Seating bullets prior to shooting

[cmysix]

I believe Eric Cortina does this, I also believe he's got a video on it.

 

[michaeljp65]

I was rechecking a load for my PPC the other month. I loaded 25 rounds at x BTO. When i finished the first 5 i noticed that i was .001 to long so i seated them again to the desired length. I finished the other 20 at the correct BTO length. The 5 i reseated gave me the smallest group, .125" the others were in the .2's. Just a coincidence, maybe.

 

[Varminterror]

Cold welding by galvanic corrosion really represents a breakdown of ammunition manufacturing and storage. Galvanic welding requires an electrolyte carrier fluid to transmit ions between the two dissimilar metals, which simply shouldn't be happening when it comes to lubricated necks and well stored ammunition (dry, cool, etc).

"Stiction" is another phenomenon which can occur when we have copper and brass in contact without lubrication - necks and bullets too clean - such there is a near-molecular bond between the surfaces, and the coefficient of static friction increases significantly.

It's kinda cool to experiment if a guy owns a press capable of measuring seating force such as the 21st century hydro press, K&M Force Pack Press, or AMP Press. Easy enough to set up and see if a bullet requires more force to displace (seat slightly deeper) whether it has been seated for 3 days, or seated for 3 days, then moved once.

 

[whatsupdoc]

I would like to add that many shooters like a layer of carbon be left in their case necks
enhancing accuracy. Carbon is hygroscopic, that is it attracts moisture.

If your carbon coated case necks are drawing moisture from the air you now have provided the electrolyte for the reaction to start.

Down the rabbit hole.

 

[savageshooter86]

I seat long then final seat night before match when I preload for a weekend or week long shoot. No issues. they do “pop” when re seating but haven’t noticed anything different on target

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Shot a 100-200 BR match yesterday with ammo left over from a match in early September of last year. Finished 2nd and the gun/ammo shot well all day...fwiw. 6 month old ammo, roughly.

 

[searcher]

The galvanic issue is one reason to shoot molied loads. I've never had issues with "welding" with molied bullets, even when I had to prepare them a couple of months in advance & ship them overseas.

On the other hand, I just dug up a box of .222 magnum loads I put together maybe 40 years ago & they are solid in the necks. I tried to recover the cases for a friend, but I stopped well short of breaking them free using my percussion tool, respecting my wellbeing.

Amen! About 15-20 years ago, I also found that I could load a truck load of varmint ammo a year in advance and not have those cold-welding issues if they were moly coated. For that purpose, I swear by that stuff. The other day, I decided to pull 50 non-coated bullets from a batch of 7mm Rem Mag ammo I had loaded about 6 months ago. I couldn't believe the bond that had developed in that short of a period of time. A while back, I pulled some .375 H&H rounds from factory ammo I bought 20 years ago. They were so seized up, I can only wonder what the pressure would have been firing them. And ammo was stored decently in a climate that is fairly arid.

 

[Varminterror]

If your carbon coated case necks are drawing moisture from the air you now have provided the electrolyte for the reaction to start.

You have now provided moisture. Water isn’t inherently electrolytic - pure water is NOT electrolytic, and water as we consume is a weak electrolyte. We have to have enough salt (electrolytes) to carry the galvanic potential.

Galvanic corrosion does happen to ammo, but I’m convinced its greatest prevalence is online, rather than on ammo.