Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Blending powders

I have never done it, but was wondering if any of you powder, reloading experts have ever blended different powders to try and get something better?

Joe "one-and-done" did it once.

We buried the pieces we found.

BMT

Now thats funny!!

I have blended different containers of the SAME powder, but never different powders and I would never be inclined to do so either. No way of predicting or testing what the blend may do. Probably be a really dangerous experiment for a non-lab environment.

Elmer Keith tried it some. Seems like it was written up in one of his books, or possibly I saw it in one of his early articles in American Rifleman.

Elmer, among others, experimented with duplex loads, where a small amount of one powder is poured in the case and a larger amount of another powder is poured on top of it. The idea being to more readily ignite the larger, slower powder. His results and everybody else's I've read about were mixed at best. FWIW, the Navy does that with their big rifles where a charge of black powder ignites the main charge.

Blending powders is standard practice for ammunition companies to get the custom results they want for a specific loading. But they blend powders by the ton and have some pretty sophisticated equipment to test the resulting relative quickness and performance in the intended cartridge.

The way I read it was that Elmer did not use 2 powders but instead used in internal tube threaded to the primer pocket so the spark travelled through the tube to ignite powder in the middle of the case rather than against the case head.

In "Hell I was there", I believe, EK was asked not to clarify the point by the military command as the Germans were blowing themselves up trying to mix powders after reading his articles.

Now there is another version and Jim in Idaho is correct as I have done it myself, and that is the use of a pinch of fast burning powder to ignite a larger volume of harder to ignite powder. In my case, I was taught to use a pinch of shotgun powder in front of a case full of black powder. It also helped the BP burn cleaner.

JW

This is the extent of what I consider Safe practice. While I have heard others disagree� no one has ever successfully done it to my knowledge�

If it were easy to do, the powder company�s would already do it and sell the blend under a different name�. they have the equipment to test it and the powders to work with� so why not do it if it is practical?

I could be misremembering the duplex loads, I thought it was Elmer but maye it was someone else.

I do remember the "primer tube" or whatever you call it to ignite large volumes of powder in the middle or even from the front of the charge. Seems like this idea was being tried in 20mm cases or some such or maybe was actually adopted for some artillery round. But that's pretty hazy recollection, just figure someone some where at some time screwed a tube into the primer pocket and tried it.

Elmer did it both ways, He used the tube to ignite powder from the front end as AGW states above. He used Bulleye to ignite some slow burning powders, Elmer was garage handloading mechanic so to speak, None of his experiments had any relivency that I know of, nor did they go much beyond his backyard. He did better on cartridge development apparantly with such rounds as the 338-06, and other 33 caliber big game rifles which he argueably played a hand in. His claim to fame was probably the development of the 44 magnum..

No . not myself
But I seen it done!

Foreman at the mill made a "homemade " cannon tube out of Stainless.
About 2" dia. with a 1 " wall.
It SHOULD have held Anything!

Nope a layered mixured of black and pistol powder ( Bullseye I think it was ) opened the pipe wall up like a split blister!

I pretty sure it was Rocky Gibbs who did the front ignition thing with his line of cartridges.

An interesting historical footnote, here is the former homesite of Robert �Blender� Bloupski, or �Bob the Blender� as he was affectionately known by his now deceased neighbors. Bob was a noted early experimenter with different reloading techniques but is best known today for his work in charting the sub-orbital trajectories of outbuildings.

Must have been a two scooper.

hah! you can't fool me....that's the big meteor crater in AZ :o)

I have read that the powder manufacturers blend powders of the SAME chemical content to get a specific burning rate.

They might also blend something like 4895 and 4350, but I kind of doubt it. One reason being, if the individual grains were different shape, size, and weight, it would probably become unblended from handling.

Blending powders has been covered on this forum in the past, when someone empties his powder hopper into a can of another type powder. Most people said they thought it would be okay, as long as you used loading data for the faster powder. Or slowest, I forget which. I think some said they have even done it.

But, the practice is not for me.

Another reason, and I am not a chemist, so I do not know if this theory is correct or not, but my thoughts are that blending, or mixing powders of a different chemical compound could, especially mixing double based with single based, under some conditions, cause a detonation instead of progressive burning. A detonation is is what I expect happened with the pipe menioned above.

Just remember this: the interval between hammerfall and disaster is too short to change your mind.

RR, that is simple a better put than I've ever heard. Mind if I use it?

The tubes have been quite common over the years and were written up in NRA highpower guides at one point... I'm thinking the man I recall was Creighton Audette but I could be wrong...

Unless you have access to pressure testing equipment, don't do it. You won't know what you've got in the way of pressure.