Mixing lot numbers of powder (same type)

[Stomper]

A little sprinkle on your oatmeal each morning is a well known cure all and secret to longer life.



It also makes an unforgettable remembrance after you pass... if you elect for cremation. Who doesn't want to go out with a bang!

Make it into a breakfast drink mix, and then found the Polish Aeronautics And Space Adminstraion….


Why not?

NASA has, "Tang" and PASA could have, "Bang".


DA!

 

[CLT65]

Same powder, from the same era (same bottle style), just a different lot number? Yeah, I'd toss it into the next bottle; been there, done that many times actually. I wouldn't even think twice about it. I'll usually mix it into the new can well before it's down to such a small amount. Why waste powder?

If I'm using up some powder in an older can from the '70s or something, I'd hesitate tossing it in with new powder. Formulations can change over time so I back off and double check the load over the chronograph.

This is assuming modern, commercial, canister-grade gunpowder, of course. They are made for lot-to-lot consistency. Surplus powder is different, far more lot-to-lot variation; you definitely want to back off and re-work your load when changing lots with surplus powder.

 

[Dillon1000]

I hate to be a spoiled sport, BUT you guys are splitting hairs. As a bench shooter when
N133 became real scarce a few years ago a bunch of us just mixed 133 with 135 and we got through it. I cleaned out the cement mixer that I use for cleaning large amounts of brass
and mixed 24 pounds of it. With just a slight modification in weight it worked fine.
Lots will change a little from one to another, but again nothing you can't get through.
Its kind of like the guys that cut the cornels of powder, half a cornel is not going to make
that much difference. The bottom line is, if you want to play the game you will figure out a way. I know I will get push back on this, but the devil made me do it!

 

[Xmark1]

Oh yeah, that stuff drives me nuts. In hobby reloading, bullets are usually packed 100 or 50 to the box. Primers typically 100 to the sleeve (with Fiocchi being the outlier with 150 - what's up with that?). So if you screw up / drop and lose either a bullet or a primer, you're off. Or if you run out of powder along the way, you can wind up with odd lots of bullets / primers. Not even taking into account the cartridge brass; you may not start with an even number if they are on their second (or beyond) firing. Because cases can get damaged, dropped and lost, etc.

It has taken me a while to get used to odd numbered lots. Bullets, Powder, Primers, or even the number of rounds I would shoot or load.
Extensive note taking helps me during each step of the reloading process. Nowadays, I even carry logbooks to the range for each caliber I intend to shoot.
I suspect it's in the nature of a reloader to like even numbered lots.
I often come back from a shooting session with an odd number of rounds I have not shot.
Life often does not fit squarely in a neat even numbered box.
Perfectionism is a double-edged knife. My greatest strength and simultaneously my biggest weakness.

 

[po18guy]

Let's say you just loaded a bunch of 223 and you're cleaning up your powder scale. You find you have about 2 tablespoons of powder left. Since this is all that's left from a 1 pound jug should you put it back in the original jug or pour it into a new unopened jug? That way you could discard the old jug. I know some are picky about mixing lot numbers. Powder is XBR8208. Thanks

Hand weigh them into a few sighter loads.

 

[Xmark1]

I hate to be a spoiled sport, BUT you guys are splitting hairs. As a bench shooter when
N133 became real scarce a few years ago a bunch of us just mixed 133 with 135 and we got through it. I cleaned out the cement mixer that I use for cleaning large amounts of brass
and mixed 24 pounds of it. With just a slight modification in weight it worked fine.
Lots will change a little from one to another, but again nothing you can't get through.
Its kind of like the guys that cut the cornels of powder, half a cornel is not going to make
that much difference. The bottom line is, if you want to play the game you will figure out a way. I know I will get push back on this, but the devil made me do it!

I agree to the extent that past about 200 yards, Environmenntal's play a much bigger part in determining your POI.

 

[MikeInOr]

In college the Chemistry department beat into us that "YOU NEVER PUT CHEMICALS BACK INTO THE STOCK BOTTLE!!!!". That is what the brown labeled "LAB" bottle is for.

I generally mix different lots of the same powder in my powder measure and never think anything of it. After I am done reloading a particular round the extra powder goes into the one pound bottle of "current" powder, never into the 8lb stock jug of powder.

This is just the way I was taught.

 

[gmerkt]

but lost on the weight variation....

Measures by volume can vary in weight. However slight in the case of two ostensibly identical reloading powders. But with the IMR 4064 I mentioned having a variation of around 1.5 gr. out of a 47.5 gr. charge, that's more than slight.

However, if I'd stopped when the first bottle ran out then started the next day on a second bottle of a different lot having such a variation, I wouldn't really appreciate the difference. Probably, I'd just figure the scale needed readjustment from sitting overnight. I suppose if you left the top off a powder measure overnight, it might absorb some moisture that would alter the weight of the powder slightly. With the added nuance that the powder on top of the measure might have more moisture to it than the powder at the bottom, so you'd have a range of weights in the same measure. Then after you started throwing, some "dry" powder would be returned to the top and mixed in. Just saying. You're not supposed to leave powder out overnight in a measure.

Do meters weigh and then dispense?

I don't own one, too many buttons to push.