4895
Member
Like my former mentor told me, dip the case in the powder and squash a bullet in it! 
Pistol Powder Blending?
- Thread starter [email protected]
- Start date
- Status
santanzchild
Member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2012
- Messages
- 16
Like my former mentor told me, dip the case in the powder and squash a bullet in it!
Crap so all those books I bought with my press where a waste!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
ObsidianOne
Member
I heard that back in the 70's or 80's they put out some magazine articles about blending powder and it just ended up blowing up guns and lawsuits.
Why someone would want to blend powders is beyond me.
Why someone would want to blend powders is beyond me.
Local cop here a few years ago decided to get into reloading. Bought some Red Dot, all powders are the same aren't they, filled some 38 Special cases up to,the bottom of the bullet base. Load into the old trusty, Ruger Security Six, and touch off a round. Next thing, is note to self, buy new revolver, this one is broke....
And, yes, I know the guys who did it. Glad they both lived to tell the tale.
And, yes, I know the guys who did it. Glad they both lived to tell the tale.
Hondo 60
Member
The blending of different powders is only for those with ALL of the PROPER testing equipment.
(like Winchester, Hornady, CCI, etc)
The average Joe reloader certainly does NOT have the equipment or the money.
I agree with others, anyone who does this is a candidate for the Darwin award.
(like Winchester, Hornady, CCI, etc)
The average Joe reloader certainly does NOT have the equipment or the money.
I agree with others, anyone who does this is a candidate for the Darwin award.
FWIW, I've known 3 reloaders who tried blending powders. all 3 ended up in the emergency room.
first: mix of black and smokeless 'magnum loads' 12 ga. twist steel barrel.
second: Enfield .303, powder from 20mm rounds mixed with Bullseye and ground in flour mill to fine dust, unweighed, compressed loads.
third: 20 gauge, powder from 3 .45acp rounds added to factory loading, section of copper rod weighing 3 ounces as a slug.
all 3 shooters ended up with fragments in their bodies, the last was permanently deafened.
There's a sucker born every minute, an idiot every second.
first: mix of black and smokeless 'magnum loads' 12 ga. twist steel barrel.
second: Enfield .303, powder from 20mm rounds mixed with Bullseye and ground in flour mill to fine dust, unweighed, compressed loads.
third: 20 gauge, powder from 3 .45acp rounds added to factory loading, section of copper rod weighing 3 ounces as a slug.
all 3 shooters ended up with fragments in their bodies, the last was permanently deafened.
There's a sucker born every minute, an idiot every second.
And the latter seems to be too resilient to die from their mistakes many times and they breed prolifically. I guess when sense and intelligence are missing...well you have to compensate somewhere. Get tough or die and put a lot of offspring out there in the hopes that some will survive their own stupidity.
Jim Watson
Member
We had a guy like weemsf's contact here. We called him "Scoops" because he would just scoop the case full of whatever powder. He was apparently semi-literate and if it said "rifle powder" it was good enough for his .300 Win Mag. He blew up two before the only sizeable store in town would only sell him H870, which is too slow for a caseful to do any harm.
They carefully explained that 4227 was for his .44 Magnum. A case full is an overload but not enough to wreck a SBH. I don't know how he has fared since the store closed and left him to his own devices again.
They carefully explained that 4227 was for his .44 Magnum. A case full is an overload but not enough to wreck a SBH. I don't know how he has fared since the store closed and left him to his own devices again.
627PCFan
Member
I thought this guy would be ok until i read the mixed with bullseye (booster charge? and flour for the fireball effect. )
^^ This kind of story (Scoops),
and these:
... make me think mixing powders might not be so bad. Just that maybe those prone to trying it are on average extremely stupid.
They weren't mixing powders with the goal of working up a new load with unique properties. They were building pipe bombs. Anyone who pulled the same kinds of stunts with a pure cannister grade powder woulda ended up in the ER, too.
and these:
... make me think mixing powders might not be so bad. Just that maybe those prone to trying it are on average extremely stupid.
They weren't mixing powders with the goal of working up a new load with unique properties. They were building pipe bombs. Anyone who pulled the same kinds of stunts with a pure cannister grade powder woulda ended up in the ER, too.
The Bullseye was superfluous. When you grind slow, coarse cannon powder into dust, you're greatly increasing the surface area of the powder and removing any chemical coating that controls burn rate. This probably turned it into a faster powder than Bullseye, anyhow. It's the size of the granules that makes the difference in burn rates of different grades of black powder propellants. In the old days, they just graded it by using different sized sieves. Today's propellants come in all kinds of shapes and sizes to control burn rate.
Last edited:
Additional details: he ground up the two powders together in the mill, poured the finely ground powder into the case, tamped it down, added more, then seated the bullet. at the range , he fired two rounds, then remarked to his buddy, who was observing him, "This rifle's kicking pretty hard, I'll reduce my load the next time I reload." then he pressed the trigger, and the rifle blew up.
Last edited:
GLOOB writ:
"They weren't mixing powders with the goal of working up a new load with unique properties. They were building pipe bombs."
Quite true. the first case was an old timer who thought he knew everything, the second case was a first-time reloader, and the last was just a nitwit trying to make a 20 gauge armor piercing round.
one more case: a 15 year old who tried to turn a .44 spl into a .44 magnum by mixing the powder from grenade launcher blanks with our old friend Bullseye. his load bulged the cylinder until it jammed against the top strap.
Lord, what fools these mortals be...
"They weren't mixing powders with the goal of working up a new load with unique properties. They were building pipe bombs."
Quite true. the first case was an old timer who thought he knew everything, the second case was a first-time reloader, and the last was just a nitwit trying to make a 20 gauge armor piercing round.
one more case: a 15 year old who tried to turn a .44 spl into a .44 magnum by mixing the powder from grenade launcher blanks with our old friend Bullseye. his load bulged the cylinder until it jammed against the top strap.
Lord, what fools these mortals be...
Last edited:
newfalguy101
Member
I have heard of Blackpowder guys using a "pinch" of smokless to give a "bit of kick" to their loads.
Mixed smokless?? I dont plan on ever trying it, I like my fingers................mostly anyway
Mixed smokless?? I dont plan on ever trying it, I like my fingers................mostly anyway
Jim Watson
Member
Duplex loads with a LITTLE smokeless UNDER a black powder charge is a reasonable proposition when done with care. It worked for Harry Pope.
I have a book describing duplex loading of two grades of smokeless in a varmint rifle in the 1950s.
Elmer Keith and his friends called flash tube ignition "duplex" and stratified powder charges "double duplex."
Early Casul gun buster testing was with duplex or even triplex loads; all made obsolete by H110 powder.
No, you don't mix powders, you layer them.
But maybe YOU shouldn't. I know I don't.
I have a book describing duplex loading of two grades of smokeless in a varmint rifle in the 1950s.
Elmer Keith and his friends called flash tube ignition "duplex" and stratified powder charges "double duplex."
Early Casul gun buster testing was with duplex or even triplex loads; all made obsolete by H110 powder.
No, you don't mix powders, you layer them.
But maybe YOU shouldn't. I know I don't.
ArchAngelCD
Member.
Ain't that the truth. I would not be within 50 feet of that guy when he shoots!
MtnCreek
Member
Those are some scary stories. About the worst I've seen was a guy at the range using a mallet to open his bolt. I asked him what the problem was and he told me he was trying to get a good load for (some old surplus bolt gun) with Benchmark and didn't have data. He said he tried XX.X grs last week and could hardly get the bolt open with the mallet, so he backed it off a gr and it was still really hard to open, but he had to shoot them so he could use the brass to try again. He assured me it was safe because those old military rifle are made to take anything. I wished him luck and proceeded to leave.
Salmoneye
Member
Jim Watson said:
I have an old manual that has listings for .30-06 duplex loads...
I ignore them...
Well, you know how it gets sometimes: you have all these cans and jars with 1/4" of powder left in them kicking around the reloading bench so you think "why not?"...
Of course, the reloading bench is a TERRIBLE place to start thinking. Don't EVER think. Just follow the published load data EXACTLY. Good boy. You don't want the nice ER folks telling stories about you. ("You will not believe the idiot they hauled in today. Had various revolver parts stuffed in him sideways.")
SharpsDressedMan
member
I knew a welll known, and respected, firearms & reloading expert & writer who told me he occasionally blended Accurate #7 and Accurate #9 to make "Accurate #8", and used it in the .38 Super with success. He wouldn't go into any other detail on it, as he didn't want tosteer anyone else into POTENTIAL trouble.
OrangePwrx9
Member
I like my gun collection and my finger collection too well to try any of this.
The guns came hard; one at a time with money I earned. The fingers, well, they were a gift from Mom.
The guns came hard; one at a time with money I earned. The fingers, well, they were a gift from Mom.
Last edited:
just for fun
Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
- Messages
- 181
Digging into the old memory banks, I believe the 454 Cascual started out with triplex powder charge! Bullseye,231,and 2400,each seperated with thin cardboard. These were not factory loads,but the gun's enventor's loads!!! amount and order they were put into cases was not discussed in the article. (AND FOR GOOD REASON)
ArchAngelCD
Member.
Even those crazy triplex loads are not blended powders...
- Status
