sealing primers/bullets?

[troy_mclure]

do you seal your primers/bullets?

if so why, and what do you use?

[KAYR1]

I dont seal primers. Just store them right, handle them the least amount possible, usually just dump them into the primer flipper. There are commercial primer sealers out there if you want to use them. I hate cleaning primer pockets enough as it is, though I still do it. That stuff might make it even more painful for me

[John Traveler]

If you want to weather seal your cartridges, here is what works for me:

Take a sheet of thin plywood or cardboard, and drill or punch cartridge sized holes in them.  Insert loaded cartridges leaving the bases exposed.  Use Krylon Clear Polyurethane Finish to make a couple passes over the bases.  Perfect weatherseal.

For lead bullets, the lubricant is normally enough for waterproofing the ammo.  For jacketed bullets you can copy what the factories do for MIL-SPEC weathersealing.  Use a fine artist's paint brush and paint the inside of the primed case mouths with thinned asphaultum varnish.  You can get both at artist's supply stores.  The thinned asphaultum varnish is no more than tar dissolved in mineral spirits.  Let the asphaultum dry, then load powder and seat the jacketed bullet in the usual manner.  The military specification requires weatherproofing for 72 hours under 3 feet of water, and this process will do it.

[LaOtto222]

I do not seal my primers or bullets. I store them in plastic cartridge holders in a dry cool place. When I am in the field I carry them in a ammo wallet or some thing similar. I do not carry all my ammo with me. I always have some stored in a safe place. I suppose if I took a dunk (my mind would not be on hunting now), I would pull down the ammo that got wet and start using the ammo I had in reserve - but that has not happened yet. I do not load a large catch at a time - a few hundred at a time. Or if I am going on a PD hunt they will be shot up in a few days.

If I want to seal some for long term storage - I am talking 20 years or ammo you wanted to bury. They sell a primer sealer that you put a drop on the primer that goes around the joint between the case and the primer. After it sets it seals the primer, you can use the same thing for bullets. You just put a drop of it on the joint and it goes around the joint and then dries and seals. Here is a place you can get it.

http://www.midwayusa.com/Search/#primer%20sealer____-_

[Grumulkin]

I've never sealed primers or bullets but would probably do so if I were hunting in a pretty wet place.  I have some sealer I bought from Cabela's but haven't yet felt the need to use it.

[mangulator]

I guess if you want to store your ammo for years too come it maybe a good choice, but like others stated, I usually shoot the rounds up fast enough. I have taken a few dumps into rivers and small creeks during some of my hunting adventures and never worried about the ammo as long as its not just sitting in a foot or two of water for sometime. I have been in some wet weather and the ammo fires when it needs too.

[troy_mclure]

i was thinking about it because i live in a verry humid enviroment(south louisania) and am gon for a month or 2 at a time.

[bilmac]

I read once that the black tree pruning tar is about the same as what they use for military bullets, and I sealed my primers with finger nail polish. I can't remember how I applied the pruning tar, probably put it on the outside of the bullet, and wiped off the excess after the bullet was seated.

[wncchester]

Long ago, back in the 60s, when I was a noobie, I "sealed" some of my first -06 ammo with the wife's clear nail polish.  After a couple of seasons, I stopped that.  I never take more ammo into the woods than a magazine full and never pay any attention to it getting rained on.  No matter how much it rains on me, and it has a lot over those years, I've never had a failure to fire. 

Strongly suspect it would take a few days of submergence at some feet of depth before any moisture could penatrate the seal of either a normally installed primer or bullet.