A recent thread on another board prompted this question:

Bulk smokeless powders like �EC�, & �Smokeless Diamond� went out of production around 1940 (Although old stock was still used by some UK reloaders into the 50�s). A few other �bulk� powders remained in production longer (especially in the USA & France) � perhaps into the late 60�s or early 70�s.

The question is: Does any powder manufacturer still make a bulk smokeless powder? I know the main ones don�t but I wonder if perhaps there�s a less well known manufacturer - in South America or Russia perhaps - that still finds a demand for this type of powder?

Regards
W

I would guess that the primary income of the powder companies comes from "bulk" powder. Remington say will call up and say "Charlie, send me a couple of tons of powder in xxx burn RANGE." When the powder arrives the Rem Techies will test it in their lab and decide how much is needed to load a 30-06 shell for xx velocity.

Just to check if we are speaking the same language, by "bulk" powder are you referring to: a smokeless charge not necessarily having the same weight but having the same volume as black powder, i.e. that could be loaded volume for volume or bulk for bulk with black powder? Hodgdon's Pyrodex could fill the bill, but is it available in the U.K.?

Yes. I think that "Black Canyon Powder", and "777" from Hodgdon, would qualify as "bulk" powders (Pyrodex is neither smokeless nor non-corrosive). "Bulk" powders were smokeless powders that were appropriate for substitution in black powder loads, and I recall DuPont making a powder that was labeled exactly that: DuPont Bulk.

SR 4759 is popular in black powder cartridges, but is not appropriate for "bulk" applications in all cartridges, particularly shotshells. What kind of application were you looking to use a "bulk" powder in?

Thanks for the replies.

To repeat:

�Bulk smokeless powders like �EC� & �Smokeless Diamond�

This refers to the early type of smokeless powder which was loaded to equal volumes with BP but weighed far less, e.g. 33 grains of EC gave the same volumes as 3 drams (82.5 grains) of BP. These powders were & are known as �bulk smokeless� powders.

�EC� was popular in the USA as well as the UK. DuPont Bulk was another as Stonecreek mentions � there were many other brands around the early 1900�s

Pyrodex & 777 are BP substitutes � not �bulk smokeless� powders.

The BP substitutes are made to have very similar characteristics to BP & they have no more in common with the old �bulk� powders than they have with modern Blue dot. The �bulk smokeless� powders produced about as much smoke & fouling as modern powders � i.e. very little.

Pyrodex & 777 are not quite like that.

The French made a �bulk� powder up to the early 70�s I wondered if this type of powder might still be made somewhere?

Regards
W