Blending powders

mtmuley

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
16,595
Location
montana
First, I am not advocating this, nor do I ever plan on doing it. I read on another site a handloader claiming gains in efficiency by blending. Can't post the link but will via PM. I hope a guy from Eastern Montana with a shit ton of loading and shooting experience will respond. Doesn't seem like a good idea. mtmuley
 
First, I am not advocating this, nor do I ever plan on doing it. I read on another site a handloader claiming gains in efficiency by blending. Can't post the link but will via PM. I hope a guy from Eastern Montana with a shit ton of loading and shooting experience will respond. Doesn't seem like a good idea. mtmuley

Same powder different lots or different powders?
 
I had an old crow hunting buddy who was a bit of a "wildcatter" with his 12-gauge crow loads. He was like Merlin the wizard with his powders trying all kinds of concoctions....He somehow lived to be an old man.
A guy I knew cracked the stock on his 10-gauge shooting one of the wizards #4 buckshot loads.....


I have been accused of throwing in a couple extra gains here and there over the years, but I never blended powders.....on purpose. lol
 
I heard from an ol boy that weatherby blends powder to achieve their velocity in factory loads. Could be complete bullshit though.
 
Funny enough, I have a baggie of old powder from a bunch of unknown loads that I didn't want to shoot, but wanted the brass.

Guaranteed, if I was stupid enough to try it, it would be the best shooting powder I ever tried. But have absolutely 0 clue what's in there and could never replicate it again.
 
I read a book years ago that had an old hunter reminiscing about the change from black powder to a more powerful smokeless powder. They weren’t sure of the new smokeless powder loads.

They’d tie the rifle to a tree and trail string tied to the trigger to their hiding spot. They blew up a few rifles in the first experimental loads.
 
Read that same thread, seems that guy still had all his fingers and went about it pretty carefully, but nope, not going to do it. As far as I will go is same powder, different lots, when one jug gets real low, will mix into the new cannister, probably safer, but may not be at all.
 
There is some data out there from people experimenting with layered charges in Savage smokeless muzzleloaders. I'd had great luck with single smokeless powders in mine so never played around with it.

One would think that if blending powders was better, the powder manufacturers would just go ahead and do it to be able to say they have the latest, greatest thing.
 
There’s already so many great powder options out there that cover just about every possible burn rate. I can’t imagine that trying to blend them would be worth the hassle or the risk. Now if only Alliant would figure their crap out and get some Reloader series available on the shelf again we’d be in pretty good shape.
 
I wonder how blending powders might work in a muzzleloader. One application that would come to mind is blending a little 777 with BH 209. That might get BH 209 to ignite reliably in a sidelock. Some muzzleloader shooters do a duplex load where they might load some FFF powder first with FF to top it off before stuffing the projectile. This is just stuff I have read, I've never tried it myself.
 
You will always run into particle size distribution and settling by particle size densities. What was once blended (mixture) is now multi stage ignition of who knows what on burn rates. Manufacturers struggle with this with mixtures in feed hoppers such agitation is required 100% of the time. Maybe if loaded and shot asap then maybe🤷🏻‍♂️. Over time I can see particle size distribution happening over different densities and particle size. Now we all know powder lot numbers can be areal PITA, so add in that variable.

Just remember blended is fancy word for mixture which is not a compound and is not homogeneous.

The fella over there seems to have a handle on how he is doing it, until he doesn't. I wish him luck in his endeavors.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
115,089
Messages
2,083,395
Members
36,929
Latest member
Warspawn
Back
Top