How to determine powder burn rate.

[Huggy]

First off, this isn't a solicitation or actual WTB but I'm uncertain where else to post my questions. With that said.....

Here's the deal.
A few years ago a friend and I went in on buying a 50# Keg of cannon powder for use in reloading 20mm Vulcan rounds for single shot cannons. My health took a serious hit and my project will be no more (anyone want to buy two (2) Near-New Vulcan barrels?) and now I have a huge amount of this powder.
The trusted source I bought from advised he used the same powder to load for the 20mm as well as .50BMG and larger belted magnums such as the .300 WM and so on.
I have the latter two rifles but no load data for the powder so I'm wondering if anyone knows of a SURE way to determine Burn Rates so I can SAFELY create load data for my BMG rifle as a minimum and hopefully for my Win Mag as well.
I'd hate to think that I'm sitting on all that powder and no way to use it.
Ideas??
Thanks in advance.

 

[lrpmarc]

Do you have the source data for the powder in question? The product designation would be a good first step. There are many resources on the net that compare military powders to civilian powders; including application data and burn rates.

As a recovering lab rat, you would need a lab environment with calibrating equipment to accurately characterize the powder. That would get expensive. Unless someone on this net has access to said equipment and would help you out. That said, 50# of useful powder is a valuable commodity.

 

[AkBirder300]

Personally I'd recommend contacting the manufacturer and see if they could help. I've attached a burn rate chart I found here on the forum, you might get some comparative data from the vendor that you could then use safely?

 

[Huggy]

Do you have the source data for the powder in question? The product designation would be a good first step. There are many resources on the net that compare military powders to civilian powders; including application data and burn rates.

As a recovering lab rat, you would need a lab environment with calibrating equipment to accurately characterize the powder. That would get expensive. Unless someone on this net has access to said equipment and would help you out. That said, 50# of useful powder is a valuable commodity.

This was my fear and concern. As AkBirder300 mentioned, I'll have to look at the container label for manufacturer and see if there is any useful info I can glean straight away but if not, call/write them and ask if they can steer me in the right direction. A concern is that due to potential liability issues they may not want to provide ANY data because although ivd been reloading for over 50 years, they don't know if I'm some dingbat bent on hurting myself or just a crazy old fart.

 

[backwoods83]

Well, it's likely WC872. But more info is obviously needed. If you dropped 80grns in a 300wm under a 210 or 220gr bullet, and the case still came out sooty, I'd venture to say, that's what it is. As WC872 is a about a half a hair slower than US869, which you can find data for easily.