Seating Long Until Ready for Use

KNOTFERSAIL said:
Speaking of bear cartridges…

Is a .40 loaded with 165gr HP's enough gun for a side arm in bear country? I have an elk hunt coming up and not sure. 😛
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Certainly….. can I buy a life insurance policy on you?

On that hunt…..will you carrying the bacon for camp breakfasts? If so, I may get a larger policy! 😜 memtb
 
Cold weld is quite real. I've experienced it myself several times. I once tried to pull some 338 bullets that had been on the shelf for over a year. None would pull with y collet puller. I had to seat them deeper and the first one popped so loud that my wife ran downstairs to be sure I was OK. It was loud. About half as loud as a primer pop. After breaking the weld, they pulled normally. Inspecting the inside of the necks revealed an issue that looked like corrosion. I assume it was some sort of electrolysis due to dissimilar metals. Rather than seat long and seat to final length later, I just apply neolube inside necks and it has worked for me so far. I should add that those cases were clean, no carbon in them. I've also stopped wet tumbling.
 
cajun said:
Had some rounds loaded for a couple years. Tried seating deeper and wound up crushing the shoulder. Bullets wouldn't budge. Then again I've shot rounds loaded for several years with no issue. These days I load what I am going to shoot.
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I've fired upwards to 15,000 rounds of 1970s-80s milsurp ammo, fired rounds loaded 10yrs prior, pulled bullets on many old batches and I must be too dense in this regard for Murphy to cold weld me. 🤣
 
Brathany said:
I've fired upwards to 15,000 rounds of 1970s-80s milsurp ammo, fired rounds loaded 10yrs prior, pulled bullets on many old batches and I must be too dense in this regard for Murphy to cold weld me. 🤣
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Well, we will count your reloads, but those Mil-Surp rounds don't count due to the sealants used. Those do their job pretty well as does the primer sealant.
 
Tiny Tim said:
Following.

If the issue is "cold welding", does a "barrier" (graphite, HBN, etc...) help with this? What about military surplus?

Is there a distinct and repeatable condition exist, i.e., if it sits for a month does it gain 100fps and stay at that point indefinitely?

Ugh, I have so few answers and so many questions.
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Cold welding is very real.
Over the last 30+ years, I have discovered 2 things that reduce it to almost zero.
Firstly, my necks are brushed with very fine powdered graphite, not that lock lube stuff.
Secondly, my neck interference is NEVER tighter than .0025", learned a very valuable lesson here many years ago. Another story to be told elsewhere.
HBN coating is a real game changer for me, for my ELR 338 & 375 cartridges, it made a huge difference to consistency, ES/SD were lowered and all aspects improved, velocity, pressure and results on target.
I do not HBN coat all of my rifles, but have experimented with a few.

Now, my last words on this, if you are NOT dry lubing your necks with either powdered Graphite or Mica, you are doing yourself, and your loads, a disfavour. I have and do use both depending on my own outcome.
It is the best change you can ever make to seating. Period.

Cheers.
 
MagnumManiac said:
Cold welding is very real.
Over the last 30+ years, I have discovered 2 things that reduce it to almost zero.
Firstly, my necks are brushed with very fine powdered graphite, not that lock lube stuff.
Secondly, my neck interference is NEVER tighter than .0025", learned a very valuable lesson here many years ago. Another story to be told elsewhere.
HBN coating is a real game changer for me, for my ELR 338 & 375 cartridges, it made a huge difference to consistency, ES/SD were lowered and all aspects improved, velocity, pressure and results on target.
I do not HBN coat all of my rifles, but have experimented with a few.

Now, my last words on this, if you are NOT dry lubing your necks with either powdered Graphite or Mica, you are doing yourself, and your loads, a disfavour. I have and do use both depending on my own outcome.
It is the best change you can ever make to seating. Period.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Haven't played with moly or hbn coatings, but been using the dry lubed necks for a couple years and drastically reduced my es/SD.

Also generally run around .002 interference fit. Only exception to this is the few Hammers I've used and they also receive a crimp. That seems to help with my es/SD with them. Cut them in half.
 
med358-boise said:
Have heard people say that to be efficient they will load in large batches say 400 rounds or so but anything they don't believe they will shoot within a couple of months they seat them very long. Just prior to use, they will seat to desired length. They feel this creates more consistent neck tension and breaks some kind of "weld" between the bullet and the brass that will form over an extended period of time.

Anything to this? or is it much to do about nothing?

Thanks!
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match ammo I always did this seating them long then the day before a match finish seating them.
 

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