Removing Moly from Bullets with Rice

[drakehammer]

Today I made my first attempt at removing the moly coating from two boxes (100 total) of 7mm 160gr CT Partition Gold bullets, and I think it worked out well.
What I did…
Tumbled 100 moly coated bullets & 1/2 of a 48oz bag of white, long grain rice in a small Harbor Freight vibratory tumbler for about 2.5 hours. Then I separated the bullets from the dirty rice and discarded the rice. This removed about 1/2 or maybe more of the moly from the bullets. Next, I wiped as much of the powdery residue from the tumbler bowl with paper towels and repeated the process, tumbling the bullets a second time with the remaining 1/2 bag of rice for another 2.5 hours. I separated the bullets from the dirty rice and discarded the rice once again. At this point the bullets were essentially clean, however I chose to wash the bullets two or three times by hand in hot water with plenty of Dawn. Based on the successive water color changes, I am confident the bullets are now Moly-free. I dried the bullets at 250°F for 1/2 hour and this is what they look like. Total cost was $3. Now I'm looking forward to loading them for my 7mm STW.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

And why not shoot them with the Moly coating ?

 

[drakehammer]

And why not shoot them with the Moly coating ?

I'm allergic to it.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

That sounds like an awful lot of work, but they certainly look moly-free to me.
I would think that a shorter tumble in walnut shells would work much faster and do a satisfactory job. Either way - good job.

 

[FEENIX]

I'm allergic to it.

That sucks!

 

[drakehammer]

That sounds like an awful lot of work, but they certainly look moly-free to me.
I would think that a shorter tumble in walnut shells would work much faster and do a satisfactory job. Either way - good job.

I am long winded far too often. It's simpler than I made it sound. It was basically a three-step process. Tumble-tumble-wash. You could be right though. I don't think that the bullets really "needed" to be tumbled a full 2.5 hours each time. That just happens to be how long I let them go before taking a look at the progress. Sure you could use shells or corn cob media, among other things. I used rice mainly because it was really cheap media destined for the trash.
I have 150 30 cal 200gr Moly coated Nosler Partitions yet to do as well. I think I will try the Bar Keeper's Friend method just for comparison. Funny thing is that I may never have to do this again after those are cleaned up.
Thank you!

 

[ntsqd]

Might try ground corn cobs that does not have any rouge in it. I find that it seems to be more absorbent than walnut shells.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I am long winded far too often. It's simpler than I made it sound. It was basically a three-step process. Tumble-tumble-wash. You could be right though. I don't think that the bullets really "needed" to be tumbled a full 2.5 hours each time. That just happens to be how long I let them go before taking a look at the progress. Sure you could use shells or corn cob media, among other things. I used rice mainly because it was really cheap media destined for the trash.
I have 150 30 cal 200gr Moly coated Nosler Partitions yet to do as well. I think I will try the Bar Keeper's Friend method just for comparison. Funny thing is that I may never have to do this again after those are cleaned up.
Thank you!

I've got a bunch of moly coated bullets here that a friend coated. He used the "spray & bake" method to coat them. That stuff is so well adhered to the bullets that I'm not sure any method will remove it. They look like they were painted with flat black enamel. If you retrieve a bullet from the dirt berm, it still has the moly everywhere on the bullet's surface.

 

[Mike D Texas]

I'm allergic to it.

Maybe use vinyl gloves and a mask when reloading instead of dealing with all that.

 

[skipglo]

I'm allergic to it.

You're allergic to them...
What part....... being shot by one? Allergic....so you put them in a dry tumbler, get the product good and airborne, then tumble them again to make sure it truly is airborne and then wash them by hand..... ? Hmmmmmm

 

[JiggyIi]

That sounds like an awful lot of work, but they certainly look moly-free to me.
I would think that a shorter tumble in walnut shells would work much faster and do a satisfactory job. Either way - good job.

I did mine, 7mm/139's in walnut shells,

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Today I made my first attempt at removing the moly coating from two boxes (100 total) of 7mm 160gr CT Partition Gold bullets, and I think it worked out well.
What I did…
Tumbled 100 moly coated bullets & 1/2 of a 48oz bag of white, long grain rice in a small Harbor Freight vibratory tumbler for about 2.5 hours. Then I separated the bullets from the dirty rice and discarded the rice. This removed about 1/2 or maybe more of the moly from the bullets. Next, I wiped as much of the powdery residue from the tumbler bowl with paper towels and repeated the process, tumbling the bullets a second time with the remaining 1/2 bag of rice for another 2.5 hours. I separated the bullets from the dirty rice and discarded the rice once again. At this point the bullets were essentially clean, however I chose to wash the bullets two or three times by hand in hot water with plenty of Dawn. Based on the successive water color changes, I am confident the bullets are now Moly-free. I dried the bullets at 250°F for 1/2 hour and this is what they look like. Total cost was $3. Now I'm looking forward to loading them for my 7mm STW.

Why not just sell them instead of working to take the Moly off???

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Why not just sell them instead of working to take the Moly off???

I have a load of moly bullets that I can post. I didn't think that many shooters were still using moly coated bullets.

 

[MOA or bust]

I suspect the OP was kidding about a molybdenum allergy. Of course Superman is sensitive to Krypton.