Powder identification

[NSP64]

Is there anyway to identify powder by size shape or weight? I know reddot has red flakes, and bluedot has blue but other powders like extruded kernals?

[odoh]

No 100% reliable way that I know of. Yes, one could approximate and some are obvious such as ball vs extruded and perhaps to a small degree of large cut/short cut. Thats why its important to keep in original containers and why recovery of powder from loaded cartriges of unknow/uncertain origins is discouraged.

[Kraschenbirn]

Nope...and the cost of "I think this looks like IMRXXXX." might the the price of a new gun...or a couple of fingers...on, maybe, the sight on an eye. Just ain't worth guessing.

Bill

[jonk]

Not with what you have, no. A ballistics lab might figure it out but unless it is obviously something like Red Dot, Trail Boss, etc., not really.

[NSP64]

Yea, I forgot Trail Boss looks like doughnuts (mmmmmm doughnuts). Ok I guess the fire pit it is.:drinks:

[DLCTEX]

It's fertilizer. Put it on your lawn.

[HeavyMetal]

Unless you have some idea on the packaging use it for fertilizer ( and don't throw a match on the lawn!)

Seriuosly a bunch of years ago I bought some casting stuff at a yard sale. amongst the pile of stuff I sorted through was not one but two GLASS containers with about 5 or 6 lbs of powder in each one!

A masking tape label, done in pencil don't you know, I.D. the powder as some type of Herter's but of course the number was gone.

That, and the fact they thought these were worth $15.00 each, got them sorted out and left behind.

I also informed them of how dangerous it was to have it stored like that and strongly suggested they weren't going to get a buyer for it at any price!

Plant food was my advice to them. Have no idea what they did with the stuff.

[evan price]

If you had a L A R G E quantity of the unknown powder it might be worth working up a load starting with the lightest possible quantity of a similar FAST powder if you could narrow it down a little (such as a flaky shotgun/pistol powder, a stick-type rifle powder, etc).

However, there are serious consequences to making a mistake that could be permanantly life-altering! And if we're talking a couple pounds of unknown, it's just not worth it- by the time you work up the load you'd be out of powder. If you had a keg of it maybe. But even then we're talking what, a hundred bucks worth of powder? The cost of primers and bullets (and TIME!) spent working up the load VS saving $100 worth of unknown powder.. the math doesn't look promising especially if it winds up costing you a gun in the process.

[jdgabbard]

I wouldn't risk it. Not worth it, just flush it down the drain or throw it on the lawn. The only exception to this is surplus powder, as it usually tells you what it is, and you can work up a load from it.

[wdr2]

I recently saw a nice S&W that is now junk due to a reloader who did not know what powder he was using. If you are not SURE, dump the powder.

[odoh]

Yea, I forgot Trail Boss looks like doughnuts (mmmmmm doughnuts). Ok I guess the fire pit it is.:drinks:

That comment brought a smile as I recalled putting some unknown powder in an airtight wood stove some yrs back. It was from 20rnds of 06 cartridges. When it went, the plate on top (for optional stovepipe location) lifted up flipped over in midair and back down where and as it was before. Of course, smoke puffed vigorously out of the input regulator. All this as SWMBO was walking by.

It wasn't funny ~ then, so it was easy to keep a streight face when she exclaimed, what happened? Didya see that? and respond w/a yawn and a scratch ~ see what sweetheart?" After 5mins of badgering, she settled w/'musta been one of those rare down drafts we hear about'.

[Lee]

I use it for "Bee" powder. A 3-4 grain scoop into a .45LC case, styrofoam wad, then filled with corn-cob, then another wad.
Fun on the carpenter bees. A solid hit positively vaporizes them. And you don't have to feel guilty about wasting good powder.
Of course, you didn't hear this from me, and YMMV...............

[Down South]

It's fertilizer. Put it on your lawn.


+1, This was the same answer that I was going to give. Any powder that I have, if I’m not positively sure what it is, it goes for fertilizer. It’s to risky to guess or to say that this powder looks just like such and such so that must be what it is.
I use a Dillon 550 with the tool holders set up for different calibers including a powder measure for each. Occasionally I will leave powder in the measure that I’m using at the time but I KNOW what is in that measure from loading to loading. I keep a roll of masking tape on my reloading bench. When I fill a powder measure, I tear a small piece of the masking tape off the roll and write the powder name and number on it and stick it to the measure. When the measure gets dumped back to the powder container, the tape comes off.
I more than anyone would want to throw out good powder especially during times like these but that is the safest thing to do.