More unidentified stuff from friend

Lee Q. Loader · Mar 16, 2023

I know I've got to dump this out, so let's not make this a discussion on the dangers of unknown components.
I just thought it would be fun to read your best guesses on what powder this is. Given me by a friend, came in an Alliant 8 lb jug with no labels. The jug is full to the top, so more than 8 lbs.
My guess is blue dot.
What do you think?

reddog81 · Mar 16, 2023

Are there flakes that are blue? I just see various shades of grey some with maybe a slight hint of being blue but hard to tell from provided pic.

Seems like if the 8 lbs is a full jug somebody mixed from various sources and could be a variety pack of whatever.

N555 · Mar 16, 2023

It's blue. But it doesn't look like bluedot.
Unless this is what new bluedot looks like.
The bluedot I have is like 15 years old.

1KPerDay · Mar 16, 2023

Universal

mdi · Mar 16, 2023

"Full to the top", tells me that it is not the powder that came in the jug and a good chance the powder is mix of a different powders. Nope, I don't recognize any individual flakes in the bunch.

Hooda Thunkit · Mar 16, 2023

I don't think I've seen any blue powder like that. But then, the CBI powder I have is green. Maybe some sort of pull-down powder?

entropy · Mar 16, 2023

If the person who gave it to you didn't give specific instructions not to load with it, he's no friend of yours.

reddog81 · Mar 16, 2023

N555 said:
It's blue. But it doesn't look like bluedot.
Unless this is what new bluedot looks like.
The bluedot I have is like 15 years old.

I have Blue Dot from the 80's and bought a pound a few years back to confirm the 40 year old stuff performed similarly to the new stuff. They looked basically the same and performed similarly.

higgite · Mar 16, 2023

I'm like your friend, if I didn't know what it was, I'd give it away, too.

FROGO207 · Mar 16, 2023

Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away we used to buy propellant by the pound in a paper sack at the local hardware store from a large cardboard barrel. One was rifle the other was pistol. Looks like pistol to me. You would start, assuming it was the fastest propellant and use a published starting load and work up through that propellant and move on to the next fastest etc., until you had a good load. The next time there might be a different barrel and you had to start over, or some more from the same barrel.
With a full jug it might be worth some experimentation if you feel comfortable or trade to a other reloader that does.

EMC45 · Mar 16, 2023

I was given some pretty old Green Dot (Hercules) and the flakes looked like that - kind of olive drab colored. The newer Green Dot I had at the time had bright green flakes.

Similarly, my Green Dot was mixed with some ancient WIN500HS powder. All mixed up. I made a seive of of a Solo cup and seived all the smaller 500HS out and kept back the Green Dot for shotgun work. Worked perfect, and I shot it all up in slug loads for my 12ga. The WIN500HS works fine in pistol loads (load like HS-5), but it is kind of dirty.

Lee Q. Loader · Mar 16, 2023

entropy said:
If the person who gave it to you didn't give specific instructions not to load with it, he's no friend of yours.

On the contrary, he's a wonderful friend who knows absolutely nothing about reloading. The components are from is girlfriend's father who recently passed. Knowing how much I love reloading, he went far out of his way to make sure to get this stuff for me.

Cheesemaker · Mar 16, 2023

I think it is fertilizer.

mdi · Mar 16, 2023

Well, I know it's not CFE Pistol, Bluedot, Universal, BR-5 nor Bullseye, or W231

Howa 9700 · Mar 16, 2023

Hard to really see the colors and shapes from the photo. At least for me.

Clays mixed with something else?

An unknown pull down powder from a place like American Reloading?

What, if anything, came with it to give one a clue what it was being used for?

bigpower491 · Mar 16, 2023

I see firecrackers.........

NMexJim · Mar 16, 2023

By chance does this look like the powder in any of the rounds you broke down?

Hugger-4641 · Mar 16, 2023

If you lived near me, I would take it and do some testing to get an idea of burn rate, but it looks like a pistol or shotgun powder to me.

Lee Q. Loader · Mar 16, 2023

NMexJim said:
By chance does this look like the powder in any of the rounds you broke down?

No. That powder was all black disc shaped, like Unique.

Lee Q. Loader · Mar 16, 2023

Howa 9700 said:
Hard to really see the colors and shapes from the photo. At least for me.

Clays mixed with something else?

An unknown pull down powder from a place like American Reloading?

What, if anything, came with it to give one a clue what it was being used for?

Nothing came with it. All I know is that the person who used it, reloaded a lot of 44 mag and 12 gauge trap loads.

I thought of Clays or Clay Dot originally too. The colors vary so much that I believe you're probably right; it could be a mixture of different powders.

Howa 9700 · Mar 16, 2023

FROGO207 said:
Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away we used to buy propellant by the pound in a paper sack at the local hardware store from a large cardboard barrel. One was rifle the other was pistol. Looks like pistol to me. You would start, assuming it was the fastest propellant and use a published starting load and work up through that propellant and move on to the next fastest etc., until you had a good load. The next time there might be a different barrel and you had to start over, or some more from the same barrel.
With a full jug it might be worth some experimentation if you feel comfortable or trade to a other reloader that does.

Retail for 8 pounds of powder these days is close to $250. There are some brave, frugal, heavy user types that would try to use it. Pick a common hull, primer and wad combination, Load 17 grains under 1 oz of shot and send them off to be tested for pressure and velocity. If it passed that test, the only regret some guys would have was there was only 8 pounds of it.

tightgroup tiger · Mar 17, 2023

I can't say I've ever seen powder that looked like that. Odd coloring.

Akula69 · Mar 17, 2023

It looks like the old Green Dot I used to have. I wonder how old it is (I believe mine was about 20+ years old when I shot it).

sfl_gunner · Mar 17, 2023

Looks like good fertilizer. I wouldn't load anything with that.

Rottweiler · Mar 17, 2023

exactly what sfl_gunner said.

More unidentified stuff from friend

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