What to do with leftover powder

[longtubeman]

All of you have good ideas, I do it my way. Save all scrap power, stuff that falls on the floor, left overs. Put it in a jug and save it for 4 of July, yep got a great light show. 5 gallon bucket, inner smaller bucket, or PVC tube. Throw a match in, and it's a white hot straight beam that can be seen for miles around. No one has that one,lol no sound, no noise, just lights up the sky!

 

[gator378]

I'm curious, say you have loaded 50 rounds of ammo to take to the range. The keg you loaded them from has about 500 grains left. You have a new keg from the same lot and of course the same type of powder. Is it OK to pour the remainder into the new keg so it doesn't go to waste. The reason I'm asking is i have a lot of 1# kegs with small amounts that have the same lot number and don't really know what to do with it. Just can't bring myself to throw it away.

I have mixed different lots of the same powder and nothing happen yet. But I do not load to the max. I give myself plenty of wiggle room.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

If its the same lot # , its the same powder. Can't see any reason to throw away perfectly good powder.
When I'm getting down to the bottom of a jug or can I load it out unless I run out of other components for that load.
When I'm down to less than 1 weighed charge. I toss it out one way or other . Used 1 lb powder jugs make good little spitoons with lids

 

[J E Custom]

I will add the reason I don't mix powders at all Unless they are the same lot number and the used powder is not old. Mixing old powder with a sealed keg of powder even the same lot Number can be risky unless you take steps to reduce the load. Powder degrades over time and the first noticeable thing is the acid smell that is common with powder that has gone beyond it's usable life. The problem with this is that it has already gone bad before it reaches this state and should not be used.

Powder begins to degrade when you open it. I stopped buying 8 lb kegs because if I didn't use it up within a reasonable amount of time, velocities and SD changed. So I started buying 4 or 5 1 pound kegs/cans with the same lot # and only opened one at a time until it was empty and then opened the next one. The older re loaders remember the old paper and steel cans that the powder would/could
eat the can up when it started going bad. The new all plastic containers have greatly improved this problem, and if the seal is not broken last a lot longer.

Age and exposure to moister changes the burn rate and can effect the consistency load to load. I finally used up the last of the original H 4831 powder that Hodgdon sold by pulling 20 mm shells apart and packaging the powder to sell that started him in the business and it was the best/most consistent powder I ever used (I used it for 1000 yard matches only).

The other reason I don't recommend mixing powder is the chance of mixing the wrong powders together. If you never mix powder from one can to another this problem doesn't exist. One mistake is all it takes. Reloading can be very dangerous if you are not organized and have a good procedure to follow. I clean my bench of all things not needed for a specific load and only have one powder, one type of primer and the bullets called for in the load accessible .

I look at the cost of the small amount of powder that is discarded to be small compared the the cost of other possibilities. This is not the place to try and save pennies.

Just me

J E CUSTOM

 

[JLM8401]

I will add the reason I don't mix powders at all Unless they are the same lot number and the used powder is not old. Mixing old powder with a sealed keg of powder even the same lot Number can be risky unless you take steps to reduce the load. Powder degrades over time and the first noticeable thing is the acid smell that is common with powder that has gone beyond it's usable life. The problem with this is that it has already gone bad before it reaches this state and should not be used.

Powder begins to degrade when you open it. I stopped buying 8 lb kegs because if I didn't use it up within a reasonable amount of time, velocities and SD changed. So I started buying 4 or 5 1 pound kegs/cans with the same lot # and only opened one at a time until it was empty and then opened the next one. The older re loaders remember the old paper and steel cans that the powder would/could
eat the can up when it started going bad. The new all plastic containers have greatly improved this problem, and if the seal is not broken last a lot longer.

Age and exposure to moister changes the burn rate and can effect the consistency load to load. I finally used up the last of the original H 4831 powder that Hodgdon sold by pulling 20 mm shells apart and packaging the powder to sell that started him in the business and it was the best/most consistent powder I ever used (I used it for 1000 yard matches only).

The other reason I don't recommend mixing powder is the chance of mixing the wrong powders together. If you never mix powder from one can to another this problem doesn't exist. One mistake is all it takes. Reloading can be very dangerous if you are not organized and have a good procedure to follow. I clean my bench of all things not needed for a specific load and only have one powder, one type of primer and the bullets called for in the load accessible .

I look at the cost of the small amount of powder that is discarded to be small compared the the cost of other possibilities. This is not the place to try and save pennies.

Just me

J E CUSTOM

I agree but I am very careful when it comes to reloading. Actually OCD would be a proper term. When I open powder I mark it with the date I opened it I typically shoot around 200 rounds a month so it dosen't have a chance to get old. I'm usually shooting 1000 yard range so consistency is a must. Just didn't know if pouring and mixing the remaining of said powder is kosher but it seems from the info gather here it is ok if you are careful.

 

[J E Custom]

I agree but I am very careful when it comes to reloading. Actually OCD would be a proper term. When I open powder I mark it with the date I opened it I typically shoot around 200 rounds a month so it dosen't have a chance to get old. I'm usually shooting 1000 yard range so consistency is a must. Just didn't know if pouring and mixing the remaining of said powder is kosher but it seems from the info gather here it is ok if you are careful.

A lot of people do mix powder, I am considered OCD also and I just prefer not to blend powders because in addition to all the possibilities, in order to get a uniform blend, It takes a lot longer than you think and anyone is willing to do. AT best, it may be inconsistent, and after all the time and expense used for match shooting, (Thousands of dollars) a few dollars saved plus the added risk just doesn't seem worth it.

I agree that if a person is super careful, It is probably Ok, But if this practice is handed on to someone less care full, Bad things can happen.

I am always hesitant to tell someone that If you do this and don,t do this you will be Ok. We all know people that don't follow directions. and these are the people that can always come up with a way to screw something up.

Many years I had a Neighbor ask what I was doing and I made the mistake of telling him. We have a fire ant problem in Texas and after many attempts to control them I found a good way that worked better than all the pesticides known to man. The process is simple, Just go around and locate all the fire ant mounds and mark them with a stick so you can find them in the dark. (Ants come home at night and occupy the mound) so you can kill most if not all of them.

After dark I get my gas can and trickle a small amount in the center of the mound and in a few days when you kick the top of the mound you find dead ants and eggs. (This means that you killed all of them).

Now comes the punch line.

My neighbor decided to alter the procedure and do it during the day,
the problem is that during the day the fire ants get realy **** off when you start messing with them. then he went one step further
And decided to light the gas. That's when the rodeo started. after going in the house to get a match the gas fumes had time to spread
and the flash removed all the hair from his legs and when the mound exploded with lots of ****ed off ants, he made several laps around the yard swatting and slapping himself

Apparently I should not have told him anything.

So now I am careful to recommend anything that has qualifications.

I still smile every time I think about it (Must be my mean side)

J E CUSTOM

 

[Wswim]

I'm curious, say you have loaded 50 rounds of ammo to take to the range. The keg you loaded them from has about 500 grains left. You have a new keg from the same lot and of course the same type of powder. Is it OK to pour the remainder into the new keg so it doesn't go to waste. The reason I'm asking is i have a lot of 1# kegs with small amounts that have the same lot number and don't really know what to do with it. Just can't bring myself to throw it away.

I use everything unless it's really old. That's a subjective thing since I'm still using powder that's 40 years old. When I have to dispose of powder I use it on the garden. It works even better on grass, I just don't have any grass. Powder is mostly nitrogen.

 

[Greyfox]

I will mix container leftover of the same lot, different lots do not mixed. I will generally use the leftover of a different lot for foulers.

 

[Ol' Red]

I load as many rounds as I can, then dump remainder in a container with other left overs. When I accumulate enough, I use it with pine cones and wax make fire starters for rainy hunting or camping trips.

 

[J E Custom]

I load as many rounds as I can, then dump remainder in a container with other left overs. When I accumulate enough, I use it with pine cones and wax make fire starters for rainy hunting or camping trips.

Interesting idea ! How do you do this ?

J E CUSTOM

 

[JLM8401]

I load as many rounds as I can, then dump remainder in a container with other left overs. When I accumulate enough, I use it with pine cones and wax make fire starters for rainy hunting or camping trips.

I would like to here about this also.

 

[Poppadoer]

Very interesting.Come on Ol'Red ,tell us how to make the fire starters.Thanks

 

[Dosh]

I pulled bullets on 450 rounds of 22-250 with unknown powder, unknown age and some very nice bullets I will use for the AR. Sprinkled the powder on the Bermuda grass and the grass died! Very happy I didn't use it on the wife's gladiolas.

 

[DocDoc]

LOL - Did you ever take high school chemistry?

1 - It does NOT dissolve in water or alcohol.
2 - It dissolves in ionic solvents - acetone and ether.
3 - It can be melted and molded.

Ergo - it is a plastic!

Go back to high school and return your diploma.

It is not plastic. It is nitrated organic, usually cotton or cellulose as a base. For double base powders, there is a percentage of nirtoglycerine. Both types have small amounts of other additives, that help control the rate of combustion and/or other features like copper removal.

BTW, water, acetone, and ether are polar, not ionic solvents.

Typically plastics are produced by some polymerization reaction and are insoluble in most common solvents. Guncotton, the base for powder is soluble, as you could not make smokeless powder without that property.

Gentle answer...