Murphy4570
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Sifu, why not hook an air blower up to your air compressor, and blow out the cases with shop air? I do that when I need to dry something sometimes, tends to work rather well.
Question. When gunpowder gets wet is it unusable forever?
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lwknight
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When you need to dry brass in a hurry , just put them in the oven set at 250 for 1 hour and it will be very very dry. 250 degrees will not affect the temper of any part of the breass.
1 hour is overkill. When I dry cases in my toaster oven, a 20 minute run at 250 is enough to totally them.
Zombie_Flesh
Member
Old Powder
So the OPs question is if powder got wet can you dry it out and re-use it.
The answer appears to be maybe - depends on the powder, but even then you need to worry about proper drying, caking and what not.
You need to assume what you are reading on here is accurate, then you need to dry it properly (not too hot, not too long, not too short....) then you need to worry about caking.
So my personal advice is unless we are talking TEOTWAWKI, I would not use it- take it outside put it in a small pile on the driveway and torch it. OR springle it on the garden the nitrogen levels will do about the same as an AN fertilizer.
So the OPs question is if powder got wet can you dry it out and re-use it.
The answer appears to be maybe - depends on the powder, but even then you need to worry about proper drying, caking and what not.
You need to assume what you are reading on here is accurate, then you need to dry it properly (not too hot, not too long, not too short....) then you need to worry about caking.
So my personal advice is unless we are talking TEOTWAWKI, I would not use it- take it outside put it in a small pile on the driveway and torch it. OR springle it on the garden the nitrogen levels will do about the same as an AN fertilizer.
Maybe, but I'd be scared of it's burn rate, and so would be concerned that the load data I had would be inaccurate. And, we all know that inaccurate load data = kaboom. Of course that may not be an issue, but powder is relatively cheap, and I'd think a fresh batch would just be cheap hand and face insurance. Of course I readily admit that I'm ignorant of the chemistry involved so could be just wasting money out of fear.
grossmusic
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Black powder in a large keg.
So - if I had old fashioned pirate powder filling a keg and someone poured a bucket of water over it, I could safely light a match and...
What is the worst that could happen, assuming it's doused.
So - if I had old fashioned pirate powder filling a keg and someone poured a bucket of water over it, I could safely light a match and...
What is the worst that could happen, assuming it's doused.
230RN
2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
Ball powders are made in a water slurry from "old" powders and pumped around the plant to various other operations, like milling some of it flatter to make it burn faster, and coating some of it with deterrents to burn slower.
The various sized grains are blended to make a final mix with the desired characteristics, this blending being accomplished by a valve-turning operation: "We need thus-and-so many gallons from this tank, and so-and-so many gallons from that tank over there."
When blended, the stuff is dried, canned, and shipped.
I wouldn't get too rambunctious about loading ammo with previously-wetted granular powder, e.g, 4320 and 4895, etc. For myself, if I knew it had been wet, I'd treat it as a powder with "similar" burning characteristics and start reloading from the light side of the loading data. In other words, I'd treat it as a "change in any component" and follow the advice of the reloading manuals as to starting with minimum loading densities.
For black powder, as someone has mentioned, if it got wet enough for the KNO3 to drain off, it's almost worthless. If only dampened, but not enough for KNO3 crystals to film over it, I'd break up the cake and try it, but not expect too much from it, and I would not load it by volume.
Actually, the best advice, even though wetted powders might be made to work, is to treat it as a loss and scatter it around in the garden.
Terry, 230RN
The various sized grains are blended to make a final mix with the desired characteristics, this blending being accomplished by a valve-turning operation: "We need thus-and-so many gallons from this tank, and so-and-so many gallons from that tank over there."
When blended, the stuff is dried, canned, and shipped.
I wouldn't get too rambunctious about loading ammo with previously-wetted granular powder, e.g, 4320 and 4895, etc. For myself, if I knew it had been wet, I'd treat it as a powder with "similar" burning characteristics and start reloading from the light side of the loading data. In other words, I'd treat it as a "change in any component" and follow the advice of the reloading manuals as to starting with minimum loading densities.
For black powder, as someone has mentioned, if it got wet enough for the KNO3 to drain off, it's almost worthless. If only dampened, but not enough for KNO3 crystals to film over it, I'd break up the cake and try it, but not expect too much from it, and I would not load it by volume.
Actually, the best advice, even though wetted powders might be made to work, is to treat it as a loss and scatter it around in the garden.
Terry, 230RN
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woad_yurt
Member
Related factoid:
Back in the day, they used to corn black powder with urine. A wine drinker's was always preferred but that from beer drinkers was good, too.
Just sayin'....
Back in the day, they used to corn black powder with urine. A wine drinker's was always preferred but that from beer drinkers was good, too.
Just sayin'....
Jim Watson
Member
I have loaded ammo salvaged after The Incident and its house fire.
It was not burnt or even scorched but some was wetted and all was "steamed" by firehose water.
I have tried to shoot some.
Few of the reloads will fire. Pulling the bullets shows clumped powder, apparently holding enough water to keep the primers too damp to pop.
Most of the factory loads will fire but not enough for even enjoyable plinking; plus the bad habit of the aluminum Blazers splitting or burning through. Pulling those bullets finds some with clumped powder that would likely have misfired and some with free flowing powder that would likely have shot.
I have pulled bullets to salvage bullets and brass, but the ones with dry looking powder are not enough to bother with recycling the powder and hoping the primers would fire.
The Blazers are more troublesome than that. Many of the TMJ bullets will not seat tight in common headstamps of once fired brass. Rather than buy a U die, I will probably just give those to a tinkerer who doesn't mind the extra work as long as stuff is free or cheap.
I had most of a case of black powder. It was recovered from the yard. I don't know if it was thrown there by a fireman who beat the flames to it or later by one of my friends working to salvage guns and gear while I was in hospital. It is a bit clumped in the cans but all it takes is to knead the plastic containers to break up the big lumps, then run it through a funnel and crush the small ones on the way to the powder measure. It works just fine, good enough for second place in a match last weekend. Would I have won with perfectly dry powder? Probably not.
It was not burnt or even scorched but some was wetted and all was "steamed" by firehose water.
I have tried to shoot some.
Few of the reloads will fire. Pulling the bullets shows clumped powder, apparently holding enough water to keep the primers too damp to pop.
Most of the factory loads will fire but not enough for even enjoyable plinking; plus the bad habit of the aluminum Blazers splitting or burning through. Pulling those bullets finds some with clumped powder that would likely have misfired and some with free flowing powder that would likely have shot.
I have pulled bullets to salvage bullets and brass, but the ones with dry looking powder are not enough to bother with recycling the powder and hoping the primers would fire.
The Blazers are more troublesome than that. Many of the TMJ bullets will not seat tight in common headstamps of once fired brass. Rather than buy a U die, I will probably just give those to a tinkerer who doesn't mind the extra work as long as stuff is free or cheap.
I had most of a case of black powder. It was recovered from the yard. I don't know if it was thrown there by a fireman who beat the flames to it or later by one of my friends working to salvage guns and gear while I was in hospital. It is a bit clumped in the cans but all it takes is to knead the plastic containers to break up the big lumps, then run it through a funnel and crush the small ones on the way to the powder measure. It works just fine, good enough for second place in a match last weekend. Would I have won with perfectly dry powder? Probably not.
230RN
2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
^ "It works just fine, good enough for second place in a match last weekend. Would I have won with perfectly dry powder? Probably not."
But, but... why waste a perfectly good excuse?
I've even "complained" about that sudden gust of wind from 9 o'clock throwing my shot off.
...At an indoor range.
Terry, 230RN
But, but... why waste a perfectly good excuse?
I've even "complained" about that sudden gust of wind from 9 o'clock throwing my shot off.
...At an indoor range.
Terry, 230RN
Owen Sparks
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I visited a small fireworks factory when I was a kid. As I recall they were making sky rockets with black powder that was kept damp for safety reasons. The finished rockets had to dry for a couple of weeks before they were ready.
Large stocks of WWII powder where stored at Radford Army Ammunition plant in water.
It was the reprocessed later to extract the nitrocellulose and make other powders and products.
The old stuff had a relatively low nitrocellulose concentration (less than 50% IIRC) and was not useful any longer.
paintballdude902
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i wouldnt use it but it will still ignite after. look at the story of hill 60 in wwI, they had to dry out something like a million pounds of gun cotton
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