Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles I F-ucked up.. Powder Dump

I had a head up the azz moment. I dumped about 320 grains of IMR 4320 in a pound of Varget. Being they are so close in burn rates, any thoughts on whether it might be salvageable for fireform loads?

Thanks for your experience.. BP...

No!!!!!!!!

Fertilizer..

Only.......

If that's the worst thing you've done

UR OK

Experiment......dump it around a rosebush/shrub

See what happens in the spring

With OCD, a magnifying glass, tweezers, and 5-6 hours - you should be able to separate them.

If you know you dumped exactly 320 gr, then just keep going until you get to that number.

4320 has a hole in the middle (like a thick wall pipe), Varget does not. Varget kernels are also about 1/2 the size.

Maybe run them through your wife’s pasta strainer or a window screen.

Good luck.

Already in the compost pile.

Thanks for confirming what I already knew.. BP...

I would have mixed that pound of varget up good and used it. You'd never have known the difference. 320grs is 4.6% of a pound. Being 4320 is slower than varget You'd only had a slightly slower lot of varget after mixing. Ammo companies mix powder all the time. We are overly cautious. If you would have offered it to me I'd bought it from you one the spot

Ok enlighten me. While you wouldn't want to use the mixture for max loads and you couldn't duplicate a future load so you wouldn't want to use it for reference, if you used it for plinking or fire forming, why not use it up? 320 grains in 7000 is a little over 5 percent. Factorys blend powder all the time albeit measuring pressure when they work up a load.

IMR-4320 is always after Varget on the burn rate chart, but they're close. By dumping a small percentage of 4320 in a pound of varget You'd only slow it down by a very small percentage. This would actually be safer for max loads. You had the perfect mixture in my estimation

Grain sizes are actually very similar. There's no way I would have tossed it. Sure you would have saved it. I occasionally get down to south Texas

Flea fart

^^^This^^^......Hb

Good thread.

$40 for a lb of powder that is less than pizza and soda for the family.

good move

I've done the same with #9 and enforcer. Though I don't know the specific weight amount. Whatever was remaining in the bottom of my autocharge.

While I can't bring myself to dump it, I also haven't been able to make myself use it yet either. It has a piece of masking tape around the lid to remind myself to don't be stupid again.

I would use it if it's all I had left. And with them being #58 and #59 on the burn rate chart, when I'm loading the 9x39 subsonics, I use the same charge using both powders. The Enforcer tends to get about 30fps less velocity in comparison. So, it would probably be OK to use. But like I said, I haven't yet.

I may have a tree stump or boulder or something in the yard that needs to go away. I wouldn't hesitate to use it for something such as that.

I once dumped a large amount of two powders together by mistake. I lucked out however, because one was a stick powder and the other a ball powder. Something I have left over from the 'old' days is a set of brass screens of different mesh sizes we used to grade soil grain sizes with. One of the mesh sizes allowed 100% of the ball powder to pass through and 0% of the stick powder. I didn't lose a bit of powder.

I did, however, learn a lesson. I have since never had more than one powder out of the storage room at a time!

Did that with Blue Dot and Power Pistol. Set the jug of BD on the floor (wrong) and picked up the PP when I was done. Saw the label just as I commingled the gogo. There was a LOT more PP involved than BD. Checked the flake sizes and first grab got the right sized sifting screen. Took all the blue flakes out and what appeared to be most of the rest. Loaded with PP data and rocked on. Doubt there would have been a significant difference in velocity or pressure even if I hadn’t sifted.

In this specific instance. I wouldn’t have lost any sleep in using it. I have for a long time now considered Varget to be as near as damnit the “Extreme” formulation of IMR 4320.

Great for plinking or fouler rounds!

Stay low on the charges and mix well! Shaken not stirred.

I would have used it. Mixed it with all the Varget I had on hand and forgot it.

I'm not smart enough to chance it so I only have one powder out at a time on the bench when loading.

+1 ....I only have one powder at a time on my bench when reloading, I think this is a very good practice for a dumbass like me 😁...Hb

Current powder shortages, I wouldn't have dumped it. Don't red line it on velocity and it would have worked just fine...

hopefully the compost pile enjoyed it tho.

Must be a SW Va thing in attitude... My roots and family are from SW VA and SE WVa.

I only have one powder open on the bench at any one time..

I also seat a bullet, after charging a case, before moving onto the next one.

Eliminate overcharging, when distracted by the wife... " oh honey can you help me RIGHT NOW.. it'll only take a second.." when she does that, I dump the powder back into the container, turn the case upside down, so I know where I was when I return...

I always, always, always triple check my charged cases in the loading block with a flashlight, even if the powder fills the case, and especially so when I'm loading greatly reduced charges. A protocol that's kept me out of emergency rooms. There were times when I seated a bullet straight from going from the powder measure and I asked myself "did I really drop a powder charge into this one?"

And yes, one powder can on the bench at a time.

I'm not normally a very anal person, far from it in fact, but these are protocols that I strictly adhere to.

Cshitcan it

There are old reloaders and bold reloaders. Ever wonder why there aren't any old, bold reloaders?

I've definitely had a few incidents, and I am safer these days with this stuff than in my younger years. The only time I can remember spilling any powder was somehow some bulleye pistol powder ended up in the coke I was drinking. I drank it right down powder and all. This could explain some of my views. However, a little 4320 mixed in with the Varget wouldn't even register. I should take a close up photo of both powder types and post it in this thread.

Just a few more farts, huh? 😁

A little old, but at less than 5%, powder with a slower rate, yes I’d use it up. If desired, mark the container for less than max loads.

You could even mix it, then mix that lb again, get it down to 2% of the 4320. I can usually kill stuff just fine with mid-range loads, so there’s that.

No I’m not flippant about reloading safety, never had a mishap since starting in the 70’s.

Yes I know, the powder in question has been disposed of.

Could have been the most accurate powder tested, and easy to copy if you did in fact know the exact amount of each.

Mixing powder is fun. I put a little Bullseye in with the Retumbo to give it a little kick start for cold weather hunting.........just kidding!

Using this mixed powder would have been far from bold, with just a modicum of common sense mixed in (no pun intended).

I performed my first powder mix (Green Dot and Unique) in 1974...and I am still here, lol.