sealant question

[Moonshot]

I have a question on some recent ammo I purchased. I’m not worried about it, I’m not concerned, I’m just curious about some differences I saw.

I recently picked up several cases of Federal 124gr HST (P9HST1). It’s all new production 50 round boxes with the new style packaging. In the 1st case, the rounds have blue primer sealant but no visible bullet sealant. The application of the primer sealant looks “sloppy”. Not in the sense that is wasn’t done properly, just that is wasn’t applied neatly and evenly around the primer. There are splotches of sealant. It almost looks as if adding the primer was an afterthought.

The 2nd case also has the same new box style, but these boxes are longer, by about an inch. The ammo also has sealed primers, but this time it looks like it was done carefully, one round at a time, carefully encircling each primer with sealant and leaving nothing else around the base of the round. In addition, I can clearly see the bullets are also sealed around the case mouth.

Again, I’m not worried about any of them nor am I complaining about how Federal is sealing their ammo. I am simply wondering why the difference. I now have HST in 50 round LE boxes with no sealant, with sealant that looks like a 3 year old applied it and with sealant that looks like, well, an artist applied it. These last also have the bullet sealed.

It can’t be random. Someone must have decided this batch gets no sealant, this other batch gets the sloppy sealant and nothing on the bullet, and this last batch gets the full monty.

Is it simply the luck of the draw or is there some secret squirrel code that decides which lot gets what treatment. If it matters, these aren’t 20-round boxes from Cabela’s. These are all 50-round LE ammo in cases purchased from Streichers.

[witchking777]

I've had the same thing happen to me. The ones without sealant may actually have clear sealant. I've also had red sealant on the primer as well.

[Outpost75]

The required military practice is for a visible lacquer sealant around the primer. Glidden purple indicator is a compliant commercial product. Pre-WW2 commercial ammunition often used a clear sealant and the ammo boxes carried the identification Oiltite or OilProof in law enforcement calibers.

The. Military practice for bullet sealant since WW2 has been to apply an asphaltic varnish inside the case mouth, which is allowed to dry before bullet seating. The commercial product is identified in the trade as Black Lucas.

While lacquer has been used as bullet sealant, doing so does not always meet military shock, vibration and environmental standards where the ammunition is cold soaked below zero, dropped onto a hard surface from a height of 1 metre, then immersed in water while pulling vacuum on the test container, no more than 1 bubble being allowed.

Winchester law enforcement data sheets identify Black Lucas. The primers themselves are laquer sealed in manufacture, the color serving to identify the primer type and also to mitigate against accumulations of explosive primer dust in the loading machines. Having the primer lacquered, the primer pocket sealed and Black Lucas around the bullet is the best manufacturing process normally specified for military and Federal LE contracts.