GorV

I was wondering about bullets with a lubalox coating, or whatever it is, the black ones ( winchesters supreme ballistic silver tips and so on..) I was told buy a guy at the store, the rifle sales guy, that you have to clean the bore of your rifle extremely well after use or it will rust it like crazy!?!?!?! He said the lubalox stuff attracts moisture! I was wondering if this is true, and if so how bad it actually is.....

bigbulls

I have never done or seen any actual tests reports on this but everything that I have heard is completely to the contrary.

I just searched around a little about it and I find that it actually has good corosion resistand properties. This stuff (molybdenum disulfide) is used in everything from bullets to the space industry. It has an operating pressure limit of well over 250,000 psi. It is said to be able to work into small scraches and such to aid lubrication even further.

I think that your salesman is full of crap.

bigbulls

Aparently Winchester uses two different types of coatings.

Lubalox is only used on the Balistic silvertip and the molly (previous post) is used on the failsafe and partition gold.

I still think the salesman is full of crap. I don't think that Nosler and Winchester both would stake their reputations of a coating that rusts out your barrel.


Here is what Nosler says about the two.

Are Lubalox and Moly the same?
NO, Lubalox (CT Ballistic Tip) is an oxide-based coating, which reduces fouling and allows more shooting between cleanings, also Lubalox does not buildup in the barrel and requires only normal cleaning procedures. Moly (CT Fail Safe & Partition Gold) is a molybdenum disulfide coating which reduces fouling and friction. Moly requires a barrel be conditioned by shooting several rounds after cleaning and special cleaning procedures. Accuracy with non-coated bullets may not be up to par in a Moly conditioned barrel.

GorV

I wonder why nosler dosent come out with there own all nosler ammunition instead of just making bullets? And I was wondering how much of a difference you get performance wise if you handload bullets yourself.....

pharaoh2

I've shot the lubalox coated bullets out of a .270. They will not cause the barrel to rust. But you do have to scrub the crap out of the barrel to clean that stuff out. It's quite sticky. After a while, it did foul up and accected ther accuracy quite a bit. Clean often with that stuff.

Big Al C

I imagine that Nosler doesn't come out with their own line of loaded ammo because they are being used by most of the major ammo makers. If they brought out their own line the big companies might find another source of premium bullets. Also, they are selling a ton of bullets as it is. They may be happy the way things are.
In answer to your second question, it depends on what you mean by performance. If you are talking about velocity you can probably beat most of the ammo out there by 5-10% if you try several brands of powder. The big exception would be Hornady's Light Magnum ammo. It is very fast and almost impossible to improve on without going into unsafe pressure levels in your rifle.
If you are looking for better accuracy it is very easy to get better results with handloads. Just find a bullet you like, load it into quality cases with a suitable charge of powder, and try different seating depths until you find one that produces small groups. (This assumes you have a fairly accurate rifle to begin with) You may have to try more than one weight of bullet to find one your rifle prefers.
If you want more info than I can give you here get a reloading manual from Lyman, Lee, Hornady or others and read up on different ways to improve accuracy. Whatever you do, if you try handloading get at least one manual and refer to it often as you get started. It also helps to talk to people at your local gunstore and ask questions. Somebody will probably volunteer to help you get started. I know that is what happened for me. If you try it, good luck!