Lubricated bullets arc certainly the flavor of the month as articles pertaining to their use are popping up in many shooting publications. While they will not give you any significant increases in velocity, I have found there to be many advantages pertaining to their use. I have used them in many standard calibers as well as the Lazzeroni super magnums. Shot-to-shot variations in both velocity and pressure are reduced. The bullet seems to move through the barrel faster, especially the first few inches, allowing the use of a faster powder to achieve the same velocity-to-pressure ratio. The bullet release during firing is more consistent as the friction between it and the brass neck is reduced. These things contribute directly to significant improvements in accuracy.
The ballistic co-efficient of the bullet seems to be improved, especially at long range. My Lazzeroni rifle, model L2000SLR in Lazzeroni caliber 6.71 BLACKBIRD, fires a .264 diameter 100 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of 3,900 FPS. During a recent trip to the shooting range with non-lubricated bullets and the rifle zero'd at 300 yards, point of impact was 17" low at 500 yards. I then switched to a faster powder, lubricated the identical bullets, brought the muzzle velocity back up to 3,900 FPS and re-zero'd the rifle at 300 yards. Point of impact was now 12" low at 500 yards. I would consider that a significant change.
Premium hunting bullets with their partition walls or solid copper/tungsten construction benefit from lubrication, as their friction with the bore is reduced. The bullet pull pressure is also reduced significantly, so much so that if you do not crimp the brass neck into the cannalure of the bullet when loading cartridges for hunting, the cartridges in the magazine box may have their bullet seating depths altered during firing. This is a potentially dangerous condition requiring the use of only bullets with a cannalure or an alternate method of keeping the bullet in position.
Molybdenum disulfite or moly is the easiest, least expensive and most accessible method for the handloader to lubricate his/her bullets. When firing lubricated bullets, you will notice a drop in both velocity and pressure. By increasing the powder charge weight in small increments, you can increase the velocity and pressure to the levels attained prior to bullet lubrication, but not any higher. Contrary to what you may have been told, lubricated bullets will not allow you to increase velocity significantly without also increasing pressure. I have experienced, depending upon the cartrige being loaded, a powder charge weight increase of as much as 8 grains being necessary to bring the velocity and pressure back to un-lubricated bullet levels. Because of this it is imperative that all bullets in a particular lot are lubricated with consistency and that you use at the very minimum a chronograph during load work up.
Methods for lubricating the barrel of the rifle have been discussed recently. I have not seen any barrel lubricating treatments that will not eventually wear down or change their lubricating properties after a number of firings. You can imagine the pressure increases that would occur if you worked up a load for a barrel with certain lubricated characteristics and then after a number of firings those characteristics were to change. By lubricating only the bullets, the residue left in the barrel after many firings without cleaning, will keep you on the safe side of the pressure curve.
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