Reloads and smoke

[Harry Tobin]

So awhile back me and my buddy where talking about reloads and smoke so I did a little test. There are a lot of factors but at least this was a start for me. So I did a short video on this
If this needs to be moved that’s OK

Harry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C63DizM6N1o

[MT Chambers]

Don't smoke while you reload.

[TexasGrunt]

Use smokeless powder.

Any boolit with conventional lube in the band is going to smoke. It's the lube that creates the smoke.

[Loudy13]

That was one of the greatest selling points (for me) to try Powder coating I always disliked the amount of smoke that lubed bullets produced.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Maybe I'm weird but I love the smoke and the smell of a nice traditionally lubed cast boolit. I still shoot PC and copper plated and j-words but traditional cast has a place in my heart!

[reddog81]

Powder Coating helps with the smoke, but the smell of some powders can get nauseating when shooting indoors.

[OptimusPanda]

The first time I shot pc boolits it reminded me of a mix between burning resistor and a hot laser printer. They handle so much better though.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

This thread has some interesting timing, at least for me :p

I recently loaded a batch of 9mm cast boolit ammo. I used Unique...now unique is notoriously a dirty burner...add some boolit lube and it's smoky. But I had a different experience with this batch of ammo, when I took a couple boxes (with different boolit styles) to test, before I loaded the remaining of the 1500 batch...also to test in a new gun (Ruger 9e), mostly to test functionality of a few different OAL.

So, I shoot up about 100 rds of ammo, it's noticeably not very smoky. Now it was chilly (35º), and there was a brisk breeze, but I could still see smoke, as I was looking for it. I will admit, that even the smokiest/stinkiest loads wouldn't have been a nuisance that day, but I've shot enough to know these were far less smoky than any other Unique cast boolit loads I've shot. The cases were mostly clean, not sooted up. The gun wasn't sooty at all. I get home and clean the gun and barrel, no unburnt powder in the barrel/action/mags. I did have a small amount of lead fouling, I assume that was due to a rough barrel (notorious of a new Ruger). It cleaned out easy enough, and I'll shoot it some more, to wear off any serious ridges/burrs before I'll worry too much about that, as it was plenty accurate and I'd hate to effect that negatively by polishing the bore with flitz (yes that happened to me a long ago, and i'll never do that again).

All boolits were lubed with SL68B
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?288713-SL68B-the-quot-all-around-quot-boolit-lube-and-how-to-make-it
there is no Alox in SL68B, having Alox as a lube or lube ingredient is a major contributor to smokiness/stinkiness. Also this batch was newer Alliant Unique (bought in 2013), Alliant made some claims a while back, that they had did something to make Unique less smoky? I remember reading that anyway? but don't recall exactly what the change was?

And lastly, I loaded these to 25Kcup or slightly higher pressures (per Lyman manual). Some powders, especially powders designed for shotgun (like the Dot powders), need to be loaded to a certain pressure level to achieve a efficient burn, meaning they'll burn dirty below that pressure level. I didn't know that to be the case with Unique, but am thinking that now.

[Harry Tobin]

Hi JonB, I just like trying stuff and it funny you where talking about the new Unique VS old Unique. There is a difference between the two, I did a burn test with some different powders and those 2 Unique powders were done also. Between the two new and old they had a big difference in burn time. I put a stop watch on the burn to compare burn times, if you would like to see it let me know and I’ll put it up

[runfiverun]

they added some nitro glycerin
about 2%.
they added it to all the Alliant shot shell powders.

if you shoot some powders and use some lube ingredients your gonna see smoke.
231+alox+ humidity= smoke screen approaching black powder proportions.

heck I've seen jacketed ammo blow out little smoke clouds under high humidity conditions.

[mdi]

When I first started shooting cast bullets ('90-'91?), I wondered where all the smoke was coming from, so I did a test. I loaded some cast (commercial cast with ??? lube) and some jacketed, same weight, same powder charge. Jacketed bullet loads; very little "smoke". Cast bullets; lots of smoke (not as much as black powder, but a lot). Also tried a few with alox; lots of smoke! Tried loads with Bullseye and Unique. Hot loads and mild loads. Same results...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

"humidity"
Yeah, I should have added, not much humidity in the air that day...probably a big factor.

[Harry Tobin]

they added some nitro glycerin
about 2%.
they added it to all the Alliant shot shell powders.

if you shoot some powders and use some lube ingredients your gonna see smoke.
231+alox+ humidity= smoke screen approaching black powder proportions.

heck I've seen jacketed ammo blow out little smoke clouds under high humidity conditions.

That’s still confusing to me, when I did my test the New Unique burned slower than the Old Unique was a lot faster. New Unique was 4.1 seconds and Old Unique was 2.6 seconds, I would think with nitro glycerin added to the New wouldn’t it burn faster ?

[dondiego]

Are you burning these powders in an open to atmosphere container? If so, it would not necessarily determine actual burn rate in a cartridge.

[Motor]

I have also seen "lead alloy" smoke. Of course this is not normal and lead fouling in the bore was very evident but the light grey puff out in front of the muzzle was unmistakable.

Motor

[w5pv]

I love to see that puff of smoke and the smell of smoke is not that bad outdoors.

[Shiloh]

Unique and anykind of lube smokes like heck and stinks up indoor ranges. Acrid smoke.

SHiloh

[Harry Tobin]

What about that Ben's Red I've seen here. It has high temp grease in it, would that hold down some smoke?

[runfiverun]

blow bye in the throat will show more smoke than bout anything else.

Unique is a different animal than most other powders out there the way it burns in the barrel is a whole bunch different than how it burns in the open.
it also burns in the barrel differently than other powders.
if you know someone with load data have them see how far down the barrel Unique burns and the percentage of it consumed when fired.

there is a reason you see sparks from your 45 acp's ejection port when using it.
it's the same reason why 10 grs works in a 44 mag or 45-70 or your 30-06 without it being ridiculously high in pressure.

[Bookworm]

I do all my shooting outdoors, and the wind blows here always. Any smoke generated usually just....goes away. Most of the time I don't even notice any smoke, especially when shooting tumble-lubed handgun. Alox smell is not offensive to me.

Really, I notice NRA lube (50/50 beeswax/alox) smoke more than any other, and I like its honey smell.