I noticed in some free powder

[randyrat]

I was given some free Bullseye. Used it in a bunch of 45acp loads, real accurate for a while until one day i noticed some sporadic inaccuracy. Looked at everything, double checked everything.
Bingo...I noticed some different sized flakes of powder in the Bullseye. Not a bunch but enough for me to question this and put that powder on HOLD.

Now 4 grains of Bullseye under a 200 grain cast boolit with a good lube should hit a fly at 15- 25 yds.

My question is= bullseye has ALL the same size flakes right? It's a fine powder right?

I never noticed it to have different sized flakes before?

So this powder has a cost to it i guess. Dang

[NSP64]

They probably violated the first rule of reloading. 1 powder on the bench at a time. The other day i violated this rule, and was pouring h 4895 back into the container. Only it was a 1lb can of reddot that i was pouring it into. Probably put 100 gr in before I notice.(was thinking of something else). Luckily it was only 1/4 lb of reddot left. Pitchet it right in the trash.

[buck1]

I hate to admit it but i will as it may keep someone from doing it.
I use wc820 surplus , it comes in 8# kegs. I used a old RELABLED win 760 bottle for smaller amts on the bench.
The only thing I can figure is at some point I poured wc820 in to the partly bottle of WW760.
I almost blew up two guns before I saw the two differnt sized ball powders in the same bottle.
I have been reloading for 30+ years . I have never left out a charge or dubbled one, I use a scale to load rifles, and look in each case before I seat a boolit. I concider myself the safest loader I know and I still screwed up. WHEN IN DOUBT THROW IT OUT!!...Buck

[XWrench3]

been there, done that. dumped some imr 4198 into an almost full jug of sr4759. luckily, i have a very small vacuum (for evacuating automotive a/c systems) and i put a length of hose on the end of it and suctioned off the top layer of powder. i probably chucked a third of a pound just to be certain i got it all. then i dumped the rest into a cake pan and looked at it in the sunlight. i could not find one kernel of the 4198, so i felt safe and used it. no problems, but it did cost me some powder. if the two had looked even remotely similar, it would have cost me the whole can.

[Doby45]

It was free, chunk it in the trash or toss it in the garden.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Dang! That is something I worry about all the time. It seems it would be so easy to do. Thanks for the reminders.

[randyrat]

Does it really help the garden?

[Doby45]

Shonuff does, flowers too. Adds nitrates to the ground.. Spread it sparingly though so you don't burn up the ground. :)

[Echo]

You said that it performed OK to start with, but became sporadic? I believe manufacturers will blend powder to get it to spec, so, since it hasn't blown up a gun yet - throw it out anyway!

And Me, too, on mixing powders. I now have about a pound + of what I call Slow Red Dot, that I obtained by inadvertantly mixing some Herco in with some Red Dot. They are close in burn rate, and will be satisfactory for plinking loads.

[Wayne Smith]

Forget the garden, put it on the lawn. It's all nitrates, encourages leaf growth.

[fecmech]

A while back while shooting sporting clays I noticed fire coming out of the action on my Beretta 390 when it ejected a shell. I thought it was a little unusual as I had never seen that with my reloads( it happens all the time with Remington promotional loads!) and just thought it might be weather conditions. While loading later on in the week I happened to notice white dots in my Red Dot powder( I use both 700X and Red Dot depending on what's available) and that explained it. I had refilled my powder bottle of Red Dot with 700X and mixed the two together. Daydreaming will get you sometimes!

[Hardcast416taylor]

The down side of spreading discarded powder on your lawn is that it will act like fertalizer and make the grass grow, meaning then you have to mow the lawn more often!Robert

[mdi]

I'm kinda paranoid about my powders getting mixed. I have the powder storage cabinet on the opposite end of my reloading room from my press. I force my self to pick up only one container of powder, walk over to the bench, and double check when I pour it in the measure. I then set it down with the lable facing me beside the measure. When I'm done reloading, I double check the scale, check the lable of the container, then pour ther powder back in the can. I also write the load on a sticky note and stick it to the scale base, just for a reminder, and I glance at the poise position occationally. (I have a Lyman/Ohaus scale that on rare occations I bump the small poise when returning the pan. I bumped it one time .4 gr heavier and charged 12 or 13 cases before I found it. Dumped all and recharged 'em).

Powder these days isn't cheap, but shooting powder that has some unknowns can get expensive. Even "El Cheapo" me would find another use for it...

[OutHuntn84]

Am I the only one that keeps any and all questionable powders in a "MIXED DO NOT USE" container for future exploits? Sorry I dont have a trash can in my reloading room.:bigsmyl2:

[Bwana]

Waste not- want not. You have a powder with an unknown burn rate. Find out what the rate is and use it accordingly.

[jonk]

I wouldn't worry about it.

Why?

Bullseye is one of the fastest commercial powders you can get. Whatever was blended into it will be slower. Let's say it was unique or WST or whatever. The resulting blend will be inbetween the 2 in burn rates.

Stir it to make sure everything is well blended. Use the load data for the faster powder and all should be fine. Velocity and pressure will be lower than bullseye.

Now I wouldn't do this if it concerned a mix of 2 unknown powders from somewhere in the middle of the burn scale, but since you have 1 known quantity that's at the far top end of the scale, I can't see how you could hurt anything.

[alamogunr]

I haven't mixed any powders yet but I do use alternate containers to decant from 8# jugs. The containers I use are empty Ensure(or generic version) bottles that I remove the labels from. I label them with a sharpie. They don't hold a lot of powder but enough for a refill of the measure reservoir. If I'm not going to be using that powder for awhile, I empty it back into the large jug and throw the temporary container away. Replacements are plentiful.

John
W.TN

[Doby45]

I use my empty Hodgdon 1# powder contianers to breakdown my larger jugs. I have an 4# Universal jug, so when I finished a #1 of Tightgroup I pulled the label off and used a silver Sharpie and wrote "Universal" on it and now I have a small jug of Universal. Works like a champ..

[johnvid]

Any unknown powder I have gets saved and used up in my father-in-law's cannon. I mix about 25% with the black powder charge. There is never too much left at any one time.

[mdi]

Waste not- want not. You have a powder with an unknown burn rate. Find out what the rate is and use it accordingly.

How would you go about determining the burn rate? Unknown powder mixed at an unknown ratio. Hmmm, stopwatch and a match? :lol:

[82nd airborne]

Does it really help the garden?

That depends heavily on the crop you are growing, soil structure, and weather or not there is bacteria that can break the nitrates down into usable nitrogen and oxygen byproducts.

[Bwana]

Well Mdi, I could explain how it's done and in fact nine years ago on another site I explained and "horror of horrors" even advocated the practice of blended loads, and got banned for practicing reloading "heresy". So I no longer "cast pearls before swine". That said I will explain it to anyone interested enough to contact me.

[35remington]

Bwana, that's probably just as well. So doing wouldn't win you any friends here either!

Those swine present here are more discriminating than that, and the info would look less like pearls and more like poison!

[Papa Jack]

I used to have an old friend who went to Garage sales weekly, he was also an avid gun nut . He knew I reloaded and when ever he'd find Reloading Dies or tools and boolits and gun powder he'd buy it and bring it over to me ,and I'd reimburse him , put the stuff on the shelf in the reloading room...
Some times he'd bring me a big box full of gun powders, and one time there was several 2 lb Coffee cans in the box with just a piece of masking tape around the can with "4895" on one can and "4831" on the other.....
Over the years I used that powder up and never had a problem, although some of the powders were OLD at the time and the insides of the cans rusty, and smelled terrible, those I set asside and burned on the 4th of July......
Back after WWII you could take a container to the local gun shop and fill it with either 4895 or 4831 and other surplus powders.
Luckly the old guy that had these powders did have good sence not to mix em up, I was happy to use that powder up, but I always had that "funny" feeling when ever I reached for one of those old cans and started loading with it. I always started out with a pretty low charge weight and worked up to make sure I wouldn't get a surprise......"PJ"

[dverna]

I NEVER buy powder if the container has been opened.

I also use the "One can at a time on the bench" rule.

Don Verna

[mdi]

Well Mdi, I could explain how it's done and in fact nine years ago on another site I explained and "horror of horrors" even advocated the practice of blended loads, and got banned for practicing reloading "heresy". So I no longer "cast pearls before swine". That said I will explain it to anyone interested enough to contact me.

Hmmm. A simple question and a joke got that reply? Makes all your post questionable/unbelieveable!

Jes one of the pigs...

[Bwana]

Well Mdi, you are free to think and believe what you will.