I'm new to reloading and I have heard lots of positive comments regarding moly coating. Can anybody point me in the direction of some good instructions on how to Moly Coat my rounds? Or has personal experience that I could benefit from? Thanks a lot! I hope I'm not coming off too dumb for asking this....
Newbie Question - How to Moly Coat
- Thread starter Recce21
- Start date
Place the bullets in a brass tumbler with lead shot,and some moly powder,and they will soon have a fairly uniform moly coating.If you are referring to loaded rounds,there is no way to properly coat the bullet shanks,so you really won't accomplish anything worthwhile.
As for my own experiences with moly coated bullets,they were not at all positive,so I no longer use moly.
As for my own experiences with moly coated bullets,they were not at all positive,so I no longer use moly.
Armourd school eh ? Ill tell ya but youll half to stand at attention 
I was looking in2 it b4 as well and it appeared mostly only guys that cast there own lead bullets were taking advantage of it. but i would like to see some testing done.
I was looking in2 it b4 as well and it appeared mostly only guys that cast there own lead bullets were taking advantage of it. but i would like to see some testing done.
One of our local shooters moly's his own (and a few other peoples) bullets. Cheaper than buying the moly'd version.
I know he uses 2 or 3 different tumbler bowls to accomplish this.
I believe the first has ceramic (or steel) media in it with the moly.
The second is used to clean the residual moly from the bullets once separated from the moly & media.
The third is to polish the moly'd bullets.
Lyman has a kit you can buy with the media, an extra bowl and the moly powder.
I know he uses 2 or 3 different tumbler bowls to accomplish this.
I believe the first has ceramic (or steel) media in it with the moly.
The second is used to clean the residual moly from the bullets once separated from the moly & media.
The third is to polish the moly'd bullets.
Lyman has a kit you can buy with the media, an extra bowl and the moly powder.
I have moly coated around 2500 bullets to-date. Essentially all of the bullets that I have shot since January. The only exception is 9mm (due to volume). I researched inexpensive methods to perform moly coating, but ended up buying the $70 Lyman kit.
The Lyman kit includes two extra bowls, ceramic plating media, walnut cleaning media and a bottle of moly large enough to last for many many thousands of plated rounds.
A few things to be prepared for:
- moly dust is quite dirty if you are not careful and you require a very small amount of moly to plate 100 bullets.
-Too much moly and the mess can be fun.
-Do not run the plating tumbler longer than indicated in the kit instructions, you will end up with a slightly rough surface on the bullet. They seem to shoot fine.
-When cleaning the barrel, your patches will continue to show brown for some time. The exception is my Rock Creek barrel in 338 Lapua Mag. This barrel cleans very quickly.
I clean much less often when using moly as I find that my groups open up after I have cleaned - most noticeable in 6BR.
I began using moly when I purchased my first 6mm BR. The gunsmith had 300 rounds of Norma Diamond Line loaded ammunition for sale. Norma moly coats Berger VLD bullets using the Neco process which includes a carnuba wax final coating. The Norma bullets have a black finish. When I started plating, I ran the tumbler for 3 to 3.5+ hours to achieve the darker finish.
I have since purchased Lapua coated bullets which have a light grey/silver finish. I have since changed to 2.5 hours in the tumbler and 2 minutes more in the walnut. This produces a finish for me that is hard to distinguish from the factory Lapua bullets.
I am sold on moly. Placing a robust lubricant between two dissimilar metals being forced into shear under high pressure and temperature makes a great deal of sense to me. I certainly have not seen any of the boogie man issues that some shooters have mentioned on the net.
The Lyman kit includes two extra bowls, ceramic plating media, walnut cleaning media and a bottle of moly large enough to last for many many thousands of plated rounds.
A few things to be prepared for:
- moly dust is quite dirty if you are not careful and you require a very small amount of moly to plate 100 bullets.
-Too much moly and the mess can be fun.
-Do not run the plating tumbler longer than indicated in the kit instructions, you will end up with a slightly rough surface on the bullet. They seem to shoot fine.
-When cleaning the barrel, your patches will continue to show brown for some time. The exception is my Rock Creek barrel in 338 Lapua Mag. This barrel cleans very quickly.
I clean much less often when using moly as I find that my groups open up after I have cleaned - most noticeable in 6BR.
I began using moly when I purchased my first 6mm BR. The gunsmith had 300 rounds of Norma Diamond Line loaded ammunition for sale. Norma moly coats Berger VLD bullets using the Neco process which includes a carnuba wax final coating. The Norma bullets have a black finish. When I started plating, I ran the tumbler for 3 to 3.5+ hours to achieve the darker finish.
I have since purchased Lapua coated bullets which have a light grey/silver finish. I have since changed to 2.5 hours in the tumbler and 2 minutes more in the walnut. This produces a finish for me that is hard to distinguish from the factory Lapua bullets.
I am sold on moly. Placing a robust lubricant between two dissimilar metals being forced into shear under high pressure and temperature makes a great deal of sense to me. I certainly have not seen any of the boogie man issues that some shooters have mentioned on the net.
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I have been moly coating bullets since the Neco kits came out. I stopped using the carnuba wax after the first couple times just because it made the bullet look like crap.
I do not clean as much and have gone over 800 rounds before cleaning. I moly coat in my garage and at times have forgot about the tumbler running for more than 12 hours without any problems with over coating them. Once the moly process is done I roll the bullets back and forth in an old towel to remove excess moly and buff up the bullets a bit.
I do not clean as much and have gone over 800 rounds before cleaning. I moly coat in my garage and at times have forgot about the tumbler running for more than 12 hours without any problems with over coating them. Once the moly process is done I roll the bullets back and forth in an old towel to remove excess moly and buff up the bullets a bit.
the short answer is YES, it reduce pressure and velocity as moly is a lubricant is allows the bullet to slide down the barrel with less friction. This less friction put more distance between the case and the bullet with more air space there is less pressure as it can not build up the same as with naked bullets. Norma did a study on this in the 90's and the pressure drop was approx 5% with a velocity drop of only 3% now the upside to this is that you can increase your velocity beyond that of naked bullets by adding more powder and still have less pressure then a naked bullet.
disclaimer all barrels are not the same please work up all loads using recommended load data.
Trevor
http://www.6mmbr.com/bulletcoating.html
