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Thread: Learned something new about reloading equipment

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    Senior Member NAPOTS's Avatar

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    Learned something new about reloading equipment

    I recently experienced a little issue with my reloading equipment and thought I'd pass it on.

    Did you know that if you leave powder in your powder dispenser long term that it can melt the plastic? Yep, sure can. I had my reloading setup for .45 acp and had left bullseye in the hopper of the powder dispenser for a while. I pulled the dust cover off of my setup a couple of weeks ago and the plastic from the hopper looked like it was melting. Come to find out some powders off-gas some pretty nasty stuff that is hard on plastic. Lucky for me, Hornady sent me a replacement free of charge.

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    Forum Administrator Schuetzenman's Avatar

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    Had powder stain the clear tubes to be sort of amber but never melted. I wonder what Hornaday was using for their clear powder chamber reservoir.

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    Team GunsNet Platinum 02/2014 Hatedbysheeple's Avatar

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    The main component in smokeless I believe is nitrocellulose, so it could be giving of nitric acid fumes.

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    Senior Member NAPOTS's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hatedbysheeple View Post
    The main component in smokeless I believe is nitrocellulose, so it could be giving of nitric acid fumes.
    That's what I read after noticing the problem. From what I read it sounded like some powders have a higher nitroglycerine content than others.

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    Forum Administrator Schuetzenman's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by NAPOTS View Post
    That's what I read after noticing the problem. From what I read it sounded like some powders have a higher nitroglycerine content than others.
    That's true but Nitro alone isn't going to be acidic. Acid is used to process Nitrocellulose. If the powder isn't process properly residual acidity in the powder results. Over time this can cause the powder to break down, heat up and then detonate. There has been a widespread occurrence of this with surplus 4831 powders pulled from AA20 mm rounds from the late 1960's.

    There are tell tail signs if the powder is going bad. It will smell like vinegar or sour vs. sweet like Either. If you open powder, smell the odor coming off of it. Should it ever smell sour / vinegar like go spread it on your lawn ASAP, do not keep it as it could go off while in storage.

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    Senior Member NAPOTS's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Schuetzenman View Post
    That's true but Nitro alone isn't going to be acidic. Acid is used to process Nitrocellulose. If the powder isn't process properly residual acidity in the powder results. Over time this can cause the powder to break down, heat up and then detonate. There has been a widespread occurrence of this with surplus 4831 powders pulled from AA20 mm rounds from the late 1960's.

    There are tell tail signs if the powder is going bad. It will smell like vinegar or sour vs. sweet like Either. If you open powder, smell the odor coming off of it. Should it ever smell sour / vinegar like go spread it on your lawn ASAP, do not keep it as it could go off while in storage.

    Is the stuff already loaded ok? I have Nazi 8mm ammo from WWII that I have shot and it worked fine.

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    Forum Administrator Schuetzenman's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by NAPOTS View Post
    Is the stuff already loaded ok? I have Nazi 8mm ammo from WWII that I have shot and it worked fine.
    Not all powders can go acidic. The powder I was talking about was surplus stuff from WWII and Korean vintage. War time powder production probably took a few short cuts and the acid wasn't washed out of the nitrocellulose as it should of been. Loaded ammo will be like ammo in a fire, it will pop vs. BOOM. Where people got blown up was from say they had 10 lbs. of this stuff plus other powders and maybe even primers all stored in one location, the one that went acid blows and sets off the others so it goes up exponentially. I actually met a guy that got blasted through his sliding glass doors by this happening back in the early 1990's. He had recovered but he did have burn scar tissue on his chest and undersides of his arms. He said he saw the fireball coming and had a split second to bring his arms up in front of his face to shield himself from the blast.

    I had some of the 4831 surplus, about 10 lbs. of it and it was stored with my other powders. I was in New Mexico at Whittington Center shooting when I found out about this. I called home and had my wife take the stuff out of the powder storage and sprinkle it on the lawn. I got back and found she missed 1 lb. of it. It did smell like Either but just in case I went ahead and got rid of it. Better safe than sorry and all that.

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    Team GunsNetwork PLATINUM 10/2012 rci2950's Avatar

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    the bottle on my powder dropper has turned yellow and is crispy but hasnt melted... Probably why

    good to know
    Gunsnet member since 2002
    Salt Water Cowboy - Dolphin 38

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    If your powder has enough residual solvent to actually attack the plastic (not just turn it dark), then you should try to notify the powder distributer (Alliant in this case) and let them know.
    If your powder is releasing nitric acid, it will not attack the plastic but will attack the metal and the powder is decomposing and is dangerous and will give off noxious smell and brown gas.
    Many Dillon 1050s and 650s have powder in the hopers almost continuously. I will leave mine that way so I can load an additional 100 or so as I pass by.

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    Forum Administrator Schuetzenman's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by noylj View Post
    If your powder has enough residual solvent to actually attack the plastic (not just turn it dark), then you should try to notify the powder distributer (Alliant in this case) and let them know.
    If your powder is releasing nitric acid, it will not attack the plastic but will attack the metal and the powder is decomposing and is dangerous and will give off noxious smell and brown gas.
    Many Dillon 1050s and 650s have powder in the hopers almost continuously. I will leave mine that way so I can load an additional 100 or so as I pass by.
    Good post. Powder should smell like either, if it smalls lice vinegar (acetic acid) this is a very bad sign. It means the powder is decomposing and in doing so it can generate enough heat to detonate. There have been cases of this happening especially with old WWII surplus powder that was around in the 1960's and 70's. It started blowing up in the 1990's.
    Last edited by Schuetzenman; 08-19-2014 at 10:55 PM.

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