Pulling bullets and compressed powder really hard to remove

[cabelasken]

I like a 95% or higher case fill on my hunting loads and look for powders that achieve that. That said, I have never used loads that has the powder reach the straight part of the neck.

 

[ChrisInKY]

Very common. I've seen this consistently over the past 30+ years of handloading. I'll either rap the case rim on my wooden bench top with finger over case neck, or touch rim against threaded post on my old vibratory tumbler. Usually loosens right up. Occasionally have a kernel or two to loosen with wooden stem cotton swab, and even less frequent a kernel stuck in flash hole.

I had some older military surplus ammo. Didn't look like it was a compressed load. The power had coagulated to a state where I had to cut a case open to have a good look at it. Amazingly, it fired unerringly ... just with no consistency. Had to sacrifice the lot, because there was no way to get the 'nugget' through the case mouth.

 

[Hard H2O]

Of course and you can, you can also get amazing little.bug holes with a SD and ES that's 80fps plus! Doesn't mean it's the right load

Who says compressed loads are almost the go to? I would say as close to a 100% fill without compressing would be favorable.

 

[skipglo]

Extremely common for any compressed load....that's why they call them COMPRESSED! Even if the BOOK didn't say (C) you can clearly hear and feel the difference when you compress a load...if you weren't expecting a compressed load....stop right there on the first one.

 

[birddog 68]

I like a load that filles the case but does not go crunch when I seat a bullet.

I would say as close to a 100% fill without compressing would be favorable.

If I'm at 95% using extruded powder I am hearing crunching. Unless you are seating long I think you're going to hear some crunching above 95% fill.
My hearing isn't great but I've never actually heard crunching with ball powder's but I can feel the resistance when seating.

 

[fta0303]

So I hit pressure early and had to pull some bullets with 6.5 StaBall powder, all of them were like this and basically had to dig the powder out with the wooden end of a swab, it reminded me of solid rocket fuel. I have never seen this before but never loaded compressed loads with ball powder. Not all of these should have been close to compressed according to Hodgdon data. Its probably hard to see in the pictures but the powder is even tight against the angle of the neck. The ones on the side the powder is not loose it has taken that shape. It took about 5 min per case to remove the powder. It seems ok now but I am considering tossing it in the grass. These were new cases and no lube was inside the case. Anyone deal with this before?

 

[fta0303]

I know loading manuals commonly list compressed loads. That's fine. I won't use them. No way to know with ordinary loading gear what pressure you're imposing on the powder column. Increasing pressure, even on a solid, may potentially cause changes in other state variables, altering it's state and properties. This is a theoretical objection, one which one might confidently expect the reload manual authors to have addressed before publication. So, feel free to compress loads.

I'll never do it, will just pick a lower load or a different powder. Don't see a point in adding a "cringe factor" to my reloading process. Like many things in life, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. I suspect that this comment will ring down the clash of the titans on me, but I'm not trying to force my ideas down anyone else's throat, just stating them.

 

[Hard H2O]

I was scared off compressed loads. I was looking to try some monolithics in my .300 WSM.

I chose the bullet and an appropriate powder. Loaded up with just a bit of resistance upon seating on a midrange load. Headed to the range. Shot the first one. Everything seemed fine. Extracted and ejected fine. Then I noticed no primer in the case. I found the spent primer. Several signs of increased pressure.

Monolithics are longer for weight than cup and core. Coupled with the short cartridge and short neck they tend to intrude on the powder column more than a cup and core would.

 

[Dmagna]

Scape it out with a wooden toothpick

 

[crkckr]

I've never had a problem with compressed loads as long as there wasn't a lot of pressure needed to seat the bullet. As in real pressure needed. It's a subjective thing, of course. How much is too much? Unless you're measuring your seating pressure it's just a feel that you get after years of doing it. I've never had any problems except with an HK 91, which creases the daylights out of the neck. Loading up a couple hundred rounds, they ended up sitting for several years. When I finally got around to shooting them I found several with cracked necks & loose bullets. Opps! Otherwise, with .308, .270 Win, .338 WM, I've never experienced any problems. But then I work my loads up pretty carefully, never starting with max loads in a rifle. Pistol is a bit different once you get to know the individual guns. One thing, tho, I have not found that compressed loads are any more accurate than any other loads. I don't shoot benchrest or anything like that but I do like accurate guns and own several.
Cheers,
crkckr

 

[floyd kittrell]

V V N550 did same but not as bad as yours, on compressed loads.

 

[Eric Musgrove]

Do you have any idea how old the reloads are? I would guess that the longer they've been together, the tighter the powder grains fit together. I haven't had to pull bullets on too many of my own loads but I've pulled factory loads that had various things wrong with them. Once a buddy gave me 80 rounds of Winchester factory 7.62 x 39mm. They weren't compressed loads but many of them had absorbed a good deal of water. The outside of the cases were pristine but inside... what a mess! Bullets corroded and 'welded' to the case, powder clumped up. I found (I thought) a solution in that if I could shake the case and hear the powder it was a good round that would fire. Turns out that was only half right. Half of these were FMJ and half soft points, same weight bullets but they had used different powders! The soft points were all ok but used a very fine grained, light grey powder (like AA#2) while the FMJ's used a dark powder (like W748). Most of the FMJ's had this water damage, yet the boxes were in perfect shape. The ammo was a couple of years old, had never sat on the bottom of a lake but had been stored in a basement in an open cardboard box with a bunch of fish tanks! Opps! Like the compressed loads, the powder had to be excavated out due to the water damage. None of the cases were badly damaged but some of the bullets were badly corroded on the base. Weird stuff! They were also very hard to pull, even after seating the bullets deeper. Everything got used except the primers and powder, so it wasn't a total loss.
Cheers,
crkckr

I loaded them a week ago.

 

[crkckr]

Yikes, they caked up pretty fast! Just not your day, I guess. Hope you didn't load too many of them.
Cheers,
crkckr

 

[KNOTFERSAIL]

Anyone know if a drop tube will work with that type of kernel?

I wouldn't think so..but maybe