Sealed Primers in the Great Outdoors?

[KBintheSLC]

I was loading up my new Glock 20 the other night with some new defensive ammo for the woods and I got to thinking... why are these primers not sealed like many of my other ammo choices?

It is good quality ammo from DoubleTap, but the primers are not sealed with lacquer like my factory 9mm Golden Sabers or my Barnaul 7.62 AK ammo. So, my question is, if I am mainly using these for wilderness travel, should I seal the primers to keep rain waters out? If so, will auto touch-up paint work, or do I need something special to seal them?

Thanks.

 

[rcmodel]

If you don't plan to live in a foxhole full of water, it's really not necessary.

Put your spare ammo in a zip-lock bag or plastic ammo box.

rcmodel

 

[DWARREN123]

Sealed primers are used for combat/extended storage of ammunition by the military. You will probably never ever need ammo with a sealed primer.

 

[scrat]

agree with the others. Non of my reloads have their primers sealed

 

[The Bushmaster]

Seal primers on rifle or pistol cartridges? Don't bother...No need unless you plan on surfacing from a river with plans to shoot someone...Or maybe a "mall ninja"...

 

[g.willikers]

It is very hard for moisture to get inside a loaded round. After a day at the range, many times an extra round or two has found it's way into our washing machine, hidden in a jeans pocket.
Talk about getting wet......
They always fired the next time and they were usually homemades in old cases, many times reloaded.
Don't worry.

 

[KBintheSLC]

So you guys think its only needed if the ammo is submerged for long periods? It got pretty darned soaked on a rainy hike a few weeks ago, but the ammo still worked when I shot it out. I'm just wondering how much direct moisture it can handle before it fails.

 

[Halo]

As others have noted, it's mainly intended for long term storage of military ammo, particularly when storage conditions might be less than ideal.

If you really want to seal yours, I've heard of people using nail polish for that purpose.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

If you're that worried about it, just buy some primer sealant and slap it on there.

 

[kingpin008]

KB - there have been tests done (the one done by the guys over at Box O' Truth comes to mind) where they applied different liquids, including oil, solvent, and water directly to the primers of loaded rounds, and left them to sit for various lengths of time - sometimes weeks. None of the rounds showed any penetration, or loss of fucntion. Your ammo is not going to be affected by being rained upon.

 

[KBintheSLC]

Sounds like it is not something to worry about under my current circumstances. Thanks for the info.

 

[Cosmoline]

I had a string of duds on bear defense handloads that I had failed to seal. Since then I always do it.

 

[kingpin008]

To be fair, that could have been caused by any number of things, including light primer strikes, bad primers from the factory, or a bad batch of powder.

I think that if you want to seal the primers yourself it's probably not a bad idea, but the fact seems to be that for water (or any other type of liquid contamination) to be able to seep into a loaded round it would take a heck of a long time and extremely poor conditions.

 

[KBintheSLC]

I had a string of duds on bear defense handloads that I had failed to seal. Since then I always do it.

What do you use to seal them?

 

[Wes Janson]

About the absolute only application that might concievably have a vested interested in sealed primers would be scuba divers looking for ammo for their bang sticks. I had a very interesting conversation with a diver who came in one day looking for .357 Mag for his bang stick, to defend against sharks; neither of us had any knowledge of the other's hobby, so it was quite educational for both parties.

 

[B36]

A couple of years ago, while staffing an LFI II course, I saw ammo that was rained on, fail to a 3+% level, the day after the rain. Both in .357 and 44. All reloads.

If I carry it, it will be sealed.

 

[Cosmoline]

What do you use to seal them?

Just George & Roys. I use the different colors to distinguish loads as well.

To be fair, that could have been caused by any number of things, including light primer strikes, bad primers from the factory, or a bad batch of powder.

Not really. It was a Mosin with no striker problems at all. The primers went off but the powder had been exposed to water and failed to ignite, sending the wad into the chamber. Happened on three of them out of the unsealed batch. I never had that happen with the sealed batches. Upon inspection the powder showed signs of having been moist. The powder at home is fine, and I still use it (Varget). It was most likely the effect of being in a jacket pocket moist with a mix of rain water and sweat. There was enough water on the round to seep around the primer and into the charge. The primers themselves didn't seem to care, but the charge was made unreliable.

Keep in mind, this particular batch had been exposed to ambient moisture from pocket sweat, chamber moisture and the Alaska woods for one season. The rounds were repeatedly loaded and unloading coming and going from fishing, the woods, etc. I was extremely glad in hindsight that I never had to use it that year!! Since then I have been sealing anything I intend to use outside the range. Never had a similar problem with any reliable factory ammo, and I believe it is *ALL* sealed at the factory.

 

[Rustynuts]

I've heard of people using nail polish.