Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Weld bonding

...that is a bullet bonding to the cartridge case over time. Eg:I decided to run some Hornady SST'S and GMX'S through my hunting rifle and found the loads showed signs of high pressure,tougher than normal extraction and catering primers and these were from the same lot of loads exactly. So I returned to my bench to find out why and pulled bullets with great effort and seated some deeper and heard a click.
Of course then I started to do some reading about this and is a real thing.I was using Hornady brass, and all other components checked out to.
I have put this info out there and have told all kinds of things and some disbelieving me.So ,What have you experienced?( I don't tumble clean and wipe out necks of Hornady sizing wax ) Tony

I had a couple of cases that were hard to extract at Quemado last year, and they were loads that I had been using for years. I just pulled some out of the 100 round container at random and shot them, as they were all the same loads. Might have been the problem. miles

It happens. Since I was able to start storing my bulk ammo in climate controlled, I've not really had an issue.

Before that 1000s of rounds would sit in the loading room in our TX heat and if not shot the year or two after loading would often cold weld a few adn or split necks badly.

I did start annealing necks if KNEW it would take some years before I might shoot it.

Wouldn't bumping the seating depth a little bit take care of the cold welds? It sure helped with the asphalt sealed necks on a bunch of Lake City M118 & M852 ammo a friend had.

Somewhere I've read of a serious shooter who deliberately loaded his cartridges long if they weren't to be used right away. He'd seat to the correct depth before going to a match.

Yep, seating bullets slightly deeper is an easy way to break the bond.

Another way to prevent it is not clean brass unless necessary, and it rarely is. Aside from wiping off cases that fall on the ground, I rarely clean 'em. The inside of the necks gets a light brushing, but not enough to remove the last light layer of powder-fouling. I haven't had a problem with cold-welding in many years.

I was surprised to see how much effort it took to break this bond with a
.277 caliber bullet
Next question- larger bullets have greater contact due to a larger surface are between bullet and cartridge case/neck. With a 45/70, has this bonding process ever caused failure with a firearm?
I am also a 45/70 user and ocassionally I here of rifle failures and it seems a mystery. Just wondering folks...Tony

I like reading you more and more

John,

Just to clarify, are you saying you don't clean the necks by tumbling? I put mine in for a fairly short while and the insides still look pretty dark.

I have never seen an issue in the 45-70. But I would point out that, while the surface area is somewhat greater, (depending on the bearing length of the bullet), it is actually less in the larger diameters relative to the surface area of the bullet's base so that plays into it I would imagine. I know that when interia-pulling bullets from loaded ammo, I'd much rather pound 300s out of 45-70 cases than 140s out of 6.5 Swede cases; the former being some of the easiest to pull, while the latter are some of the most difficult. (Of course, unlike with standard ignition bullet removal, interia pulling has nothing to do with bullet diameter.)

SOTG,

I don't clean brass at all by tumbling, unless absolutely forced to for some reason.

Dunno if tumbling "for a fairly short while" would prevent cold-welding or not.

I can't help but wonder if sometimes the cleaning additives we put in our tumbling media doesn't leave a layer behind and then become a problem between the brass and the bullet later on. I always check older ammo by seating deeper before heading to the range.... sometimes it's there and sometimes not.....I've seen the less of it with Hornady bullets for some reason.

I quit putting any additives at all in my walnut shell media, and I'm rarely tumbling them anymore anyway.

I don't know if weld bonding was my trouble, but I don't tumble cases with or without cleaning additives. I do run a brush through the necks, in and out a couple of times. miles

I have a one pound can of HBN and have been lubing the inside of my case necks with it using a nylon brush to (maybe) keep the cold weld thing at bay and to help with a uniform bullet seat and release.
Does it work? I have no idea. But I do it anyway.

Thank you, sir.

I've read the same. Don't know if it's the same source, but it's a good idea.

In all my years of loading/shooting/hunting it has only happened to me 1 X.
They were 06 loads that had been loaded more than 2 yrs.

It is real as is evident from the responses here.

Jerry

Is the problem happening with new brass also or is it only after tumbling used brass?
If the cleaning process by tumbling is causing this issue. Would setting the brass aside after tumbling for a week or so before reloading cure this problem?

Tumbling has never gotten the insides of case necks really clean for me, even with nut shells and added cleaner. Maybe ceramic would. Usually, my cleaning consists of wiping them off with a rag to get any grit off.

When I FLS, I dip the necks in powdered mica or lately one of the little tubs full of powdered lube and beads. That ought to be enough contamination to stop cold welding.

And a very hearty "Thank You!" from here as well.

Wasn't Weld Bonding the wagon master on "Wagon Train"?