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Bullet weld

Best practice for avoiding the problem altogether is to seat a few thousandths shy of where the ultimate seating depth is and finish seating as close to when you want to shoot the rounds as possible. For this, an arbor press and seating dies that work with it will allow you to accomplish this at the range. I understand seating prior to a match is what the Army Marksmanship Unit does over at Fort Benning where it is definitely hot and humid.

Because copper and its alloy brass would be a fairly benign galvanic couple - this so called "bullet welding" would likely be due to crevice corrosion rather than galvanic corrosion. If one were to pull a bullet where this type of corrosion is at work, there will be a thin and faint (due to scraping it off while pulling the bullet) dark ring somewhere on the bearing surface of the bullet and a similar one inside the case neck. This phenomenon can really screw up the neck grip of your loads as the force necessary the push the bullet out of the case neck will be many times greater than the force required to seat the bullet. Moving the bullet in the case neck a little prior to shooting it is the best way to mitigate the problem.
 
I have them welded way more often in a neck with carbon. After a few months you have to seat them deeper to break them loose just to be able to pull them. Some people load them long then reseat the night before a match. Id say a month it wouldnt matter at all.

My experience has been the opposite - any problems have invariably been in cases with clean metal in the neck. This is why I stopped using cleaning methods such as ultrasonic that leave bare metal.

I pulled one box of 50 308 Wins that had been loaded for a rifle I'd got rid of and found half were welded in really tightly in new Lapua brass (155gn Lapua Scenar bullets, so Lapua in Lapua) but couldn't see any obvious reason why half were such and the others weren't. The recovered bullets (hammer type inertia puller) were as per new out of the box from those that came out easily but slightly discoloured over the entire shank area that had been held in the neck from the 'welded' rounds, sharp lines clearly showing where the top and bottom edges of the neck had been.

Conversely, although I don't like using 'old ammunition' in competition, I've had many excellent results with cartridges stored up to a couple of years, all with brushed and then lightly wax lubed carbon coatings on the inside of the necks.
 
In my opinion, whatever it is that makes the bullets stick a little bit (some sort of galvanic corrosion or oxidation - "weld" is not a good word to use) is so minor that it really doesn't matter.

In the example I quote in the previous post, I'm sure it would have made a large difference. This is the only such example of really serious 'welding' I've discovered, but then one fires hundreds of times more ammunition than one ever pulls.
 
How do they shoot . I load and shoot within a week so it probably doesn't weld that fast , I'm going to load 10 out of the 30 I normally shoot at the range giving the ten 5 months to weld and see if it makes a difference down range . Has anyone tried this ?
 
How do they shoot . I load and shoot within a week so it probably doesn't weld that fast , I'm going to load 10 out of the 30 I normally shoot at the range giving the ten 5 months to weld and see if it makes a difference down range . Has anyone tried this ?

I have a little trial in the making. I've prepared 100 Lapua 'Palma' 308 Win cases, all originally match prepped and weight batched, now twice fired. Half of the cases in each MTM RM50 box have been ultrasonically cleaned down to the metal, half left with the carbon coating brushed and lightly lubed (prior to mandrel expansion, then the lube wiped off with Q-tips, but no doubt traces remaining). I'll load them all up with my old F-TR 155.5 Berger BT / IMR-8208 XBR load at ~3,030 fps and shoot Box 1 within a day or two of loading them and alternating the rounds to see if there any apparent difference on the paper and chronograph.

Box 2 will go in the ammunition cabinet and I'll repeat the range test in 12 months time on a day with similar temperatures and see if they show an overall change over a year's storage, also if bare metal v carbon-coated necks behave differently.
 
I have a little trial in the making. I've prepared 100 Lapua 'Palma' 308 Win cases, all originally match prepped and weight batched, now twice fired. Half of the cases in each MTM RM50 box have been ultrasonically cleaned down to the metal, half left with the carbon coating brushed and lightly lubed (prior to mandrel expansion, then the lube wiped off with Q-tips, but no doubt traces remaining). I'll load them all up with my old F-TR 155.5 Berger BT / IMR-8208 XBR load at ~3,030 fps and shoot Box 1 within a day or two of loading them and alternating the rounds to see if there any apparent difference on the paper and chronograph.

Box 2 will go in the ammunition cabinet and I'll repeat the range test in 12 months time on a day with similar temperatures and see if they show an overall change over a year's storage, also if bare metal v carbon-coated necks behave differently.
To get a true idea of the incidence of cold weld be sure to degrease projectiles before seating.

Some Noslers I use are plastic bagged inside the box and are slightly greasy.
 
Every time this subject comes up its automatically assumed that this "cold weld" effect is a negative. I think it just so happens that some of the things being done to combat this cold weld happen to shoot better, like not cleaning necks to bare metal for example. I have never reseated bullets in my life. I seat them to the depth I want them the first time and dont worry about welding
 
I never worried about bullet weld either , will see if it's anything to worry about . I'm going to do my own testing . I would use the imperial dry lube on my 308 cases just to be safe , would use a Q tip to lightly coat the inside of the case . Will coat some and leave the inside clean on the others . Well see what happens down range .
 
Every time this subject comes up its automatically assumed that this "cold weld" effect is a negative. I think it just so happens that some of the things being done to combat this cold weld happen to shoot better, like not cleaning necks to bare metal for example. I have never reseated bullets in my life. I seat them to the depth I want them the first time and dont worry about welding

The ammo I shot at E2K in Unlimited class had been loaded for close to 18 months and I managed to stay on paper for all record shots and finish pretty respectably. - Brass was once fired Lapua. - I don't believe I had any such cold welding as I dip my bullets in either Imperial case neck lube or NECO ultra-fine moly just prior to seating.
 
I've sometimes wondered if this so called welding is a chemical reaction with the powder, considering the growth I've found on the necks of old reloads found aftter a decade or two.
 
Im going to invent cartridge boxes made of a material that will act as a sacrificial anode, solving the bullet weld syndrome.
 
I load up the night before a match but also use imperial dry neck lube inside the necks and never fully clean the inside of the necks, just slightly brush them. I never bring home loaded rounds, maybe it's in my head but I feel that a freshly loaded round is more consistent than one that has been on the shelf a while. Works for me.

Darrin
 
Dissimilar metals can react and switch electrons and eventually "weld" to one another. Galvanic corrosion, electrolyic corrosion, electrolysis are other terms for it. Leaving the carbon from firing in the case necks is a buffer to prevent it as is a dip in graphite lube or HbN etc. Anything to keep direct contact between the two metals will help prevent it.
galvseries.jpg

Are bullets and cases dissimilar metals? They may differ a little in zinc content???
 
I learned about this the hard way. I shoot paper and ghogs. I worked up a good load seating bullets off the lands, usually .015-.020 off. I'd load some after finding the right combo. Months later...shotgun patterns!!! I'd seat some .005 deeper and fell and hear the "weld" being broken! That's when I started loading into the lands, .020 using .002 "grip" of neck on bullet. My lands are 1° 30. I have fired some over a year after loading and tight groups are still there. I can still feel a " pop" occ if reseating these .005. I leave residue in my cases necks and this helps. I suspect the pressure required to break the "weld" is less than pressure required to overcome lands resistance.
 
OK, my head hurts. From now on I'm crimping all my bullets and to hell with the weld. With global warming (or not), the big floating plastic debris island, ISIS, water going down drains in different directions, Hillary jamming my cell communications, the damn fires here and gas at almost $4 a gallon, I don't care about the Bullet Weld conspiracy theory. I have loaded 22-250 ammo, media tumbled and let it sit for 5 years, still shot the same .5 MOA as the stuff I loaded the night before so the Bullet Weld Voodoo isn't affecting me.

YMMV

[rant "off"]
 
OK, my head hurts. From now on I'm crimping all my bullets and to hell with the weld. With global warming (or not), the big floating plastic debris island, ISIS, water going down drains in different directions, Hillary jamming my cell communications, the damn fires here and gas at almost $4 a gallon, I don't care about the Bullet Weld conspiracy theory. I have loaded 22-250 ammo, media tumbled and let it sit for 5 years, still shot the same .5 MOA as the stuff I loaded the night before so the Bullet Weld Voodoo isn't affecting me.

YMMV

[rant "off"]
If you are shooting at 100 yards it probably won't snow up. Move to a thousand and check once. Vertical is hard to see at 100 yards. Some bullets have lube on them from making them. That could have helped prevent it from happening. Matt
 

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