Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters V-Max Moly coated bullets

A friend just gave me a few boxes of Hornady factory ammo loaded with V-Max bullets. (.22-250, .223, .222 )
I've never shot any Moly coated bullets before because I was under the impression they could/would foul the barrel with the moly which is hard to remove.
Anyone care to tell their experiences with these?
Sure don't want any fouling problems but hate to see them go to waste.
rookie

I'm really not sure if moly coated bullets can cause fouling. Used to use them a lot back in the last century. Never had any fouling that was visible after routine cleaning. Still shoot some ammo with mc bullets that was originally loaded back then. Used to coat them with dry powder in a tumbler. Don't bother now.

Here is a discussion from Brownells about when to clean:

https://www.brownells.com/aspx/learn/learndetail.aspx?lid=10694

UncleAlps,

What do mean by "visible,"? To the naked eye, or using a bore-scope?

I have shot up several boxes of moly coated bullets and have not noticed any problem when switching back to non coated.

It was just cleaned like usual.

The Brownells article makes me think they are more trouble than they are worth.
rookie

Mule Deer....what say you? Shoot them or pull 'em and toss them in the trash?
rookie

I shoot moly plated bullets in every centerfire rifle I own, including my 600/1000 yard Benchrest rifles.

Don't be so scared, shoot 'em up and clean as usual......

Firearms industry is littered with fads.....IMO moly among them. As others have said, shoot em and clean as usual.

Part of the "fad" of moly, was the guys trying to shortcut the patented process set forth by Neco, which is impact plating the moly into the bullet's jacket, and not the various "coatings" that came about afterwards, such as Ms Moly in a can among others.

There were some dubious claims in the past attributed to moly, but in the end, I shoot them because I can shoot longer between cleanings without losing accuracy.

My last barrel I retired from competition had 2650 rounds down it, and had never seen a brass brush it's whole life......

This is where I am on Moly as well. I don't use it to push speed either - just keep the cleaning to a dull roar.

The head ballistic-lab guy at Sierra for quite a while was Kevin Thomas--and he was there during the peak of moly popularity. He ran extensive tests with the NECO plating and found that it tended to build up in the bore for about 50 rounds, and accuracy started to suffer a little due to slightly varying pressures. at which point most of the build-up got blown out, and the barrel shot better again.

This was my experience with NECO-coated bullets for prairie dog shooting, and while not a big deal I eventually moved away from moly when Dyna Bore Coat appeared, which pretty much eliminated the need to clean most barrels, at least for the duration of a 2-3 day prairie dog shoot. Things got even better when newer, cleaner-burning powders with decoppering agents appeared. All of which are why I haven't used molyed bullets in a long time.

I bought quite a few moly coated bullets at gun shows when the enthusiasm started to fade, washed most of the moly off with brake cleaner and happily shot them. I never tried to get them back to bright copper, they just had a dull gray surface tint, no problems...but I wasn't in bench rest competition either. Hunting, rock busting, steel clanging.

If you could hose the moly off with brake clean, I'll guarantee you that they were not moly plated, coated at best.....

Despite the stories & naysayers, I still stand by my opinion to the OP to just shoot the damn things & clean as normal.

flintlocke,

I've done that with some moly-coated bullets, notably the Winchester/Combined Technology Fail Safe, introduced around 1990. It worked exactly like the Barnes X on game--but that the time was more consistently accurate than Xs. Took a bunch of big game with FS bullets in the 90s.

When they were first introduced, if I recall correctly, the coating was Winchester's Lubalox, the one they still use on some other bullets, which isn't moly. But the bullets copper fouled pretty badly, especially at higher velocities, and Winchester ended up using moly plating. This worked fine, but caused problems when shooting other big game bullets through the same bore. I was headed to Africa in 2003 and planned to use the 300-grain .375 Fail Safe on Cape buffalo--but also wanted to use the Speer tungsten-cored solid (it was discontinued a while back, and can't remember the name--might have been Grand Slam Solid) and Nosler Partitions for plains game, both 300-grains as well. But the only way they'd all shoot to the same place was removing the moly from the Fail Safes, so I did, using a Bore-Tech product called Moly-Magic, designed for knocking back moly build-up. Don't know what it consisted of, but after an overnight soaking it took most of the moly-plating off, and all three bullets behaved well.

Shoot a few and then check to see how you are sighted in. The Moly bullets may have a different point of impact. The only major issue I have heard of is if you allow a carbon/moly ring to build up in front of the chamber. I have no idea how many shots this would take but I bet a bunch of shots like several hundred. More shots than most people shoot before cleaning.

If this happens the Molly Magic is worthwhile as other wise it will take multiple rounds of cleaning to remove unless you use JB or another abrasive.

"The only major issue I have heard of is if you allow a carbon/moly ring to build up in front of the chamber."

Which is exactly what Kevin Thomas observed in his tests at Sierra,

I played with Moly coating the old Barnes XBullet in an attempt to get them to shoot better. Lyman make a Molycoating kit for my vibrating case cleaner. The Moly was impacted into the bullets with steel beads (IIRC). Accuracy was improved enough I thought it was adequate and worthwhile. Fouling was no noticeable, but who had bore scopes?

The Hornady Moly coated Vmax shoots OK. But you don't need the Moly on the VMax

Mule Deer: By visible I meant to my eye using a bore light. We didn't have affordable bore scopes back then but you could see that copper and carbon fouling pretty well with a good light (and younger eyes). That was good for a few inches on either end of the barrel. I will say when I switched to Kroil there wasn't much left to clean after a few patches. Don't even worry about fouling anymore. JB's is great too but rarely necessary. Those two products made more difference than moly coating ever did.

I have heard it said that any moisture that is present in a barrel with traces of moly in it will result in some sulfuric acid being formed. Probably not too good if that is true.

Appreciate all the information...thanks!
I'll go ahead and shoot them and clean as usual.
rookie