bullet coatings

[Swarovski1]

Whats the current line of thought on the bullet coatings like moly and boron, are they still widely used by benchrest, ft and ftr shooters or ditched, did anybody see the benefit of using them, ive heard things over the years about moly but is it an old wives tales or factual, is boron a better coating or not.thoughts please

[The Gun Pimp]

Not widely used in benchrest - short or long range. I don't think the top F Class shooters use it either.

 

Moly lowers pressure and thus velocity - most shooters seem to want more velocity.

 

No experience of boron.

[MrCetrizine]

I know that 4 hours in a corn cob tumbler gets horrible moly off 80gn Berger VLDs you got cheap because they were discontinued.

 

Also, Autosol gets it out of your barrel so it shoots right again.

[gbal]

PRS review has just done a survey oftop 100 PRS shooters ( first cold bore hits needed at 1-2 moa targets 3-1200 yards,often unconventional position shoting).

 

2% used coated bullets-so clearly didn't seee any advantage.

 

HIgh string shooters,and high velocity multiple shot varminters might see more positives-as Vince says,coating reduces friction,so a velocity loss-compensated by a tad more powder maybe. If cleaning is reduced,good-any lesser bore wear is likely offset partially by the increased powder-if used.

 

None of this is very carefully tested,very recently,with all the coatings available,especially the newer ones,and the pros/cons are likely to vary depending on the type and volume and rate of shooting,and obviously,perceived gains/not. Doubtful if the effects are very large either way. Seems though much less popular than it once was,though the newer options differ a bit from eg moly.

 

Fashion or factual..? PRS strongly suggests that kind of shooting doesn't benefit from coating.

 

gbal

[Swarovski1]

Thanks for the replies, i was thinking that they maybe of some benefit in the barrel burning calibres like 6.5x284 or ultra magnum 7mms, I do rather fancy a ulta mag

[DaveT]

I do use Boron in my 6mmSLR and it does radically reduce fouling.

 

I am hoping for extensions to barrel life but have no really conclusive way of proving it.

 

Its real easy to apply and very clean to use so no great hardship in getting the bullets coated so I will continue in that calibre and any other barrel-eater I may take on.