and ideas?..i was going to use nail polish or rub the crimp on a block of wax to fill in that tiny hole at the tip of the blank round.

I'm not a reloader, but I understand a touch of varnish is usually used.

I usually try to keep seals from my blanks. Sea lions, too.

You don't want anything to seep inside the case and contaminate the powder (in the case of blanks, there may not be any powder - it depends). But the same things goes for the primers - they can get contaminated too. Then your blanks will have a new name. "Duds". I would just store them in a sealer waterproof container (Pelican box or something) if you have need for reliably operating blanks in a wet environment.

haertig..i plan to have the first two rounds in my pistol as blanks.the company i got them from said expect a major muzzle blast.the next four will be bear loads.
i have never had a problem bear in all my years canoe tripping but rather than bang pots and pans together,a normal anti bear method,i thought a good loud BANG would do the job.
i should mention i would never shoot a black bear unless it had me by the foot dragging me out of the tent or something.
the use of blanks came to me after meeting a bear guide on the last canoe trip.he said a shot bear will run from the sound of the gun and drop dead,he hopes,in a hundred yards.a bear darted with a arrow won't run but will stand around the area until it drops.
also a lady who was the last person to live in the canoe park years ago kept a lever action 30 30 handy and said a shot in the air would chase it away from her supply shed.her take on the subject was that bears live in the quiet of the woods and a blast from a gun is too much for them.

I hope your handgun is something like a .454 Casull, .460 S&W or .500 S&W. Bears don't go down easily, even the little black ones. Noise may not work either.

Here's a report of a bear near where I live, and what it took to stop it. Mind you, this was a 120lb bear. My dog weighs 145lbs (and looks kind of like a bear too!)

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12927288

The synopsis:


With the shotgun:


With the handgun:


And finally, the rifle:


Tough little bugger. Didn't seem to be terribly afraid of the gunfire noise either. I think your blanks are a good idea to try. You may get lucky and be able to frighten a bear off. But I don't think I'd want to actually shoot a bear, any bear, and risk irritating it ... with anything less than a .45-70 rifle.

I really think you should rethink the idea of carrying two blanks! A blank won't do anything a live round won't do but the reverse is not true! If you want to try noise you can fire live ammo into the ground or (carefully) the air.

My concern is that you could end up needing to employ your firearm on very short notice and at very short range. In that event you'll love precious time and waste your already-limited capacity. You don't mention what sidearm you're carrying but most of them hold six. Some hold seven and a rare few hold eight.

If you ever need the gun it will be hard to remember how many rounds of what you have in the gun! I realize you're not talking about a "gunfight" but stress is stress. In many police shootings officers have no recollection of how many rounds they fired, and sometimes don't even know if they fired their firearm or not!

One last comment- I am assuming you're talking about a revolver. If you're carrying an auto then I definitely wouldn't advice blanks! They won't reliably cycle your firearm.

If you're married to having less-than-lethal loads under the hammer, consider shot shells. They're still not advisable but will have more effect than blanks if you accidentally use them thinking you have regular ammunition.

BTW, what caliber are you carrying?

I´d use hot glue for this purpose. It is easy to apply and the melting point is high enough to avoid melting and contaminating your load. It will also not flow far enough into the shell to have impact on the load.
Whether the blanks are fit for the intended purpose is beyond my knowledge.

If I were going to attempt sealing primers and case mouths like this, I'd use something designed for the purpose. Not wax or hot glue or fingernail polish.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/954332/markron-custom-bullet-and-primer-sealer-1-2-oz-liquid

I am not entirely sure if the front end of a blank even can be sealed. I have seen few blanks in my life, but I seem to remember that the case mouth is (or can be) folded back and crimped/squashed over itself (like the front end of a standard shotgun shell). I don't know how well you could seat that, with all the bends and folds in the metal. The crimped front of the case mouth might be a place where a wax glob could be used.

As someone else already mentioned, we're talking about revolvers here. Blanks don't get along with semi-autos, especially blanks covered with wax or other goop.