Do you guys ever use the primer waterproof sealer stuff to help protect them?Also i use to have a lot of problems with primers failing with factory ammo.Anyone else have a factory round fail to ignite?Also is it bad practice to prime a bunch of cases and then put them up and reload them at a later date?I usually load my cases the same day i prime them but have been seeing cases all ready primed for sale lately?Another question,if you have been given live rounds of unknown reloading,is it o.k. to pull the bullets,dump the unknown powder,and then should the primer be shot in your rifle to deactivate it so it can be discarded as well?Then the brass should be ran thru a full length die and trimmed before reloading.I hate to sound lost but iam just starting to get back into reloading and it has been awhile and I want to be safe.....also does the nickle brass last longer than regular brass?Last question,Why do some rounds have red or green paint around the primer,what does this mean?

Well, you have asked a lot of questions here, but I will try to touch on each one in order.

I do not bother to seal my primers when reloading. Maybe if I lived in Alaska or someplace where it rained all the darned time I might consider it. Now, I have certainly hunted in the rain, but my ammo is usually in my rifle, in my pocket, or in my ammo pouch, etc. (Pretty much covered up in some manner.) On the other hand, sealing the primers could help if the ammo was allowed to sit in water at some time.

In regard to factory ammo failing to fire, I have almost never encountered this. If it is only happening with one firearm, I would have it checked. Maybe the firing pin is damaged or is not hitting the primers hard enough. Factory ammo these days is pretty darned realiable.

It does not harm to prime cases and let them sit. Like you, I generally perform the loading operation all in one day, but not always. And I just last week loaded some new Remington factory brass that was purchased already primed. It worked just fine.

You are on exactly the right track with the unkown reloaded ammo. Good procedure you have thought out.

In my experience nickel plated brass does not last any longer than the plain stuff. It is pretty, it does feed pretty slick, but is of little real advantage. It will resist corrosion better and would be a good choice if ammo were to be left sitting around in a leather ammo pouch for a long time, etc. As a negative nickel brass can become brittle and I have seen it scratch the inside of a sizing die on occasion.

In regard to the red or green around the primer on some rounds it is just the particular sealant that that company chose to seal their ammo with. You might encounter red, green, black, etc. the color does not mean anything.

Hope this helps, R F

One little heads up, I often prep a whole lot of brass, including priming, at one sitting and then use it "as needed". Recently I was reloading some brass that I had prepped in advance left sitting in a reloading block. When I looked into the cases to make sure there was powder in each and that it was kinda all at the same level, I noticed one was quite a bit higher. I dumped the powder and weighed it. Right on the money???? To make a long story short, some kinda little beasty had crawled into the case and made a nest. I still prep large batches of brass but, depending on how long its gonna be before I use them, I put them in a plastic shell case or make sure they're primer up in the reloading block.
FYI, I think we're blest with the quality and consistancy of modern components.

The only time I ever "waterproofed" any of my ammo was the stuff I loaded for BangSticks while SCUBA diving.

As for receiving "unknown" ammo, generally, if I haven't loaded it, I don't accept it...period!

Now about your factory ammo not firing...I would check the firing pin on your firearm.

Priming in advance? No problem as long as oyu store the primed cases in a decent environment. I prime thousands of cases in advance (as much as 5 years) and have never had a problem.

I waterproof the rounds i take hunting, you never are sure what weather you will get at rifle season. I have never had a problem with them.

I prime whatever i size/tumble/etc and put them into the ammo boxes upsidedown. Nothing can fall into the case this way.

Thanks for the help,Another reloading question,say you were about to start loading for a new rifle,would you load say 5 rounds starting at the lowest powder charge in the manual and shoot those and if everything seems ok,increse the charge and load 5 more and test them and so on until you get a load that you are happy with?Instead of loading a whole lot and finding out they are to hot or cold or whatever and then you would have to pull them out?I never have had to pull a bullet before,can it be reused?Is 5 a good number to reload to test, starting out?
Thanks again for all the help

You can certainly re-use pulled bullets. There are a dozen perfect protocols (they are all perfect, just ask their authors) for working up loads. In your work up the main thing is to only change one variable at a time. At the beginning you can use three shot groups to see which ones might show some promise.
JCN

I only load a few at a time, at 1, then .5 grain intervals, until I get to where i want to stop. Pulling bullets sucks. i sure don't want to spend the time loading them and then end up pulling them.