Bullet weld

[Bob Wright]

I have 14 month old ammo in a 7RM I loaded right before last years deer season:
Yesterday I found out some sad surprises running a "cold and clean barrel" POI and another 2 weeks later I ran a "cold and dirty" barrel POI. I center punched the bullseye with one cold/dirty shot. All at 200 yds. Great....
Satisfied with that, I proceeded to run a bullet drop test at 600 yds while holding steady at the 200 yd zero target. Vertical stringing was sad. Shocking actually, and now I need to run a number of tests with the remaining 25 rounds, loaded 14 months back.
My plan:
1. Remove 5 bullets, neck size, reinstall same bullets, shoot at 600 yds. (Want to see if excessive force is required to pull bullets completely)
2. Shoot 5 of the remaining with nothing done to them at 600 yds (as a baseline)
3. Re-seat 5 existing .003 deeper and shoot at 600 yds. (To not add a neck size variable and to understand if it requires an unusual amount of force or "hear" or feel, any break of any possible bond formed).
All to be shot and recorded over Labradar.
Anything I might do differently or way off base?

The photo and numbers represent drops in inches from 200 yd zero to 600 yds. Suspects are the two upper shots that were a sticky bullet release/high pressure. Bottom 2 appear to be the true group.

 

[Wedgy]

It does happen but not always, bullets/brass combination, clean vs carbon in the necks, moisture. Some guys seat the bullets ~ 0.005 long then seat them to length when they are ready to shoot. I use HBN and a little Imperial wax in the necks. Many threads about it;
https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/bullet-cold-weld-to-brass-real-or-myth.223631/#post-1678452
https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/bullets-cold-welding-to-cases.184346/#post-1293574

 

[Bob Wright]

It does happen but not always, bullets/brass combination, clean vs carbon in the necks, moisture. Some guys seat the bullets ~ 0.005 long then seat them to length when they are ready to shoot. I use HBN and a little Imperial wax in the necks. Many threads about it;
https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/bullet-cold-weld-to-brass-real-or-myth.223631/#post-1678452
https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/bullets-cold-welding-to-cases.184346/#post-1293574

Yes, on another rifle project the sticky neck issue was from whatever powder Nosler loaded ammo had. The imperial wax was tried and it did shoot well, but it was within a week of reloading. Will keep that in mind for longer term storage. Anything to prevent the bonding of the two components.

 

[livetohunt]

I had year old ammo cold weld and blow the necks. It was only the ammo I had carried in the field. The ones that sat at home are fine.

 

[nmbarta]

That can be a real pita.
168 bergers stick in my 280ai with nosler brass. I don't know why, but this combo is bad, it takes a few pounds of force I'd guess to break them loose and there is a very audible "click" when they do. These stuck bullets cause a border line dangerous over pressure situation in this rifle if I don't break them loose. (bright ejector marks, sticky bolt) I've had this happen in as little as 6 months, and it's a guarantee that they'll all be stuck in a year.
I run 162 eld-x's in that rifle now and the problem doesn't seem as bad, but I also don't keep ammo around for very long anymore. If I come across a few rounds from last year, I'll seat them another .005 and use them for foulers.

 

[Bob Wright]

I had year old ammo cold weld and blow the necks. It was only the ammo I had carried in the field. The ones that sat at home are fine.

That is strange. Any moisture or other weather conditions?

 

[Bob Wright]

That can be a real pita.
168 bergers stick in my 280ai with nosler brass. I don't know why, but this combo is bad, it takes a few pounds of force I'd guess to break them loose and there is a very audible "click" when they do. These stuck bullets cause a border line dangerous over pressure situation in this rifle if I don't break them loose. (bright ejector marks, sticky bolt) I've had this happen in as little as 6 months, and it's a guarantee that they'll all be stuck in a year.
I run 162 eld-x's in that rifle now and the problem doesn't seem as bad, but I also don't keep ammo around for very long anymore. If I come across a few rounds from last year, I'll seat them another .005 and use them for foulers.

I have Nosler brass and 175 Nos ABLR's in this equation.
In my 280AI, Nosler brass and Hammer Hunters. I'm really going to be working this issue to a resolution.

 

[nmbarta]

I'd love to be able to load extra ammo that I could safely store and count on for a year or two. I've tried leaving the carbon in the neck of the case, this did not help at all.
When I pull bullets there is a little white residue left inside the case neck that looks like battery corrosion. I suspect electrolysis is the culprit. I would think that a non conductive coating of some sort would help.
The problem with this is that it takes a long time to find out if a potential solution actually works.
Crimping is a solution that I don't want to get involved in. I believe this is why virtually all factory ammo is crimped.

 

[livetohunt]

There was a lot of moisture quite a few times that I had been packing the bullets around.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I just shot my deer this year with a 300win using ww brass and Hornady 165 interlock fb bullets that were loaded back in '12... I've seen cold welding, but I try to stay away from combinations that have done it.

 

[Mram10us]

Some guys load tons of ammo up a bit long then when it comes time for a match, seat them to whatever coal they like. I haven't tried this so I cannot vouch for it

 

[aushunter1]

I have loaded FS brass & in a couple of different rifles & come across more 'resistance' when seating some projectiles.
I have never put it down to projectile type/composition before but its a possibility.

At times I think my brass is to clean maybe & the 2 clean/unlubed surfaces could just be gripping? Id imagine this could add to 'case weld' over time?

This does tend to be less frequent when using bushing sizing dies so not sure of the tolerances on those FL dies with the button in?


Still I ended up using some imperial graphite neck lube on a few loads in different rifles for this reason & you can totally feel how seating a projectile with so much less effort in your hand.

The longer the neck the more bearing surface for this effect to occur I guess & depending on your actual seating depth.

One of mine is the 270win this happens with.

 

[Wedgy]

Could also have some residual moisture in the case if you wet tumble, I live in the desert(SoCal) so we don't have a lot of moisture here so I suppose that helps.
I gave up on aggressive brass cleaning(wet tumbling/ultrasonic) as I felt it was too clean, too much gripping on the neck when seating bullets. HBN tumbled bullets and Q-tip with Imperial was on the case mouth seems to work for me. I also write the date they were loaded.

 

[Canhunter35]

I've only had bullets stick so hard I was unable to seat deeper or pull them when I loaded while one shot resizing lube was still wet from resizing. I crumpled the bullet and was unable to push many in. So I shot them long and honestly had no issues though either