Recently a product was recommended to us, a device to apply sealant to the primer and bullet for the purposes of making them resistant to water. Military ammunition typically has a sealant applied surrounding the primer in the primer pocket, as well as to the projectile where it is seated in the case mouth. Some commercial ammunition is sealed similarly.
It has been my experience that my reloads have repeatedly survived getting wet without compromising the integrity of the ammunition. Usually this is shooting a match in the rain. On more than one occasion I have had to shoot in a prone position while laying in a few inches of ice water. Range bags have gotten wet, and plastic ammo boxes left open will fill with water. However, these are all short-duration circumstances. I recently had the opportunity to test some ammunition that suffered long-term exposure to water (and heat).
A long-time employee recently suffered a catastrophic house fire. A lot of his ammo cooked off from the intense heat. Plastic ammunition storage boxes melted over reloads, trapping water in the melted box. Even GI ammunition cans were unable to protect ammunition from the high-pressure water hoses used to put out the fire. Still-closed ammo cans were opened only to find them partially full of water. This ammunition was exposed to the elements for months, in puddles of ash-filled water until eventually recovered during the cleanup process. Out of this tragedy came opportunity. We were provided 10 rounds of GI 5.56mm ball ammunition, grungy but with military sealant. We were also provided another 10 rounds of his 5.56mm reloads, which were unsealed. And as icing on this grim cake, we were also provided some 22 Long Rifle ammo for testing.
556 Reloads with Unsealed Primers
556 Reloads with Sealed Primers
This waterlogged ammo accompanied us to a local range, along with a Garmin Xero C1 Pro chronograph. The Garmin unit is compact, taking up little real estate on the public range bench. The reloads were fired first, using an AR type rifle with milspec internals. No light hammerfalls here! None of the reloaded cartridges fired. Next, the GI ammunition was tested. The first three went off just fine. The fourth one had a much lower velocity and stuck in the chamber. Ultimately, a cleaning rod and a hammer proved necessary to remove the case from the chamber. Testing on the 5.56mm ammunition then ceased.
Velocities were as follows:
Round 1 3236 fps
Round 2 3195 fps
Round 3 3120 fps
Round 4 2145 fps
Testing then switched to the 22 Long Rifle ammunition. The boxes show noticeable water exposure but held together. A Marlin bolt action rifle was used for this testing. In short, not one of the 22 rimfire cartridges went off. To verify the functionality of the test gun, a box of the Aguila 40 gr HV ammo was fired, all successfully.
Wet 22 Long Rifle ammunition
A sample 5.56mm reload was pulled down. It took a noticeably greater number of whacks with a kinetic bullet puller to disassemble the cartridge than usual. Most of the powder stayed in the case. What poured out was clumpy. I’ve seen this before, in squib handgun misfires. The powder clumps but doesn’t burn. The exposed lead on the base of the bullet was severely oxidized, due to moisture inside the case. The case was corroded both inside and out.
Wet 5.56 Sample Reload (Clumped Powder)
This was a most extreme test. Quite honestly, we were shocked that any of this ammunition went off, let alone at acceptable velocities. So, if storing reloads for long-term use, you might consider applying sealant to the primer and projectile. It definitely improved the viability of this ammunition!
1 Comment
Danny Krumnow
I have been Sealing my Ammo for years. I use Fingernail Polish which contains the same ingredients as Commercial Sealer.
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