blc(2) or h335

[autofix4u]

I recently accuired a little over 2000 rd of reloded ammo in 30-30 and 308. almost all of the 308 had neck splits and I pulled down keeping the 150gr soft points and powder. the 30-30 looks good and is loaded with 170gr cast fp. I wish to determine the powder these are loaded with before I try to shoot any, as the gas checks stay in the case when I pull them. both the 308 and 30-30 appear to have the same powder. 43grs in 308 and 28.8 in the 30-30. based off of the lee dippers and charge weights I have came up with either h335 or blc(2). the powdr is al flattend ball like h335, but my stash of h335 has slightly smaller granuales and is more sliver colored. I have no blc(2) to compare. any help or sugestions would be appreciated. thank you josh delozier

[MT Gianni]

I would not consider any powder as identifiable without a Chronograph other than the dot series. With a chrono reduce the loads 10% and then 5%. You should get an idea of the burn rate by doing that.

[MtGun44]

Gianni is right. This is very advanced reloading and you need to either reduce the load a good
amount and stay there, or use a chrono to work up to normal velocities with your unknown
powder. Visual ID is very unreliable unless it is one of the colored dot powders.

I once did this with 1000 rds of .223 that was unsafe (untrimmed brass, blew up one AR!) and
brought it back to normal vel with a chrono after starting way low since I had zero idea what
the safe load level was - and it had already caused one rifle to be damaged seriously - fortunately
not to the shooter)

Bill

[ETG]

It could be a surplus pull down powder - say WC 846 which is similar to BL-C2. Is there anyway you can ask the person what it was loaded with?

[Ben]

Is it really worth the risk ? ? ?

[Shiloh]

It could be a surplus pull down powder - say WC 846 which is similar to BL-C2. Is there anyway you can ask the person what it was loaded with?


Is it really worth the risk ? ? ?

You can and that would be a good place to start. It is not conclusive. Reducing the loads and then working up with a chronograph is your best bet.

I use WC 846 and get the velocity of the published data using 1.4 grains less than the recipe with BL-C(2) in .223

Shiloh

[357maximum]

YOU are playing with an unkown powder, what you do is up to you. I would not waste it either, but that is me. You have already been given sage advice and the use of a chrony is the only way I would go forward.

That being said I personally treat BLC2, H-335, W-748 as different lots of the same powder. Although it is not the same it is so close that simply starting low and working to my known proven velocity I can treat them all BASICALLY similar, but not the same.

[autofix4u]

I do have a cronograph & will use it to test reduced loads. I wish I were able to ask what powder he used but as he has past away a year ago. I do have his load notes but the pages are mostly un readable. I would just pull down the 30-30 like I did the 308 but the gas checks seem to stay in the cases and I can't get them out. I may take some of the powder from the 308 and work up from 10-12 grs in my 30-30 and see where it goes. thanks for all the help.