Bullet weld?

antelopedundee

antelopedundee

internet bum
How common is it? Why would it happen for one round in a box of reloads and not another?

What likely caused this? Bullet weld or obstructed barrel? Something else? Not mine. Cases are the ones from rounds fired right before the BIG ONE!

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The fourth case from the left has damage that could be consistent with something in the chamber & all of them suggest brisk loads at the least or oversized cases.

I'd be looking for operator error first.
 
What's the barrel look like?
Looks like case failure....or what the barrel look like????

Case on the left. Has a cracked neck....All look very well used brass. In a Savage, that's not good....

What kind of primers and how old ?....I have used most primers. They look real old.....very badly tarnished....

Last edit. All cases appear to be cracked or damaged.

Why are the shoulders shiney? They are too clean.......
 
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John Kielly said:
The fourth case from the left has damage that could be consistent with something in the chamber & all of them suggest brisk loads at the least or oversized cases.

I'd be looking for operator error first.
Click to expand...

He says that he fired 5 or 6 handloads without incident and then all hell broke loose.

Reloads from a couple years ago , store in ammo box in a shooting bag.
Rifle is a 22-250 Savage Model 10
Bullets are 55Gn Hornady V-Max
35GN of Varget Powder

I'm not a .22-250 man but are those loads too light? Could be the one that went was even lighter.
 
medium load in a Savage M-10. 5-6 reloads pushing it....in a .223 rem.
22-250 he just won the lotto of life....Go buy some lotto tickets....

Case head separation. The web is too thin.

Unless he left a patch in the chamber to keep his trigger clean......and barrel lubed, till next time....
Heard stranger stuff....
A little snow will blast a barrel wide open....it's on youtube. A shot gunner liked to rest his shotgun on his toe.
Forgot he was hunting. The little snow on his boot and a 30-06 split the barrel like a banana....
 
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I don't see the cracked neck or damaged case. Perhaps my eyes aren't that good? What I do see is that the loads must have been quite stiff. Looks like the marks from the chamber reamer are engraved on the cases. He says 35 grains of varget, but who knows if the measurement was accurate.

What I suspect is that his powder bridged in the measure or something and the last load was so low that it detonated - the primer spark bridged both ends of the powder as it lay in the bottom of the case. I have heard of this happening with exactly the same result as we see in the pictures. You get a pressure wave from both ends and they meet in the middle with explosive results.
 
zippy06 said:
What's the barrel look like?
Looks like case failure....or what the barrel look like????

Case on the left. Has a cracked neck....All look very well used brass. In a Savage, that's not good....

What kind of primers and how old ?....I have used most primers. They look real old.....very badly tarnished....

Last edit. All cases appear to be cracked or damaged.

Why are the shoulders shiney? They are too clean.......
Click to expand...


It's posted on the Long Range Hunting forums by member normyt. It seems as tho when he threw his charges with a measure he may have undercharged a case.
 
harrells

Ive gotta weigh every charge in my Harrells unless in throwing vv-n133. Theres probably other powders out there you don't have to weigh but I try to be on the safe side. Im a cripple with one good eye. I don't need to lose anything else. Doug
 
Doug Casner said:
Ive gotta weigh every charge in my Harrells unless in throwing vv-n133. Theres probably other powders out there you don't have to weigh but I try to be on the safe side. Im a cripple with one good eye. I don't need to lose anything else. Doug
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I've never used Varget. Is it a stick type ike IMR4831? I'd only throw something like a ball powder. I used SR4756 in .38 special loads because it's near impossible to double charge and not know it. Still got a lot I'll probably never use.
 
Harrells

Ive got 2 Harrells. One premium measure and one black one, I don't know the model, the premium bridges worse than the cheaper one. I try to use all ball but I ve got a lot of extruded layin around. Gotta do something with it. Keep on weighing. Doug
 
Mr. Harrell, If your on here, Im not giving the measure bad press. It throws ball great, within a tenth. Ive just got a bunch of old extruded Ive gotta use up. I wasn't knockin your product . They sure speed up loading when you got the right stuff. I know youre on here sometimes so I clearsd that up. Doug
 
Do the commercial loaders like Federal, et al use the short cut version of the stick powders considering the speed at which they load ammo? I suppose I could pull a bullet and look, but I'd just as soon not.
 
Lake City used Winchester ball powder. I don't know what they used when Dupont ran the plant. Federal runs it now and I aint got a clue.
 
To all who think ball powder throws good..... my testing (and pulling rounds 'til two in the morning a couple times) has taught me that ball powder throws no better than short stick.
 
Guess I am too old school , Yes I use a thrower-have a few, I always throw Short and trickle up on a beam scale, I do not trust the electronic ones, they might be better now days but they float to much for my liking nor do I trust a thrower to be 100% accurate. One thing I think I noticed in the pictures- primer cratering a bit if the bottom was the first shot progressing up + the other mentioned items to me indicates hot load to start with add heat from unit being fired plus any external heat- hot day, full sun- how long un-fired round sat in hot chamber- things can go south quick.
Never heard of bullet weld before but maybe that is some sort of local term for a case neck that is too thick for the chamber+ brass + bullet combination.
Stretched case? from expander ball thinning out brass down below- just another thought as I have done that to my self leading to case head separation in a 25-35 long time ago.( no disaster though , just a royal pain to get the case out- TC pistol and I was likely pushing the envelope a bit as well)
 
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blades said:
Guess I am too old school , Yes I use a thrower-have a few, I always throw Short and trickle up on a beam scale, I do not trust the electronic ones, they might be better now days but they float to much for my liking nor do I trust a thrower to be 100% accurate. One thing I think I noticed in the pictures- primer cratering a bit if the bottom was the first shot progressing up + the other mentioned items to me indicates hot load to start with add heat from unit being fired plus any external heat- hot day, full sun- how long un-fired round sat in hot chamber- things can go south quick.
Never heard of bullet weld before but maybe that is some sort of local term for a case neck that is too thick for the chamber+ brass + bullet combination.
Stretched case? from expander ball thinning out brass down below- just another thought as I have done that to my self leading to case head separation in a 25-35 long time ago.( no disaster though , just a royal pain to get the case out- TC pistol and I was likely pushing the envelope a bit as well)
Click to expand...

Bullet weld would be some sort of electrochemical/galvanic reaction between the bullet jacket metal and the case neck with the result being that the bullet bonds to the case. Some say to seat your bullets long and then reseat them to your normal depth before firing to break any bond which may have formed. Or plug one end of a kinetic bullet puller with asswipe so that you don't pull the bullet all of the way out and reseat afterwards. It seems unlikely to me that if you reload 50 fired cases in one sitting that one would weld and the other 49 not.
 
I may be speaking out of turn here. Never having blown up a rifle (though I've ruined a pistol...) I don't speak from experience. First, I don't think it has anything to do with the cases. A case failure wouldn't cause that kind of wreckage to the receiver / scope etc. That round was special. It might be special because it was overcharged, or because it followed a squib or ??? If it was a barrel obstruction it was farther down the bore than a primer alone would push it. I can't tell the barrel thickness, but a reasonably heavy barrel will absorb a few obstructed shots without damaging the receiver (and usually leave enough evidence behind to definitively determine what happened). I've had one, and seen a few and they normally result in a split barrel in addition to whatever collateral damage. To me it looks like some manner of over-charge / incorrect powder. Of course I'm going solely from the photos and little description. All this I say by way of discourse. I should not speak so candidly were it my duty to be believed.

GsT
 
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