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H414 wtf??

sierracharlie338

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Mar 12, 2013
    1,225
    422
    Republic of Texas (Houston)
    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1409517679.259349.jpg

    So was planning on loading some ammo today but when I poured the powder into the measure I noticed something I've never seen before.

    I stopped and didn't load anything. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before. Two different looking propellants in the same bottle?

    I'm 100% certain I've never dumped powder back into this container except from the measure it was in.

    Thoughts??
     
    I don't believe that is normal, just by looking into the couple pounds I have. Call Hodgdon, they'll take care of you.
     
    I had an interesting happening the other day...setting up to load some .38 Specials with Bullseye. Dillon measure. Filled it half way, and started to weigh the initial drops. 2.2/ something grains. Turned the screw head, threw some more. Stayed in the 2 to 2.5 range. Also the slide jumped and spilled powder when returning. Well shucks. Emptied the powder and removed the measure from the tool head. Measure seemed to work okay. Thought to remove the dispensing funnel. Stuck. Looked inside...packed with clumped hard powder. WTF. Scraped it all out and cleaned it up. Wondered how that could happen. Reassembled the measure and press and started over. Worked fine. FINALLY examined the clumped powder. OMG...the flake size is twice BE. Ding! Evidently my neighbor had been loading some .40 caliber stuff with another powder, had emptied the measure by pouring the powder out...but didn't empty the body of the measure by throwing charges until the body was empty. The residue had compacted into an almost solid mass over the month or so. I experimented with the measure...by just pouring out the powder without working the slide between 12 and 15 grains of powder was left in the measure. I learn something almost every time I reload.

    Perhaps your measure had some residual stick powder left in it and somehow that got transferred to the main bottle of your 414.

    I have no other explanation. Unless you do like I did once and had more than ONE can of powder on the workbench. Expensive fertilizer. Same neighbor had two cans on his bench. Loaded a large charge of Varget into his .25-06 instead of 4831. Cost him a new bolt plus new undies.
     
    I had an interesting happening the other day...setting up to load some .38 Specials with Bullseye. Dillon measure. Filled it half way, and started to weigh the initial drops. 2.2/ something grains. Turned the screw head, threw some more. Stayed in the 2 to 2.5 range. Also the slide jumped and spilled powder when returning. Well shucks. Emptied the powder and removed the measure from the tool head. Measure seemed to work okay. Thought to remove the dispensing funnel. Stuck. Looked inside...packed with clumped hard powder. WTF. Scraped it all out and cleaned it up. Wondered how that could happen. Reassembled the measure and press and started over. Worked fine. FINALLY examined the clumped powder. OMG...the flake size is twice BE. Ding! Evidently my neighbor had been loading some .40 caliber stuff with another powder, had emptied the measure by pouring the powder out...but didn't empty the body of the measure by throwing charges until the body was empty. The residue had compacted into an almost solid mass over the month or so. I experimented with the measure...by just pouring out the powder without working the slide between 12 and 15 grains of powder was left in the measure. I learn something almost every time I reload.

    Perhaps your measure had some residual stick powder left in it and somehow that got transferred to the main bottle of your 414.

    I have no other explanation. Unless you do like I did once and had more than ONE can of powder on the workbench. Expensive fertilizer. Same neighbor had two cans on his bench. Loaded a large charge of Varget into his .25-06 instead of 4831. Cost him a new bolt plus new undies.


    Thats very interesting and I will look into that on my dillon press as well, thanks for the reply. However I do not use that type of measure for precision rifle loading. I use a hornady digital powder dispenser (thorwn lite then trickle to target on beam scale). There is only one bottle of powder on my bench at a time and when I am finished I replace the powder into the bottle and blow out the dispenser with a air hose. This is really becoming a pain in the ass. I was supposed to have loaded my final rounds from ladder testing this week for a particular rifle. I will be calling Hogdon first thing in the AM.