Bullet and barrel trreatment

[BoydAllen]

Some years ago, I spoke with a shooter as he was doing a full brush (bronze) and patch cleaning of his barrel, which he said that did between every match (short range group, match = five record plus sighters). He told me that he had been doing moly coating since the information about Merrill Martin's process and results had been published (long before) in Precision Shooting. He did the whole Magilla, including carnuba wax, just like Martin did. Looking at his results, I would have to say that his performance seemed to be fine, competitive, a reflection of his skill tuning and reading flags. Later that day he shot a very small group at 200 with the worst mirage you can imagine. I think that his gain was in barrel life. He told me that that barrel had 2,500 rounds on it at the start of that weekends match. Just a couple of months ago, he had returned to the Visalia range for another match weekend and I asked him if he was still using moly, he said that he was and that the barrel he was shooting had about 2,400 rounds on it. Just reporting folks. I have never geared up with a tumbler, two drums, steel shot, ground walnut hulls, a sieve, carnuba, and moly powder to do what he is. I will say that a lot of those who put moly and other things on their bullets seem to have blown off putting carnuba wax on their bullets. I do not think that Merrill would have bothered with that if he had not found some advantage to doing it. Most people do not remember that he was primarily interested in using the process on plain base cast bullets for benchrest competition of that type when he developed the process.

 

[JimPag]

Jim, I looked, but do not intend to invest an hour looking for the specific test results, as indicated being the average time spent on that site. Is this the same teat published in PRECISION SHOOTING a few months prior to the magazines demise? If yes, I believe their interpretation of the DATA was/is, bass-akwards!
In that article, when comparing the same loads/components/rifle, lower velocity (molybdenum disulfide) was ascribed to greater resistance, and higher velocity to less resistance (HBN, etc.), which is completely backwards thinking of the internal ballistics . . . they needed to study the pressure/resistance relationship. Or, if it's a different study, my memory could have it all wrong. RG

Randy. I do not know if this was the same article. I joined the IBS in either September or October of 2012 and I received only 1 issue of Precision Shooting before it went belly up. I said to myself it figures that would happen to me.

 

[RGRobinett]

I tend to agree with Boyd, Longtrain, and Lloyd - I have shot "moly plated" bullets since the fad was initiated, by Mr. Martin, in the early-mid 90's. I promptly left off the carnuba wax, as I saw it (for jacketed bullets) as merely, "a glove", to prevent the moly from migrating to the fingers.
I prefer Alf's term - plated - to coated.
Since the beginning, I have, probably, plated 99% of the bullets I shoot, with no ill effect. Beginning in April, 2016, and through last season, my latest 1:18" twist Bartlein 5R -which has never had a bare bullet through it - has not fired a score, during registered NBRSA VfS events, of under 250-21X, including a third place finish at the 2016 Nationals, and a first place in 2017. My conclusion is that it doesn't hurt . . well, except for all the losing I do between victories.RG

 

[tonysnoo]

I am so novice compared to most of you all. I can understand the question of consistency.

My limited experience has showed that HBN gives me more consistency with cold bore and even clean cold bore shots. Granted, this is not a consideration for most on this site, but I figure if it affects/helps cold bore inconsistencies, then it might help with my reloading variables..... er at least my little pea brain is buying into this idea.

I have found that the coating/plating process is more consistent the longer, I let the process go. At first, we were worried about overdoing it, but have found (accidentally) that even letting the coating process run overnight it didn't mess up the bullets(my consistency). Now, I generally run them for 4-5 hours and coat 500 at a time.

Not telling you its the end all be all, but I think it works for us.

good luck!!