Problem loading Clay's for a .45ACP

[alan6271]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to this site but it's great. I have been an IDPA shooter for 5 years now. I use to reload quite a bit but stopped when I moved into my new house. I spent about 2 years remodeling, including finishing the basement but now its done and I am reloading again. I have an RCBS Pro 2000 press in my now finished basement. When I stopped reloading two years ago, I just left the powder in the hopper on the press, covered of course. I loaded some bullets last week to get the charge down for a fairly new revolver ( S&W 625). I am loading 4 Grains of Clays and using a 200gr JRN bullet. The load worked great for about the first 60 rounds out of the gun. Last night I went to a gun club to shoot some PPC and weird things were happening. The rounds I fired all went off but it looked like a steam train running. There were also black flakes of whatever coming out of the end of the gun. Everytime I reloaded, big black flakes came out of the cylinders. Some of the loads seemed really week too. I have a powder check die on the press so I know that they had equal amounts of powder. The only thing anyone there could come up with was that maybe the powder got damp from being in the basement.

Any thoughts here? Has anyone here experienced this before? I use Federal primers and always tumble brass.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Alan

 

[stans]

When I stopped reloading two years ago, I just left the powder in the hopper on the press, covered of course.

Welcom aboard!

Real bad way to store powder. Odds are it is contaminated with moisture and may also be deteriorating. I recommend using this powder as fertilizer in the yard. The proper way to store powder is to keep it sealed in its original container and in an environment that is not subject to high temperatures.

 

[alan6271]

Yep, that's kinda what I thought as well. At least, I hoped that was the problem. On a follow up to that point, I had bought 8Lbs of Clays back then. I used about half of it. There is probably about 3 or 4 lbs in the original container. Do you think that's still OK? It has had the cap screwed on. I hate to throw that out too!

 

[alan6271]

OOPS, Sorry Stans. I didn't see the second half where you said to keep it stored in the original container. I guess that pretty much answers that question.

Thanks again for all the help.