8mm woes

[mac1911]

Hows the powder in the jug look?

 

[daekken]

Hows the powder in the jug look?

I'll double check it when I get home tonight.

 

[daekken]

It looked fine; what I did read about the yellowing is that it is likely the graphite coating being burned off, but the powder not igniting completely. Whether it was due to moisture (seems possible due to the clumps) or it just being a harder to ignite powder, I'm not sure. Maybe the CCIs weren't hot enough. I have a stack of Winchester primers on the way, and some sites have indicated they are hotter than CCI, so maybe it could be a difference maker. I think I'll try the Winchester primers with this powder in small batches and see. I usually make up 20-40 rounds for a lunch trip, so maybe set aside 5 or so for this powder over a few trips and see if it was a fluke.

This jug's been stored next to Accurate # 7 which came in the same order, and I've loaded over 100 rds of 9mm and 15 Makarov rounds and they've all been fine.

 

[mac1911]

IDK, ball powders have not been cooperative with me. I always end up at max charge for best results and seems some ball powders like to be darn near case capacity to do well.

 

[daekken]

Yeah, we'll see. I wouldn't have normally ordered it but I wanted to try pistol reloading and the vendor had free hazmat on the manufacturer with $99 of powder, so this one got added in the cart to meet the minimum. It'll probably get used up eventually and either way I probably won't order it again.

 

[shootymacshootface]

Ball powders are notoriously harder to ignite than stick or flake powders. I had the exact same experience years ago with the 303 brit and H335. No two shots were the same because of inconsistent ignition of the powder. There were seveal squibs with a bullet lodged in the barrel because the powder started to burn, then went out. Leaving the action fouled with lots of partially burned powder. Some in clumps and some that blonde colour that you found in your action. I stay away from ball powders above 30 cal. There are so many better choices.

 

[daekken]

Ball powders are notoriously harder to ignite than stick or flake powders. I had the exact same experience years ago with the 303 brit and H335. No two shots were the same because of inconsistent ignition of the powder. There were seveal squibs with a bullet lodged in the barrel because the powder started to burn, then went out. Leaving the action fouled with lots of partially burned powder. Some in clumps and some that blonde colour that you found in your action. I stay away from ball powders above 30 cal. There are so many better choices.

Sounds a lot like what I experienced. Since those problems with those first rounds, I've fired about 100 30-06 reloads, 45 7.62x54R reloads and some 303 British reloads, plus some Makarov reloads on the pistol side and the 8mm Varget rounds. All using stuff stored side-by-side plus the same case of primers (minus the pistol primers), but not using this powder. So I think it's the powder. I did get the Winchester primers in, might run a small batch of the powder with that primer and see if it ignites any better, but definitely leaving it as the last rounds for a given range trip in case it induces another headache.

 

[mac1911]

Sounds a lot like what I experienced. Since those problems with those first rounds, I've fired about 100 30-06 reloads, 45 7.62x54R reloads and some 303 British reloads, plus some Makarov reloads on the pistol side and the 8mm Varget rounds. All using stuff stored side-by-side plus the same case of primers (minus the pistol primers), but not using this powder. So I think it's the powder. I did get the Winchester primers in, might run a small batch of the powder with that primer and see if it ignites any better, but definitely leaving it as the last rounds for a given range trip in case it induces another headache.

with that "bad" powder You need to recreate some Loony Tunes scenes involving trails of gun powder leading to the keg.

 

[gerrycaruso]

I use ball powder for all my bottleneck rifle calibers and .223 is the only one that works well with a standard primer. All calibers larger than .223 require a magnum primer or I have the same problem that you had. Magnum primers supposedly burn hotter than standard primers.

 

[DW357]

I use ball powder for all my bottleneck rifle calibers and .223 is the only one that works well with a standard primer. All calibers larger than .223 require a magnum primer or I have the same problem that you had. Magnum primers supposedly burn hotter than standard primers.

This is good to know. Only rifle ball powders I’ve used are TAC and H335 for 223. For 30-06 and 7.5x55 I use IMR-4064 which is like the coarsest friggin stick powder there is.