Why haven't coated bullets become more popular?

1899

1899

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About 20 years ago it seemed that coated bullets were the way of the future. I understand that Moly (molybdenum-disulfide, not Ecstasy) has some downsides - namely the potential for corrosion - but what about the other coatings like what we saw with Barnes' XLC, Winchester's Black Talon and Nosler's Ballistic Silvertip?

I recall that the XLC bullets allowed for significantly higher charges and velocities when compared to the non-coated X bullets. There were additional claims of increased barrel life, reduced throat erosion etc.

You would think that advancements in technology would have increased efficacy and decreased cost of such coatings. What happened?
 
I coated my own bullets with moly and shot them for several years. I found barrels wear out just as fast with moly coated bullets as they do with uncoated bullets. About 4500-5000 rounds the barrel is no longer competitive. Take that used barrel off a match rifle and screw it onto a hunting rifle and it will last a lifetime. Never once found and issues with corrosion.
When I was using moly bullets the accuracy load for my .308 was 46.0 gr of Varget with a 155 gr bullet, velocity was 2950. When I went back to bare bullets the accuracy load was 46.0 gr of Varget but the velocity is up at 3000 fps.
Cleaning the bore was a lot less with moly, sometimes over 800 rounds between cleaning. With bare bullets I clean when the accuracy drops, maybe 400-500 rounds. The other reason that I switched back to uncoated bullets is that I usually take a trip down to the West Indies every year for a match. Ammo is issued down there and I didn't want to be bothered scrubbing the moly out before going down there. Then reseasoning the barrel with moly when I got home.
 
It's expensive to moly coat bullets at the commercial level, home users can do it themselves cheaply, Berger explains it here....
https://bergerbullets.com/bullets-to-be-discontinued/
Additionally, for the last 15 years or so we’ve watched moly coating become popular, fall out of favor and then become popular again. During this time, we’ve understood the benefits of moly coating and have promoted its use (which includes our using moly coated bullet in our own rifles).

The reality is that what it takes to coat bullets with moly is very inexpensive — unless you have a business which has overhead, payroll and all the other related costs. Many people are set up to moly coat bullets themselves due to the very low cost. Sales of moly coated bullets are at an all time low due to these facts. The following bullets will no longer be available with Moly coating (they will be still available as non-coated bullets):
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Ruger007 said:
Yes the XLC blue coating. I thought it was a bit of a gimic. Maybe that is the reason?
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The coatings would generally reduce pressure and, as maynard points out, reduce velocity with the same charge. BUT, because the bullet is slicker, you could increase the charge and surpass the velocity of naked bullets. A member recently sent me the load data for 130gr XLC in the .270 Winchester and the charges are significantly higher than for TTSX bullets. For example:

RL19: 59.0gr vs 57.8gr and 3227 fps vs 3171 fps.
H4350: 57.0gr vs 54.7gr and 3204 fps vs 3090 fps

In fact, the XLC shows 9 powders that exceed 3200fps vs a max of 3173fps for TTSX. The XLC's top velocity load is 3299fps - a gain of 126fps compared to the TTSX.

Now I understand that there may be issues with respect to the accuracy of the data, but from what I can see the coated bullet can take a higher charge and gives a higher velocity. Keep in mind this is almost 25 year old technology.
 
I've used moly in the past and may return to using it because I've found there is FAR less cleaning involved. I think the most prolific person giving high praise to moly was David Tubb although he has since switched to another type of coating. He won SEVERAL NATIONAL titles using moly. He said it does NOT increase accuracy and you have to UP the charge to get the same velocity, as referenced to by MAYNARD, above. However, he did write that HIS barrels did maintain accuracy longer. Not a lot longer but, if I remember, he wrote that he could get 4 barrels to last as long as 5. (Wish I could remember where I read that. Sorry, memory is fading).
There is a "cleaner" method of applying moly in the WET rather than the DRY application. I've tried it and it works much better and is cleaner.
 
Powder coating bullets or similar process date way past 20 years. Federal Cartridge company marketed "NYCLAD" bullets eons ago. Federal Nyclad bullets were just lead bullets coated with a nylon coating.

Marketing plays a huge part of ammo manufacturing. Ammo makers have made huge investments in R&D to improve every aspect of bullet development. But ammo buyers drive the market & makers make what ammo buyers want. Sure they try to stear buyers to new products, but just like some new calibers that never really take off, ammo *lines* end. Until they try to sell something new.

Powder coating cast bullets & now slugs is very common but not all ammo buyers reload or cast their own bullets.
 
maynard said:
I coated my own bullets with moly and shot them for several years. I found barrels wear out just as fast with moly coated bullets as they do with uncoated bullets. About 4500-5000 rounds the barrel is no longer competitive. Take that used barrel off a match rifle and screw it onto a hunting rifle and it will last a lifetime. Never once found and issues with corrosion.
When I was using moly bullets the accuracy load for my .308 was 46.0 gr of Varget with a 155 gr bullet, velocity was 2950. When I went back to bare bullets the accuracy load was 46.0 gr of Varget but the velocity is up at 3000 fps.
Cleaning the bore was a lot less with moly, sometimes over 800 rounds between cleaning. With bare bullets I clean when the accuracy drops, maybe 400-500 rounds. The other reason that I switched back to uncoated bullets is that I usually take a trip down to the West Indies every year for a match. Ammo is issued down there and I didn't want to be bothered scrubbing the moly out before going down there. Then reseasoning the barrel with moly when I got home.
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When you say you go 400 rounds between cleaning, does that mean you don’t touch the bore at all? Or do you occasionally wipe out the carbon between shoots?

What about short-term storage, like 2 or 3 weeks between range trips. Do you lightly coat the bore with oil to prevent corrosion?

Sorry for the off topic questions, but barrel cleaning has always mystified me, so many different opinions on the subject. My biggest concern with my rifles is rust in the bore, my second biggest concern is damaging the bore from over-doing the cleaning.
 
No cleaning of the bore at all, unless I got caught in the rain and then just a couple of dry patches. I know guys that clean every day, guys that clean every 200 rounds, guys that shoot a whole week without cleaning. Then there are guys like myself that will only clean when the groups start to open up. There are hundreds of different bore cleaning products and methods used to clean a bore. And everyone thinks their choice of cleaning products and procedure is the only way to clean. Let the group size let you know when it is time to clean.

Edit to add: The barrels that I am talking about are stainless steel match barrels of various makers. Bartlein, Krieger, MacClennen, JC Custom.
 
To my knowledge, coated bullets had no tangible effect. Moly or similar product would buildup in the first 2 inches beyond the chamber and become so hard and permanent that no amount of scrubbing or brushing would remove it. There are photos of this somewhere on the net. A quality barrel from a well-known manufacturer has more effect on velocity in my experience. Example: my first Rock Creek 5R .308 barrel was nearly 120-150 FPS faster than any conventional factory barrel I had at the time. Reason for this can be attributed to the 5R profile and it’s claims and the superior barrel finish. To this day it only takes 3 swabs to remove the fowling.
 
I tried two batches of xmetal coated bullets; .40 S & W and .45 ACP.

Inconsistency: Dimensionally, within the same batch, they varried about +/- .006" in diameter.

Coating would "shave" on oversized bullets, and if not removed, would cause feeding issues.

Lots of grey/black "soot" in the pistols

They really stank when you shot them.

I have one unloaded bullet sitting on my desk to remind me: Never again.

Interesting that when I called the dealer up regarding the inconsistent dimensions, he offered me a store credit; which I used to buy DRG lead bullets, which are my standard go-to for .38/357; .40 and .45; I use campro hollow point for 9mm, as they punch a neat hole in paper for scoring.

I have not seen powder coated bullets at any of the dealers I work with presently in the last 2 or 3 years.
 
I've sent 2000 Super moly coated bullets downrange. You can get more velocity with a moly coated bullet. I send them out to a mile target and beyond. Going for a 3000 yard target in a bit. The part I don't like about them is the cleaning after if you want to switch back to copper plated. I have spent 4 hours getting the barrel clean. I have a camera to look. I coated my own .338,the bullets for my 6.5-284 and some for my 270 win mag.
I bought a big package of Molybdenum disulfide. Just tumble them in it and tumble in bees wax coated corncob to make it cleaner to handle.
It doesn't make the gun more accurate, just more velocity and shots between cleaning. Wear rubber gloves when playing with super Moly products. It gets everywhere and on everything you touch.
 
maynard said:
No cleaning of the bore at all, unless I got caught in the rain and then just a couple of dry patches. I know guys that clean every day, guys that clean every 200 rounds, guys that shoot a whole week without cleaning. Then there are guys like myself that will only clean when the groups start to open up. There are hundreds of different bore cleaning products and methods used to clean a bore. And everyone thinks their choice of cleaning products and procedure is the only way to clean. Let the group size let you know when it is time to clean.

Edit to add: The barrels that I am talking about are stainless steel match barrels of various makers. Bartlein, Krieger, MacClennen, JC Custom.
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Thank you for the reply. I live in probably the driest part of the country but I’m still paranoid about rust. I’ve definitely cut back on the amount of bore scrubbing I do to my rifles over the years. It’s an interesting subject. I should probably invest in a bore scope just for peace of mind.
 
diopter said:
For rifle bullets: look up Hexagonal Boron Nitride Bullet Coating
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A friend of mine uses HBN and his bullets look like they have icing sugar on them and of course he tells everyone that's what it is. His accuracy load is 47.0 gr of Varget with a 155 gr bullet. A couple years ago in Ottawa shooting on electronic targets he didn't have a problem at 800m. At 900m his bullets would not register on the electronic target. He switch ammo to something someone loaned him that was uncoated and everything was fine. I must say that his bullets are very slippery and difficult to pull out of the ammo box, with moly bullets not so much.
 
Maynard
Any idea which make of electronic target? I assume they have screen monitors at firing point for score and shot placement?
 
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