Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Blending different powder lots....

I have 5 lbs of Varget I scrounged up during the current sequester made up of 3 different lot codes. I'll use this for .223 and 7mm-08 primarily. Was thinking it would be good to just mix it all together and have it standardized. Concerned about what vessel to use with regard to static charge buildup. Would a large stainless bowl suffice? Would a large plastic bowl be better since the powder comes from the factory in plastic? Or am I over complicating the issue.

I think you'd have better luck just segregating your handloads by powder lot, if you think lot-to-lot variation is going to matter in your rifles for your purposes.

Use your tumbler. If we don't hear from you again, we'll know it didn't work very well

Yes.

I've yet to find much variation in changing over from an older lot to a newer lot from the same era, but I do run a few groups through my Chronograph to check for excess variation. That said, if I still had some old Hodgdon surplus powder (for example) I would work up my load all over if I replaced it with Australian made - I would expect some change then.
Ps What I'm saying is leave them in their original plastic bottles.

A coupla plastic totes, dump it all in, pour back and forth, done.....

Kind of a related deal. I have been wondering how Rem., Win. and Fed. etc. load safely for rifles they have never seen and keep the velocity within reason? We are always warned to drop back and work back up when we change a component such as Brass, primers, new lots of powders since every rifle is a law unto itself. Surely the laws do not just apply to us handloaders. For instance, how would I safely load for a rifle that I do not have in my hands to test the loads as I proceed? miles

This would make for a good article in "Handloader". As an aside, I have never noticed a difference when changing lot numbers with Varget and have never worried about it. Just me.........

What if there is a recall on a particular lot number?

I think this "solution" to lot/lot variation would be worse than the problem. for one thing, how could you ever be assured that the lots were mixed evenly?

Set up 3 different powder measures when you load. Load one with one lot and so on.

Lets say you are charging your 223 with 27grs of Varget, just dumb 9 grains from each measure into your case. Make sure the lot number that is in the middle of the other 2 is also your second powder measure.

You can reverse order with your powder measures when dealing with the 1st and 3rd but always keep the 2nd the 2nd.

I don't think they will get it. Do you realize that you are now responsible for someone buying 2 more powder measures?

Good point, you could do it with one measure. If you have say 100 cases then charge all of them with 9grs of powder from one lot. Then empty the measure and add the middle lot number to it and charge again. Repeat for the final lot.

Thanks, didn't think of the one powder measure approach.

You are a very bad man. How can you sleep at night? I hope I can find a Black Friday sale on some measures.

But you shouldn't do any of this until you've tumbled and trimmed the cases, chamfered and de-burred them, made the flash holes uniform and de-burred them as well, plus weighed your cases and or systematically checked them all for water capacity and sort them by .10 of a grain. Check them for uniform neck thickness, ream inside and out if necessary, make sure they are sorted by the obvious brand, number of firings etc.
Go on to your bullets and run each one of them on a concentricity comparator and sort out the 'culls. Weigh each one, and again sort by .10 gr.
When this is done make sure the temp. and humidity levels in your loading room are right, go outside, count the stars in the sky�and you are all set!

Now that's just silly, stay on point please.

you are using lapua brass, right? otherwise this will all be a waste of time

Using three powder measures is unnecessary. Just get a pair of tweezers and take a kernel of powder from each lot and place in new container, repeat, repeat, repeat, etc.

i kept an 8 pound jug and pour new varget into it. i am sure i have 4 different lots in there. as long as one can isn't 10 yrs old and one is new, i don't think it will be an issue. i try to use it up every so often so i don't have very old powder being carried over forever.

if i blow myself up i will come back as a box of barnes bullets and let steelie know. lol

I would shot a group from each lot for group and over a chronograph. You might not be able to tell the difference.