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There was a question about surplus powders on another thread which makes me think there may be enough interest for this thread. I've bought from Jeff Bartlett off and on for years for years and have always been happy. I bought huge quanities from Accurate Arms back when they were selling cheap surplus and am still shooting it. May last me my lifetime. But it does kinda hurt when I run low on a powder that I have come to depend on and find that powder I paid a buck a pound for is now 15 times that. | ||
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I'm about 3 hours east of him and a buddy of mine and I are talking about taking a jaunt over that direction and picking up a couple canisters of his #106 which is supposedly exactly the same as AA #2 Improved. His price is $54 for 6lbs, and I can avoid the Haz-Mat charge by picking it up instead of having it delivered. I hope it works out. Ruger#1 | |||
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My first and likely last purchase of surplus powder was weighing out oddly I noted as I got into the container. My measure is a good one and usually drops very uniform weights. So I dropped a charge of powder onto a white sheet of paper and spread the kernels out-- and sure enough. This container carried at least three, maybe four different grain and kernel sizes-- all different powders. By weight the contaminated percentage was around 2-3% I'd guestimate. Yet with a max or near max loading the results coulda been interesting-- or not, depending on your pt of view. But my useage of that powder was always midland pressures which didn't present problems from a pressure standpoint. Methinks for sure there's some good values in the surplus powder market, but those powders are 'surplus' for a reason-- and most often you get what you pay for... [ 05-06-2003, 11:09: Message edited by: aladin ] | |||
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Aladin, sounds to me almost certain that you bought "pulldown" powder. A few of the cartridges pulled down were loaded with a different powder. Jeff Bartlett sez upfront which of his powders are pulldown. I avoid them. Powder comes on the market in bulk for a variety of reasons. There are production overruns and cancelled contracts. Importers bring in odd lots from foreign factories. The big name companies drop sales of a particular powder and sell off what is left. My practice has been to buy a lot when I buy, certainly 2 jugs and maybe as many as six. I'm gonna start low and work up anyway and I just don't care that "data powder" does not exactly match the data. All I use the data for is a starting point. This would be a pain with 1 pound lots, but when you have 24 pounds of one lot you don't even get the normal lot to lot variation. That's one more reason powder comes on the surplus market. Some powder batches fall outside the acceptable range for a commercial powder. The better dealers tell you this. It's good powder, it just cannot be sold as a particular powder. If I see a deal on powder that is too slow to be sold as HS-5 and too fast to be sold as HS-6, I'll jump on it. Speaking of getting what you pay for, I'm still shooting AA-5744 and AA-3100 that I paid less than a buck a pound for before they became commercial powders. I'm shooting H-322 and H-335 that I might have paid $2 a pound for. I'm shooting some Chinese copy of 3031 that was in the $2 range. I'd say I got a little more than I paid for. [ 05-06-2003, 15:13: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ] | |||
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I am reletivly new to the surplus powder thing. I bought 4 different burn rates to try. WC 820, 680, 852 and IMR5010. All of them seem to work great for me. I'd like to try something in the 844 burn range and will try to get the same lot# of 820 for 3 more jugs. I really like the 820 in my revolvers. | |||
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Speaking of surplus powders, I bought a 6 lb jug of surplus SR4759. Apparently it came from pulled rounds. It contains brass flakes and small particles of a black substance which I assume is sealant. This powder has a definite solvent odor, indicating that it is fresh, but a small dust cloud comes off of it when it is poured from container to container. Think this powder is good, and has anyone seen anything like this with their surplus powder? | |||
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quote:My powder was not Bartlett.. To each their own-- if your liking the results of your surplus all the better... Max what kind of ES's does that powder produce? Any misfires, high pressure rds sans a plausible reason? Dust in a extruded powder IMO is not good. Only odd results I've ever had with a lot of powder was some dusty IMR 4198-- which produced a misfire even though the primer DID fire. The rest of it wound up on the lawn. | |||
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Long was we're on surplus powders... the jug I had as I said on contaminated. After several days of waiting the seller did e back and state he'd accept a return. But as none of this flavor was available for a replacememt-- and during that weekend waiting for a reply, I went to the hardward store and bought screens and made a contraption to strain the various contaminated powders out. Took a Sunday afternoon-- but I figured I saved him the $50 some dollar refund plus two hazmats [I'd think he'd be obliged to pay both ways if defective??-- plus freight??] Anyways I e'd the seller stating I had recovered the original powder sold to me. I politely hinted around for some kind of jug to compensate me for the time and again saving him probably $90+ all told. Well the response was something on the order of a $8-10 discount on another jug... the way it was said I'd likely had to pick up another hazmat fee too. Am I otta line figuring the seller shoulda sent me a $32 jug of another surplus and picked up the hazmat? He's still way ahead by almost $60... What ya think? | |||
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If any of you get a wild hair to buy some surplus WC852, be sure to find the proper burning rate. There are now 3 different lots of 852 out there with greatly varying burning rate. That said it sure does work good! LouisB | |||
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quote:No takers on 'what ya think'?? | |||
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I avoid the pulldowns, as well, but i am caustous by nature, and just starting with surplus powder jeffe | |||
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