Sealant on Pulled Bullets

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hdwhit

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I recently bought some pulled tracer bullets. There's a related thread up right now asking about the tracer aspect, so I would ask that if anyone has any advice on tracer rounds that you reply to that thread.

Since the bullets are pulled from ex-military ammunition, they have bits of the asphaltic sealant that is used on military ammunition. I searched for old posts about how to remove this stuff and the only one I could find that addressed it directly (https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/bullet-sealer-removal.685953/#post-8521781) didn't seem to reach a consensus on what solvent would work best or the best way to use it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.
 
A lot of pulled uncleaned bullets are just loaded as they are with the sealant left on. I've carefully cleaned pulled military with a rag and odorless mineral spirits. For tracers I am careful to not get any solvents in or on the tracer compound in the base of the bullet. I have read some add mineral spirits to their tumbling media and tumble them cleaner. I haven't tried it and don't want to tumble tracer bullets. It's a messy job cleaning the tar off them. Regular FMJ bullets can be soaked in solvent or tumbled with solvent in your media. For just a few I've used a very fine stainless brush to remove the tar or most of it.
 
You can load them as is. If you really want to take the tar off, Simple Green will work, but as rg1 says, don't get anything on the tracing compound.

And they'll start fires, too............;)

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
I used brake cleaner on a batch of 62 gr .224 bullets that had sealant on them cleaned up fine. Got them ridiculously cheap as the vendor was too lazy to clean them.
 
The bullets were in a mixed batch of "nominally" 55 grain and "nominally" 62 grain bullets. So, I got out the scale, set it to 57 grains and started sorting the bullets out. Interesting thing is that the 55 grain and 62 grain bullets were exactly the same length. I'm sure there were visual cues to distinguish them, but none that were obvious enough to use as a basis for sorting the bullets. Anyway, I inspected each bullet as I weighed it and in the case of almost every bullet in the batch, the tracer compound was missing from the bullet.

So, it looks like I bought myself 334 55 grain and 202 62 grain plinking bullets for less than 7 cents each. The paper targets certainly won't know the difference and if it means diminished fire hazard, I'm certainly not complaining.

Thanks everyone.
 
Reloader Fred wrote:
You can load them as is. If you really want to take the tar off, Simple Green will work,...
Click to expand...

rg1 wrote:
...odorless mineral spirits.
Click to expand...

highlander5 wrote:
I used brake cleaner...
Click to expand...

Thank you.

I will try small batches of bullets using each one of these and report back on my experience. I probably won't be able to circle back to this until around Columbus Day, so don't expect a quick follow-up.

The thread I linked to in the original post had some people who were not pleased with mineral spirits, brake cleaner or Simple Green and suggested some rather exotic solvents. I didn't want to get into anything that was going to be reportable so I asked again. I'm glad to hear that people here did have acceptable results with those more common solvents.

Thanks.
 
The best tar removal product I have found is combustion. If you need proof, check the bullets after firing. :D
 
Reloader Fred wrote:
You can load them as is.
Click to expand...

Thank you for letting me know that.

I started reloading 30 Carbine in the late 1970's because I was a teenager and so couldn't buy it because it was a "pistol" cartridge. Still, pistol cartridge or not, nobody checked my driver's license when I bought reloading components. I bought what I could at shops scattered through little towns in north-central and north-east Arkansas and I loaded some stuff that would scare me to produce today. But it all went "bang" and didn't blow up the guns.

I got progressively better and added equipment as I could afford it. By the early 1990's, I had all the equipment and was producing ammunition where:
  • The brass was decapped as a separate step, then
  • Carefully inspected, measured and prepared,
  • Tumbled in walnut media
  • Sized,
  • Trimmed to a consistent length,
  • Primed by hand in a separate operation,
  • The primers was sealed using fingernail polish (which was also a separate opportunity to inspect the case),
  • Charged with charges dropped light and trickled up to the desired weight, and
  • Capped off with brand-name bullets.
I expanded my range of cartridges to include .223, 25 ACP, 38 Special and 45 ACP. I am proud of the fact that given the vagaries of powder availability in the late 1980's/early 1990's, I was able to develop a .223 load using either IMR-4198, IMR-3031 or WW-748 that had the same point of impact at 100 yards and so could be used interchangeably.

From the perspective of technique, I long ago achieved ammunition that was good enough to allow me to safely attain the standard I was "shooting for" (pardon the pun) of being able to put at least 9 of 10 rounds into the circular divot on the side of a gallon milk jug at 100 yards firing offhand.

I took an unanticipated "siesta" from my guns, reloading and shooting when a neurological disease nearly killed me. An experimental treatment put the disease in to remission and I was able to return to shooting and reloading. Having rapidly regained my technique, I am now concerned with making ammunition that appears worthy of the technique, so I would like to be able to clean the sealant off the pulled bullets, but if that's not practical, I have no problem with loading them as they are.
 
If you really need to clean them I use carb cleaner on a rag. This has worked well for my needs for years. Just use plenty of ventilation and watch your hands for absorption. Really though I would just shoot em.;)
 
I, for one, am glad you woke from your siesta. I enjoy your posts and are glad you're here. I like making ammunition that looks the part as well. If it is pretty, it can not possibly shoot bad. Right?
 
Demi-human said:
I, for one, am glad you woke from your siesta. I enjoy your posts and are glad you're here. I like making ammunition that looks the part as well. If it is pretty, it can not possibly shoot bad. Right?
Click to expand...

Thank you.

We all hope to find truth in beauty, some of my 1980s vintage disreputable looking stuff still went bang and still hit the target. It didn't bother me in the past, but now that my dad and my sons (as well as the occasional visitor) are shooting my reloads, I want them to have something that looks worthy of the confidence I'm asking them to place in my reloading skills.
 
When I started reloading, my father was my biggest critic and detractor. He was sure I was going to blow myself up. As he came to see that I was careful and methodical, he started to ease up. After the first thousand rounds with zero problems, he started to become interested. He then helped me further refine and "systematize" my process and record keeping until it got to the point where he developed a preference for my ammunition. And with good reason, I had optimized it for the guns (Ruger Mini-14) and distances we shot (200 yards or less) against the targets we shot (primarily nuisence animals).

That's always been something that attracted me to reloading; the ability to tailor make ammunition like a tailor might make a custom shirt or suit.
 
Last edited:
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread.

I learned a lot and have several alternatives to try.

I have made a note of them and will try them using a systematic approach. I will report back on the results. Unfortunately, that may take a while.

I will retire sometime in 2018 and I may not have time to run the experiments before then. The tracer rounds with the sealant have now been packed away in airtight containers (NOT Ziploc bags, which proved disastrous in the past) and will be "exhumed" when I have the time to do the test properly and report objective results.

Than you, again.
 
If you're mainly worried about appearance you can simply load with the tar still on the bullets.

A little "ring" of tar will be pushed up by the mouth of the case. The ring of tar isn't strongly attached to either case or bullet and can usually be flicked off easily. There may be a small amount of tar still adhering to the bullet, but there's not much and it can be readily removed with standard* solvents.

*I used to use brake or carb cleaner, but after reading about possible neural damage I switched to orange oil based products like Goo Gone. They work almost as quickly and aren't known to have the possible adverse health effects.
 
What is usually recommended for removing the asphaltum sealant (almost certainly what you're dealing with) from the case mouth after pulling bullets in Xylene. It's commonly available from the big box home centers. I've used it on hundreds of cases and it makes the sealant melt away instantly.
 
I was going to mention xylene as well, but add that proper ventilation and good chemical resistant gloves are recommended. Just apply with a qtip. With you mentioning neurological past issues, I would definitely look at simple green or goof off, or something more natural/green. We'd like to have you around for quite a while longer.
 
Captaingyro, thank you very much for that recommendation. I think that's the first time I recall someone mentioning Xylene and, Rule3, how very kind of you to provide a link so that I could go right to it when I got to the store.

And bullseye308, you have an excellent memory.
 
hdwhit said:
Captaingyro, thank you very much for that recommendation. I think that's the first time I recall someone mentioning Xylene and, Rule3, how very kind of you to provide a link so that I could go right to it when I got to the store.

And bullseye308, you have an excellent memory.
Click to expand...

As with ANY solvent. Use in a ventilated area, wear gloves and EYE protection away from any source of flame or spark Do not fear, just be safe.:)

Pour a SMALL amount into a container and put the cap back on the main container.
 
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