.

About 4 years ago or so I received an 8 pound jug of 4895 and it was something awful. The powder had deteriated to the point that when it sucked the water out of the air it turned into nitric or nitrous ACID. It all but ruined a venerable Redding powder measure that I had used since 1957 and it created a lot of miss fires and corrosion until I caught on to what was happening. in order to return it I would have had to pay the hazard and normal shipping without gaurantee of reimbursement. Can't remember who I was dealing with but beware. Also if you followed the threads on 7383 you know that it may be dangerous and not a bargin at any price. Why anyone promotes this stuff knowing there is a reasonable possibility that it can do harm or injury is a genuine mystery .I do notice ,however, that it is the same person promoting the same Mil. Surp. Vendor. read into that whatever you want. ROGER

Hello bartsche,

Thanks for the update. It's certainly enough to make ones ears perk right up. I think I might be just a bit leery of it.
Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

MOst of this thread seems to be missing and I am guessing that your talking about surplus 4895, in which case its like any other powder, its great if its clean and fresh and has been properly stored..

On the other hand if its reddish or greayish in color and smeels acidic then walk away..It should be black and shiny and smell a little like powder smells...

Commercial IMR or H 4895 is an excellent powder.....

"[QUOTE]Originally posted by Atkinson:
MOst of this thread seems to be missing and I am guessing that your talking about surplus 4895",

ASOOOLUTELY,Ray Puncher was talking about HI-TECH, basicly a Mil. Surp supplier but I see the post was changed????

Bartsche,
In which case that would not be "IMR" as stated in the title section..

"

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Bartsche,
In which case that would not be "IMR" as stated in the title section..

"

Ray, first of all I didn't Title this thread but what you say brings up a point of interest. When Dupont was using designation letters as IMR And SR What did they mean? It seems that IMR is an orginization all to its own now. Do those three letters have the same denotations and conotations which we used during the year of the Blue Snow? Hey!
I really don't know. Never thought about it till now. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
"

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Bartsche,
In which case that would not be "IMR" as stated in the title section..

"

Ray, first of all I didn't Title this thread but what you say brings up a point of interest. When Dupont was using designation letters as IMR And SR What did they mean? It seems that IMR is an orginization all to its own now. Do those three letters have the same denotations and conotations which we used during the year of the Blue Snow? Hey!
I really don't know. Never thought about it till now. roger

IMR - Stands for - Improved Military Rifle

Hog Killer

Hodgdon bought out/now owns the IMR label, about a year ago.

Hog Killer

Oh that's sweet, make a post, then delete it! I bought some powder once from Hi-tech. It was as advertised and worked well. I did notice that the WC-860 had a few granules of stick powder mixed in with the ball powder. Apparently a few -06 shells were loaded with stick powder that were being "pulled down" and dumped into the vat for the surplus dealers. It didn't seem to make any difference, BUT I did run the powder through a sieve to seperate out the stick powder. It was much less than 1% of the ball powder.

That said, I now deal with Jeff Bartlet at www.gibrass.com . I'm real satisfied with his powders.

I have used the military pull-down IMR 4895. I have had good luck with the powder. I have made several observations which I will share. First, the burning rates of the powders are different. I have had IMR 4895 that burns more like IMR 3031. You cannot follow the reloading manual data with stuff without blowing yourself up. I have worked with one lot that seems to burn just like commercial grade IMR 4895 - you can follow the reloading manuals with this powder. The other lots of powder burn very slowly - more like IMR 4064, except the sticks are not as big.

All of the powder (regardless of burning rate) yielded excellent groups. However, you could not blindly rely on reloading manual data. Sometimes the max. load was well below that listed. Other times, the max. load was above that listed.

The final issue is you are buying powder in 8 pound lots. It can be alot of powder to burn if the burning rate isn't what you are expecting or want.

Overall, military pull-down can be a good deal. Other times, it isn't what you expect.

Just my two cents - hope it helps.

Gurrie

I got 32 pounds of IMR4895 from Hi-Tech about 5 years ago for $8/#.

I wish I could get more like that.