[Keith]

I've been buying a lot of NATO .762 ammo lately and have a question.

There is generally a colored sealant around the primer. This comes in different colors; red, purple, green, etc. Does this mean anything? I mean, could this indicate steel vs lead core, or year or manufacturing facility?

I've become curious because it would seem like a clear sealant would suit, but it's generally colored.

Keith

[SDC]

Modern primer sealant colours usually don't mean anything, the colour is just there so that when a lot is accepted by the military, they can SEE that the primer's been sealed. WW2 and earlier ammo can be a different story; the Germans had a complex code of bullet, head, primer and sometimes neck colour codes, and the Japanese indicated different loadings (explosive, incendiary, etc.)with neck and primer sealant colours.
HTH.