Yellow clump in xbr8208

[Redbeard88]

Good evening all,

I was getting ready to load some 6.5 Grendel tonight with 8208 for some test loads and when I opened the container this yellow clump was sitting on top. I've been loading for a couple of years now however have never seen this before. Did some googling and apparently don't know the proper way to search for "yellow clumps in smokeless powder" as I have seen nothing that pertains. Any thoughts?

 

[nightman89]

No idea, but i've got like 10 cans of the stuff, so interested to see what it is and what I need to be looking out for.

 

[SDBguy95]

No idea, but i've got like 10 cans of the stuff, so interested to see what it is and what I need to be looking out for.

The stuff is garbage, very few people have any luck with it.


How many cans were you getting rid of?

 

[nightman89]

The stuff is garbage, very few people have any luck with it.


How many cans were you getting rid of?

ummmm.... I already dumped it in the flower beds just to be sure. You're welcome to come sift the dirt and retrieve it though!

 

[SDBguy95]

I haven't been using 8208 for long, but I haven't seen anything like those clumps for sure! Do they have a waxy feeling?

 

[Snuby642]

Fling it like a bugger and carry on.

 

[Redbeard88]

I haven't been using 8208 for long, but I haven't seen anything like those clumps for sure! Do they have a waxy feeling?

Not that I can tell

 

[Redbeard88]

Fling it like a bugger and carry on.

What I was thinking, but still found it interesting and hoping someone had an idea what it could be

 

[Evintos]

Smell it, if it smells like ammonia or incredibly acidic it's powder gone bad (look up "deteriorating gun powder yellow" in Google and you'll find references). That clump either is a bad powder either because a drop of water hit it during the packaging process or if the container has been open and some moisture got in. It could also be uncoated nitrocellulose or a piece of plastic. If it burns it was uncoated nitrocellulose. If it burns slowly it was deteriorating powder. If it melts, it was plastic.

 

[Snuby642]

Have not had a yellow bugger in my 8208 or any other powder.

Send the pictures to Hogden.

If there is more in there might hold off for a response.

A couple of paper plate fulls of inspection sample would be a good idea .

If those are clear forget it happened.

Imho

Like one grain out of 7000 ?

 

[Redbeard88]

Smell it, if it smells like ammonia or incredibly acidic it's powder gone bad (look up "deteriorating gun powder yellow" in Google and you'll find references). That clump either is a bad powder either because a drop of water hit it during the packaging process or if the container has been open and some moisture got in. It could also be uncoated nitrocellulose or a piece of plastic. If it burns it was uncoated nitrocellulose. If it burns slowly it was deteriorating powder. If it melts, it was plastic.

I broke off a small piece of it and put a lighter to it, poof, burned quickly, and burned one grain of the powder for reference, the yellow burned much faster. Thank you for giving me the excuse to burn something tonight haha

 

[Redbeard88]

Have not had a yellow bugger in my 8208 or any other powder.

Send the pictures to Hogden.

If there is more in there might hold off for a response.

A couple of paper plate fulls of inspection sample would be a good idea .

If those are clear forget it happened.

Imho

Like one grain out of 7000 ?

This is the only clump I can see in the can, weighs .1gn. Not overly worried about it but definitely an interesting find.

 

[Evintos]

I broke off a small piece of it and put a lighter to it, poof, burned quickly, and burned one grain of the powder for reference, the yellow burned much faster. Thank you for giving me the excuse to burn something tonight haha

You should send a message to IMR about the uncoated nitrocellulose. The most important reason is it doesn't have a burn rate retardant let alone flash reduction or stabilizers. Without the burn rate retardant, pure nitrocellulose can create unsafe chamber pressures. This is either a 1-off incident or it might end up leading to a recall of huge lots of powder.

Edited to add: If you can also post up the lot# of your container of 8208 so that others members can check would be much appreciated.

 

[Redbeard88]

Lot# 110520, have 3 cans of it

 

[7WSMShooter]

I’ll check mine out. Thanks for the heads up guys.

 

[Redbeard88]

I'm glad I posted this, I have learned a lot, thank you all for your help and I will let you know what IMR says

 

[TheGerman]

You're about to get invited to a chocolate factory.

Try not to touch too much stuff along the way.

 

[Shootnwrench]

Uncoated powder as already figured out.

It’s much more common to see this with yellow powder bits being left in a handgun after shooting low pressure starting loads in an already low pressure cartridge that doesn’t burn the powder completely and will sometimes just burn the coating off of some of the charge leaving residue.