I was not sure where to post this one because I don’t shoot a lot of factory loaded ammo. I’ve been applying car wax to my to handloads for several months so as to keep moisture and oxygen away from them in Iowa’s atmosphere. I prefer to assemble them when the humidity is low (winter with the wood burners dry heat is best. Summer with the A/C is second best.).

I can NOT report any negative aspects to this practice in my firearms, except my time and effort to do it. Velocity over a clock is right there where it should be. No harm to firearms or brass that I can detect.

I have only two concerns at this time;

#1 Bolt thrust

#2 Putting George and Roy’s fingernail polish company out of business

Three positive things,

#1 Ammo sheds water like a new car

#2 Ammo “looks” great.

#3 Works with factory ammo

I sure would enjoy the board’s thoughts on this matter.

Cheezywan

I've got a couple of cars I can bring over. I've waxed the metal on rifles to keep them from rusting, but never did that to ammo. I was shooting some reloads I found in storage last month that I know was better than 20 years old. It all went bang so It was OK I guess.

I never thought about the bolt thrust thing, but it might increase some perhaps. You've got, depending on the cartridge 50 to 60 thousand pounds pressure holding it in the chamber.

All in all an interesting question that perhaps some of our members can help out with this one.

Cheezy, I have never put any sealant or protective barrier on ammo I have reloaded. I still have 40 or so rounds of 175gr 8x57, and 30 85gr 9x19 I loaded up 14 years ago. It is still as accurate as the day it was loaded. I like the idea, quite ingenious, but in my area during hunting season a snow barrier would be better. Temperature is more of an issue (20 to 100). Jim

I have some old ammo around also. Stored it well in my home. Like faucettb, I have used wax to protect firearms during wet hunting conditions. That is where the idea came from.

I have noticed that 22 long rifle ammo can sometimes be sorta waxy. Particularly the bulk pack stuff. Seems to work ok.
Just something to ponder on.

Cheezywan

If you look at Swiss GP11 Ammo it has what appears to be a wax type of ring at the end of the neck to seal the cartridge.
http://www.swissrifles.com/ammo/index.html#7.5

I ran some .3-06 reloads through the washing machine years ago. New R-P brass, WW primers, and Nosler Ballistic Tips. Think the powder was 4350 for what that's worth.

Glad I found them before they went through the dryer!

Much to my surprise, they all went bang.

That episode suggested to me that worrying about sealing ammo is perhaps a bit overrated.

Will the wax hurt anything? I'm inclined to think not, only because I lube cases with either Dillon case lube (which is lanolin dissolved in alcohol), or lanolin straight from the tube. In either case, my reloads always feel a tad greasy and that doesn't seem to hurt anything.

My feeling is that the car wax isn't a good enough lubricant to make any difference, but that's a guess and I could be wrong......

I've had a few (.32acp) rounds squib on me after repeated swims in Lake Michigan (yes, I carry a pocket gun when I'm swimming. Think I'd leave it on the beach?)

They all went "bang" but a couple barely did so and needed a manual cycle, so I now put primer sealant on the case mouths & primers just in case.

Haven't had that problem since.

Cheezy - I don't see a lot of difference in what you're doing with car wax and using Imperial Die Sizing Wax. I've wiped down finished loads using Imperial just to keep the copper bullet jacket from oxidizing from handling during the reload process. It works great and ammo that is stored long term look as good as the day you made them.

Anybody ever used finger nail polish to seal the primer into the primer pocket?

I started an experiment this evening. Made two squib loads in 44 mag brass. FLS in Lee die set. WWLP primer. 0.0 grains of Iowa air for powder (so much for ammo that must work :) ). I seated two old 240 grain JHP bullets that I do not know who made them or how I came to possess them? Firm roll crimp with the Lee seater die. I marked one and gave it a wax job (TurtleWax). Weighed them both. Unwaxed cartridge weighed 355.0 grains. Waxed cartridge weighed 353.8 grains. Deep sixed them in butter tub full of water. Let’s see what happens?

flashhole. You make a good point! I have fired alot of rounds without cleaning the sizing lube off. Never did see any harm from that. Wipe-off with a ragg was plenty good enough. I did not have a tumbler then. Perhaps I don't need one now?

My intention for starting the thread was to "suggest" a method of improving the ammo that you already shoot! Factory or handload.
"Good" or "bad" idea was the question part?
I'm gonna play with it abit :) . I will post back if I see anything.

Cheezywan

This past weekend I shoot 50 rounds of 44 magnum ammo that I loaded over 30 years ago. I found the stuff on a shelf in my barn (defiantly not climate controlled) and wondered if they would shoot. They were labeled 240 gr jacketed flat point with 21 gr H110 and WW magnum pistol primer. They all went bang with no problem. I retumbled the cases and plan to reload the brass again.

There was an article in a recent guns and ammo about the author submersing several different boxes of 9mm ammo of varying sealants in water and firing 5 rounds per week to see when failures would occur. None of the rounds failed.

24 hours have gone by. I let them stand nose down on a paper towel for awhile and then gave them a roll to dry the outside.
I can report NO CHANGE in weight for either.

"Deepsixed" them again and put them outside. Let's see what a temperature swing does?

Cheezywan

A 24 hour test under water. Same as last post. I see no change in weight with either of my squib loads. Not the first time my thinking has been flawed. I know that I could make them fail by messing with physics. I won't do that.
I crafted these "squibs" just like I would have done with "bussiness" ammo with very common tools.

That speaks "very highly" for the munitions industry as a whole in my mind(OLTO)!

Thank's all for posting and reading.

Cheezywan

Cheezy - I don't see a lot of difference in what you're doing with car wax and using Imperial Die Sizing Wax. I've wiped down finished loads using Imperial just to keep the copper bullet jacket from oxidizing from handling during the reload process. It works great and ammo that is stored long term look as good as the day you made them.

Anybody ever used finger nail polish to seal the primer into the primer pocket?
--I often use Mother's metal polish on cases and seal bullets and primers with Hard As Nails fingernail polish. Clear, Red, or Black depending on which type load I'm using. A simple color code and weather proof in one.

Been following and not posting, hoping someone else would post the obvious...but it looks like it's up to me.

Just when would you want ammo that "might" work?

Granted, many rounds are fired in plinking or just casual practice, but is it reallly that much trouble to load ALL your ammo to the highest standards? (after all...Murphy's Law...there is a real chance that you could be in a serious situatiuon but have the gun loaded with your "good enough for goofing off" ammo).

When playing a game of “Russian Roulette”? Leave the “maybe pile” near your opponent that will load for your turn.

Above is a joke!

Ribbonstone has re-enforced “my” intent of this thread. I am not sure of” his” intent?

I want to make ammo better. Factory or handload. I don’t care what it’s used for. Hunting, defense, offence, plinking. Waxing is a step in quality control that anyone can do to any ammo that they choose.

I chose the wrong title for the thread! Should have been “Waxing cases for reliability” or similar.

I sure enjoy reading what you folks write!

Cheezywan

Ribbonstone has re-enforced “my” intent of this thread. I am not sure of” his” intent?



Nothing controversial. Was just thinking of the possibility of only having what ammuntion you could recover, and finding that the one box was marked "range loads" (or soimthing like that to indicate it was less than the absolute best).

Nothing controversial. Was just thinking of the possibility of only having what ammuntion you could recover, and finding that the one box was marked "range loads" (or soimthing like that to indicate it was less than the absolute best).

Ok. Good point. I guess my two squib loads above for the test may be the first time I intentionally loaded ammo that should not work (did “work” for the test). I must admit to buying or making something less that premium for plinking purposes though. An example might be the bulk 22 ammo. It “works” in the sense that it mostly goes bang. Does not “work” so well in the sense that it’s accuracy and terminal performance make it suitable for hunting small game animals. I don’t mean to say that it won’t kill them. Do mean to say that there are other loads that “work” better.

The waxing idea was intended to “enhance” the durability of whatever you use, for whatever purpose you use it for. It yielded no data in my small two-day experiment.
Might help under other circumstances?

I am also thinking of katrina here. I do remember your "formula" for duplicating the conditions from katrina. Very severe test it was. I can't imagine that wax would have done alot of good there concidering the mix.

I wish you well sir.

Cheezywan (Forever a student)

A couple of plastic sealed .308 Battle Packs (British) did survive..found them in the back yard. I still don't trust if for anything serious, but so far none of them has given any trouble. Can't count that as a big "win" as nothing that fired .308 survived.

Factory loaded, sealed at both ends with sealant (primer and neck sealant), vacuuum packed in thick plastic, and stored in an old metal ammo can. Not all of the ammo cans held, the seals on some evidently weren't sealing well and on others the beating they took unsealed them.

Ribbonstone-we always want ammo to work-always.

The tests being done here are to answer questions-what if??

Submerged for 2 days?? no leak. Great. If there was powder in them oit would still be dry and go BAAAANG when touched off by pulling the bang switch.

Here is where a collet type bullet puller is useful...can disect the round without scrambling the power charge. Some will leak from the neck, some from the primer end, and some are so full of moisture you can't tell which end leaked the most.

It still seems like a good idea to me. Is a quality control step that the factories cannot afford to do. It is also something that anyone can do to any ammo they choose.

I like what I see so far. Cast bullets stay silver in color when waxed. Brass the same. I can report no mechanical trouble with my firearms.

Does anyone have trouble with this practice?

Cheezywan

It looks like most have lost interest in this thread. That's fine. I had my son pull the bullets from my test "squibs" yesturday for inspection. Both are clean and dry inside.
I was thinking of charging with something like baking soda and repeating the experiment over a longer period of time in a clear container of water(for ease of observation). I figure that I might see bubles of CO2 at some point if there is a breech?

Might be a good test of car wax?

Cheezywan

I had some of my reloads go through the wash. I shot them at paper with no problems. My guess is they are quite waterpruff. Q

this isnt quite the same thing .. but i sprayed pam on some federal . then dried it off... thought it might help cut down on fouling.. the bullets was slick as do do. but the rds definitly
hit almost an inch higher at an 100. i decided it just added another variable. i got enuff variables to figure in now
with winds, various loads an such.

My "intended goal" here is to take steps to improve ammo quality. Things that a big factory can't afford to do. Things that a "common person" can. For example; Cheezywan "wins an all expences paid trip to Africa to hunt". I will NOT show up with a dirty rifle and Wal-Mart ammo for that!
If I was forced to buy ammo at Wal-Mart in Lusaka for such a hunt, I might wax them?
Ammo for self defence is also purdy high on my list.
Plinking and target practice ammo may not get such a treatment? All of it needs to go "BOOM".
Some are more "Ammunition that must work" than others?

Cheezywan