I have a certain lot of AA4350 powder which I shoot in .270 & 06. After each shot, there are several kernels of unburned powder in the bore. Is this because this is old powder? Any theories?

Thats a possibility, does it smell like powder? Powder that has gone bad has a different aroma usually.
Too light a bullet will also do it, sometimes poor bullet retention caused by loose cartridge necks, or undersized bullets, is it a load you have used before without trouble?

[This message has been edited by John Y Cannuck (edited 03-07-2002).]

You might also examine your reloading practices. Do you use one of the "spray lubes" to lube your cases? If you are not doing a good job cleaning your cases after spraying them with lube there is the possibility of contamination. Leave them sit around long enough and you can end up with a dud.

After sizing and trimming, I tumble my cases in an old style tumbler with about a pint of steel BB's, a cup of water, and a drop of dish detergent. Yeah, it's a little more work than dry tumbling, but my cases are clean, INSIDE and OUT.

By the way, in case yo don't know what that red stuff is that makes the dry media "polish", it's RUST. do you really want that residue being blasted down your barrel with every shot?

Hope this helps...

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Don't tread on me!
Pennsylvania Frank

Light loads will also cause this problem. Most powders are designed to operate within a given ideal pressure range and if you use light loads which result in less than optimum chamber pressures unburned powder can result...has happened to me before.

I appreciate the replies to my question. I am using this lot of powder for fireforming new Norma brass. Therefore, I have not lubed, nor sized, the brass. The loads are approximately 2.5 grains below max in the Speer manual for their bullets which I am using, therefore, I would think pressure should not be too low. Primers are CCI 200. Powder smells fine. I make these loads up and shoot within 24 hours. I'm thinking it is just old powder, however, why would several hundred kernels burn up and leave a few unburned?

That word fireforming opens a whole new field.
I'd try the powder again after the case forming operation, and not be too worried about the few from the forming operation. Fireforming lowers pressures considerably in most cases. Maybe enough to cause poor combustion of the powder. You could try a light load of handgun powder, or just a faster powder than you are now using, at normal levels if the grains in the barrel from case forming really bothers you.

isn't 4350 kinda slow to be fire forming with??

I don't know. A few years ago, Ed Shilen was using H4831.

P H Barker,
I once shot a MAXIMUM load with a normal lot of IMR4350, it wouldn't burn completely with "a lot" of powder in the bore. The barrel is short and bullet is light(The "maximum" in that case means you can only put so much in a case without compression). There isn't enough time and pressure for the powder to burn. Does your AA4350 act normal in another load? If so, then maybe the load/gun combination do not provide enough pressure. Time to use the next faster powder.

When you are fireforming there isn't enough bullet mass for the pressure to build up, low pressure may indeed be your case, like John Y
Cannuck said.