trated – these bullets were too slick to pick up from the table. I eventually changed tactics, separating bullets into groups and sweeping those off the table and into appropriate boxes. The primary goal of moly plating is to make bullets slick.
I had accidentally found a way to make bullets much slicker. A secondary goal of moly plating is to create a barrier
between the gilding metal of the bullet surface and the steel of the bore interior. The plating on these bullets evidently was much denser. It looked different – visually darker, in the sense of tone – same silver-black color, just a denser tone. My very unscientific method of testing toughness of
moly plating is to try to wipe through it by rubbing a plated bullet against the denim of a pant leg. In that testing, the moly plating on these bullets proved to be far tougher than the moly on any other bullet I had ever tested. With the aqueous method, I no longer apply the final
wax coating to the bullets. Perhaps I am giving up something valuable but I am satisfied that, by using the aqueous method, the resulting plating is dense and tough enough so that wax- ing would be superfluous. Avoiding that operation reduces the number of steps and otherwise monumentally simplifies moly plating. As an added and rather significant bonus, with Berger,
Hornady, Nosler, and Sierra bullets, I have learned that the aqueous method allows me to dispense with preliminary bullet cleaning, should I so choose. I can simply dump bullets into the tumbler, add a bit of moly and several times as much water, turn on the tumbler, and then wait. Nothing could be simpler. Note that when plating Barnes or Speer bullets I
always include the cleaning step. As my recommendation, I suggest preliminary cleaning
of all bullets with Dawn. While this simple operation might not help much, if at all, it cannot hurt. In any case, this pre- liminary cleaning step eliminates the need to add water. Just leave the cleaned bullets wet and warm before adding those and the moly to the tumbler. I have learned that the amount of water added makes
no difference. So long as the moly is at least wet enough to flow the results will be excellent. I have no experience using a vibratory tumbler for plat-
ing. I assume that the process will be similar but probably will take less time and therefore might require heating to evapo- rate the water more quickly. (I would suggest drilling a few tiny holes in the lid to allow the water vapor to freely escape.) My new plating Method:
1. Pour bullets into sieve; 2. Add concentrated Dawn and shake sieve to distribute detergent;
3. Let soak for about ten minutes, with periodic agitation; 4. Rinse using hot tap water, while agitating until no (soap) bubbles appear;
5. Pour wet bullets into mollying drum; 6. Add moly and water (if necessary to assure a wet enough slurry);
7. Set timer for four hours; and, 8. Wait.
Note that this method involves only one drum (instead of three), only about one-third the number of steps, and takes
otistec.com Page 30 Spring 2012
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