Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Cold weld over time?

This a real thing? Heard of it before but never thought much of it until recently when I tried to pull some bullets from rounds I loaded maybe a year ago and man were they hard to pull. Makes me wonder what would have happened had I tried to shoot them! So how long is too long? Is there any rule for shelf life? Or way to extend it? I have some rounds I loaded a couple weeks ago that I probably won’t get to shoot for several more weeks. Any concern? Where do you draw the line?

Nature of the beast. Shoot’em loose...😀😀😀

It happens. I had some stuff loaded for more than 20 years that did this only on a few cases. If you're concerned about pressure or loss of accuracy from differing bullet pull, seat the bullets .010 or .015" deeper & you will hear some crack pretty good when the bond breaks.

I'm curious. Did you load those in new or very clean brass? That seems to be the common thread in these cases, and another reason (besides laziness) that I seldom tumble my rifle brass before loading. I also use a dry inside neck lube. The "contamination" is supposed to make it hard for those pesky molecules to migrate between the case and bullet.

Is there enough difference between copper and brass for a galvanic reaction?
Or is it more likely a vacuum effect?
Cartridge gets warm and a little air escapes, cools down and sucks the neck tight?
Repeat however many times....

For sure its the real thing, and it only takes one to make you fully realize it.
For any hand loaded ammo especially the large capacity ones sitting around for a few years best to seat them slightly deeper as mentioned above. Listen carefully for the sound of a stick being broken as you do.

Yes, either new or ultrasonic cleaned brass.

So is this an issue in factory ammo then? Doesn’t seem to be. I’ve shot several year old factory ammo with no issues or pressure signs whatsoever. Never even thought of it as a problem. Why is this a problem in reloads?

Cold weld is the reason I would wait until the day before I went Pdog hunting to load... yes it’s real.

Bench shooters often load long, and reseat just before they shoot to defeat the cold weld issue.

SD Hunter,

I have some bullets I need to pull.

The loads were a little on the warm side. Never had an issue when the ammo didn't stay loaded long, but I have some that have set for years and cold welded and now I'm getting excessive pressure signs, so yea, it's a real thing.

I just leave brass a little dirty on the inside. There is such a thing as “too clean”!

Pappy, if this was addressed to me, I dont remember what I had for lunch yesterday. If I had to guess I'd say that outside of the necks were cleaned & inside necks were brushed only to get the loose stuff out before sizing. I've been using Imperial dry neck lube forever. Out of 20, maybe 5 or 6 made the cracking noise when reseating, so it's not an across the board thing. It was a 280 Rem. with RP brass & Nosler S.B. The same thing happened in about the same %ages with WW 22-250 & Hornadys, WW 7x57 with Noslers, as well as some 358 Winchester in Lapua brass with Speer 250s all likely processed the same way.

For the OP only a year seems like an awfully short time for this phenomenon to happen, but who knows?.

So is this something that is found happening with older military surplus ammunition and such? I am curious to hear more.

Ive seated old 30-06 rounds until they "pop"

After you feel and hear the "pop" you will believe the lock up

Sometimes the sealant in milsurp ammo will appear to do the same thing, making a "crack" sound when a bullet is seated slightly deeper, but that's different than cold welding. Sealant, laquer, wax/polish residue, etc are enough to prevent cold welding, which is why it's not generally an issue with factory ammo.

lastround is right - there is such a thing as "too clean".