unless you have a very bad fooling gun you`ll only need it every few 100 rounds.

[Buckfever]

Thanks for the information.  I am not a fan of coatings in my gun barrel just needed some confirmation.   Thanks  Buckfever