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Case prep and sealing

2K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  Majorlk 
#1 ·
Hey guys, new here, but I have been shooting for as long as I can remember and started reloading about a year ago. Anywho, the only cases that I have reloaded so far have been the stuff that I shot and pick up after myself, the majority of those cases were store bought so that I could get a decent brass inventory up. I recently obtained a metric butt ton of DoD once fired 9mm from a friend, most of which was shot and swept up that day. However, I have run across a few really old and tarnished pieces of brass whose headstamp is about 4-5 years older than the rest of them. My question to you is, how do you get these really old cases polished up and new looking. I have a Frankford Arsenal tumbler that has been really good to me. I use walnut media and works amazingly well on all the new, once fired stuff, but after even a few loads, I keep throwing the really old stuff in there to see if they will get better, but to no avail. Any tips on how to pretty them up?

Ok, next question, say I wanted to seal my primers to make them more weather resistant. Does anyone sell primer sealant or can I use nail polish or something similar? Thanks for your help.
 
#2 ·
If they're tarnished enough that they won't clean up in a tumbler, I'd trash them. A few pennies worth of brass isn't worth blowing up a gun from a case failure.

Unless you're planning on swimming with your ammo belt on, I wouldn't worry about sealing the primers. You're much more likely to get moisture intrusion around the bullet than around the primer. The military seals their ammo because a soldier may have to wade creeks, rivers, swamps, etc. up to his neck with his ammo in tow. I've hunted the majority of my life using reloaded ammo in some extremely unfriendly weather conditions and I've never had a round fail to fire.

Hoss
 
#3 ·
Yes, there is a commercial case sealer. But like CVHOSS said, unless you're planning on swimming with your ammo or spending days standing in the rain, it probably isn't needed.

I don't get too concerned about the "shine" of my brass. I want it clean so it doesn't harm my carbide die. If it's only a small amount and it causes you concern, I'd say toss them. Could they be steel or some other alloy? If so, ylou may not want to reload them anyhow.
 
#4 ·
One more vote for not needing to seal anything. As long as the primer pockets are tight and you have a properly sized and crimped case, nothing is going to get into the case, including water, WD-40, RemOil or anything else.

You can throw your ammo in a buck of water for a week and it will shoot just like "dry" ammo. Been there; done that; proved it - years ago.

As for making the brass look "pretty", there are all sorts of polishing compounds you can add to the polishing media to make brass shine. Unless you are wearing some kind of dress rig and want to show off, it isn't worth the effort, IMHO.
 
#5 ·
I don't worry about stubborn tarnish unless the surface of the brass is also degraded by pitting or roughness. If only a stain remains after cleaning, the cases is cycled through the loading process. Some .38 Special and .45 ACP cases I load regularly have been reloaded many times over many years time though they are ugly. The cartridge case's value is for the function it serves and not for its external appearance unless one obsesses about such things.

I have a couple of tumblers but rarely use them. I occasionally tumble cases to clean up an accumulation of scrounged range brass or for small batches of deprimmed brass that I'm preparing for special accuracy applications and cleaned primer pockets are especially desired. Most often I just wash cases, soaking them in warm water with added vinegar, then rinsing and allowing them thoroughly dry. Sitting them case mouth up in the warm sun will dry in an afternoon, even down into the spent primer. Otherwise just wash them several days in advance of the intended loading session so that they may be completely dry.

Primers fail mostly when contaminated by oil or chemicals before or during the loading process or else because they were incorrectly seated in some fashion. While it isn't desirable, it is amazing how many times primers will still function even when seated crocked or half crushed in the seating process.

Both military and some commercial ammunition employs a primer sealant but I don't know what it is nor the process for its application. Perhaps it has some value for ammunition that could be stored for extended periods in less than ideal conditions. The primer in military ammunition is also typically crimped into place as well yet handloaders don't fret about crimping. They can't anyway as there is no method available to them for crimping primers into cases.

Sealing primers appears to be an exercise in futility to me. I've also used thoroughly wet handloaded ammunition and have never had a failure to fire. I've also never found that primers in handloaded ammunition deteriorate with age. In the past 10 years, I've fired some .30-30, .220 Swift, and .257 Roberts ammunition that a good friend loaded up in the 1950s and 1960s. All worked perfectly.

I'm not about to waste time fiddling with some substance and a method for sealing primers. As far as I know there is no commercial product specifically marketed as a primer sealant and I wouldn't use it if there was. Some recommend using nail polish or even hair spray which is just silly. None of my admittedly older loading manuals recommend primer sealing nor do they give any instructions in how to accomplish primer sealing. Sealant material could flake off and accumulate, gumming up the works. In worse case scenarios, some substances pressed into service as a sealer could collect in firing pin channels, extractors, or locking lugs, rendering the firearm unreliable.

Attempts to apply sealers to primers is of limited benefit and could aggravate some conditions which could decrease the reliability of the ammunition.
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
I've sat in water with shotgun shells submerged before and never had a problem with a primer failing to function,wet powder was a problem until I swithed to Drylok shells,water seeping in around a crimped bullet and seated primer would be highly unlikely unless it was submerged for a long time,if you don't believe me reload a bullet and throw it in a bucket of water,then after several days pull it out wipe it dry load it in the gun and pull the trigger.
 
#8 ·
Thanks Hoss, I learned something today.

I read the blurb.

"...will even keep moisture out up to 30 days of water submersion."

One has to wonder if handloaded ammunition would have remained just as dry inside if it was submerged 30 days without the sealer.
 
#9 ·
I will check it out,I'm going to reload 4 9mm FMJ round and throw them in a bucket of water,every week I will remove 1 round and take it to the gun range and try to fire it,will post results
 
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