Mixing old powder with new?

Dog Soldier said:

I believe in sensible safe reloading. But many are getting more nervous than a hungry mare in fly time. It seems every forum on reloading results in "Oh My" don't do that!! Reloading is a very safe and enjoyable sport. Just follow the instructions provided by every powder company. Enjoy.

Click to expand...

Yep! Sometimes we put WAY to much thought into it!

Walkalong said:

I wouldn't do it with powders over 5 years old, but under that would have no problem with it. Truth be told, 10 or 15 years would likely be fine, but there is a chance one is going bad. I have powder 30 years old that looks and smells fine, but I had the better part of an 8 pound jug of rifle powder go bad somewhere between 10 and 15 years.

Many people put the last little bit of X powder in the new jug of X powder and mix it up. Plinking ammo? Go for it. Match ammo? Not me, unless they are both the same lot. YMMV.

Here is some surplus .308 from 1982. In 2014 I noticed a few rounds showed crud/corrosion around the neck where the bullet meets the brass. I started pulling it apart a few weeks ago. About 15 to 20% of the powder showed deterioration, with about 10% showing green corrosion. Yea, 32 years old, and we don't know how it was stored before I got it, but it doesn't always take that long, especially in heat.

Click to expand...

Just curious? But how do you know this was not a primer issue. Primers are a likely source of corrosion. Old brass that is not properly cleaned can also harbor fulminate residue that is corrosive.

I'll run the old powder out until there is not enough left in the powder measure for accurate powder charges. Then I just fill the measure up with the new powder. No mixing other than what happens over the course of throwing powder charges.

There are exceptions to that. If the old powder is really old, I will use it up as long as it is still good and not mix it. If I know that the manufacturer has changed the production source and the data has change, I will not mix the powders.

No Mix. There are other reasons. Here is just one.

243winxb said:

No Mix. There are other reasons. Here is just one.

Click to expand...

Pretty bad case of the measles there.

I've lost several cans of late 80's/early 90s IMR rifle powder in metal cans. All were properly stored. I think DuPont really let their QC slip during that time.

I could have easily shot 75 rounds in the time it took to read this!

I mix powders out of the jug when there is a little left into a brand new one but why bother pulling 75 rounds for that small amount??

Walkalong said:

Corrosive primers have not been used for a long time, and they were a problem in brass and bores after firing. Certainly not used in 82. And it was new brass never reloaded. It's a powder issue.

Click to expand...

Well that is good news. I did ruin a nice Pre-64 Mdl 70 Feather Weight. I loaded some import brass GI. It had corrosive residue in the cases. Did not know that. It ruined the bore in the rifle.

Duster340 said:

[QUOTE="Rule3, post: 10491927, member:
I mix powders out of the jug when there is a little left into a brand new one but why bother pulling 75 rounds for that small amount??

Click to expand...

Cause once I get an idea I can't let go. (Drives "the boss" crazy lol) . And hey, it's a good reason to hit the bench this weekend. I'm weird in that I find stuff like disassembling the loads, reloading them to my liking and maybe smelting some range scrap to be relaxing and therapeutic. Especially after the crazy week I had in the office this week! Of course, a bit of bourbon when I'm finished will help a wee bit too..

Have a good weekend[/QUOTE]

Have fun! As far as the amount of powder mixed into a new1 lb (or more) I see no issue it that,Shake it up a little and load away!

I would solve this conundrum by disassembling the old cartridges with the appropriate handgun. then start working up a new load for the new gun.
The little bit of inaccuracy is not worth the angst of mixing the powder or not, nor worth all the work to hammer out a bunch of cartridges. IMO
Have fun!

slamfire wrote:
DoD dumps about a billion dollars of munitions,...

Click to expand...

Well, you wouldn't have this waste (or the stream of cheap de-militarized components that results) if we just kept the shooting wars going at a level sufficient to use the ammunition as we produced it. After all, what's a few thousand lives if keeps the ammunition plants churning and avoids wasting a billion dollars of taxpayer money?

Yeah, that was all hyperbole, but the stark reality is that we either stockpile enough ammunition to be able to go to war when and if we need to do so and then deal with the fact it might "spoil" if the diplomats do their job and keep us out of conflict or else we save the money, don't buy an ammunition and risk going to war unarmed should the diplomats fail.

Safe reloading comes down to common sense. Common sense tells us not to contaminate good powders with those that may have been compromised. Common sense tells us that mixing two canisters of the exact same powders is not much different than what the manufacturer does at the factory to maintain consistent burn rate, so there is little risk to it. I am one of those that mixes "tailenders" with new powder, but I only do that with when I am sure of the condition of the "tailender" powder. The quarter pound of H110 powder recouped from 75 .44mag rounds would not be an incentive to pull bullets, but 75 jacketed projectiles and 75 empty .44mag cases would. Iffin it were me, and my intent was to reuse all the components, and only reduce the powder charge, common sense would tell me to temporarily dump the pulled powder into a separate container. Then, since it would only be a minuscule amount, whatever powder I had left over would be used as fertilizer.