No dots in my Blue Dot

I recently inherited a fair bit of reloading components that I am guessing are in somewhere around 30years old. I used used up a mostly full 3lb can of W231 and that ran as expected. So has the unopened can of Unique. It was all stored in a basement, so I know climate was controlled for the duration. The one that has me concerned is the half can of Blue Dot. There aren't any blue dots in it that I can see. I loaded a pound of new production Blue Dot a couple of years ago, and the dots were plain as day. This older Hercules-labelled can has no evidence of them. Which makes me wonder if it is a different powder transferred to this can. The flakes look like what I remember for BD, but then Unique kinda does too. The load weight for Blue Dot under a 147gr 9mm makes for a pretty explody round if it is, in fact something other than Blue Dot in the can. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Pour it all out on a rock and touch it off from a safe distance, be sure to catch the fireball on your iphone! This is unidentified smokeless powder and simply not worth the risk of a disaster to pinch pennies. Risk vs Benefit.

Ferter-lyzah.

For what it's worth, my Hercules blue dot grains are very hard to see. Try it under different light/sunlight/angle. I got a jug of dead guy blue dot at a garage sale and it took me about half a dozen looks in differing conditions before I convinced myself I hadn't bought a 5 pound jug of fertilizer.

If you have any doubts, fertilize the garden.

If you are not absolutely sure and cannot see Blue Dots, my advice is like the others. Fertilizer. Eyes are a little harder to replace than powder. james

Thanks guys. You pretty much confirmed what I had planned. Since it was free, I'm not out anything. I did like 15meter suggested and take a look at it under the fancy full spectrum light my wife has in her crafting area. There were some flakes that looked blu-ish, but that could just be confirmation bias. I do like having hands and eyes and such, so to the garden it goes... Thanks again.

When doubt burn it or plant it :)
1/4 cup powder 1 fish and 2 corn kernels

I take it that's a magnum load for corn.

There are those that will never color outside the lines. They can live there lives without fear of anything. There are methods of safely testing an unknown powder with total safety. They are outlined in other threads in this forum.
Now that I have poked the hornets nest, I will back out.

I had an old can of blue dot that was unopened and the dots turned a light brownish color. It's not uncommon for the dots to fade over time.

I have an old metal can of red dot. Spots are completely gone now.

I have a 15 pound keg of Red Dot a friends dad gave me 25 years ago, I know its red dot and have used it to load a lot of.45 ACP. The red dots have faded in it too, I still have about 1/2 of it left, I am going to try to find a load for .44 Special and 240gn SWC's for my Rossi 720.

Casey

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mold maker

I take it that's a magnum load for corn.

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No, makes better POP Corn :popcorn:

Throw it away,please! It’s not worth the risk! Just my .02

Earthquake try about 6 to 6.5 grains. Makes a nice mild .44 mag load. I shoot mine in .444 brass.

I have some older bd with faded dots. I would compare with some known bd and compare the flakes.

Over the years I have seen lots of older powder like blue and green dot lose there color dots. I have put some on a white sheet of paper and looked through a magnifing glass with good light and found them.

I have a new cardboard keg of red dot with no red dots. My grandfather bought it decades ago. It works just fine and just the same as the other kegs we already used.