Learning Reloading: HOW To, What to, and What not to ...

[Ponder_MD]

This is precisely why most of us refuse to purchase unsealed containers.

Question: I purchased brand new IMR4064. I was surprised when I unscrewed the cap that there was no "peel off" membrane similar to over the counter medications. The bottle was just wide open. Is this normal?

I've already shot some of those reloads and they were fine. Just curious about the seal.

 

[Squaregrouper]

Oh my. (#5 cough, cough).

@chilipeppermaniac I have also recently joined the reloaders. Squaregrouper is right on in his responses. My reloading bench is in the garage and subject to all sorts of temperature and humidity swings. I store all of my powders and primers in the house. I purchased a 40mm grenade ammo can to store everything in. It has a watertight seal. Toss in a few desiccant packs for good measure. You can often find them locally on Facebook marketplace for reasonable prices.

40mm Ammo Can Used Grade 1

Buy Used 40MM ammo cans here! The 40MM is A.K.A M116A2 and features a hinged lid, tension clamp, rubber seal and a carrying handle.

ammocanman.com

I have a faux Yeti cooler with calcium chloride as a desiccant I store my bulk powder in my shed with. My theory is it will always be dry and any temperature fluctuations will be very slow.
A sealed Yeti cooler's insulating properties are downright impressive. I have kept frozen meats rock solid frozen for 48hrs inside of them. When using one as a cooler (tailgating, camping, etc.) they are just an overpriced cooler.

 

[atblis]

I don't recall most powder I buy having a peel off seal either for tamper evidence or preservation. Most do have something in the cap that seals to the bottle (Styrofoam like gasket). Curiously enough, powder doesn't seem to suffer too much from not being perfectly sealed up. I've heard plenty of stories about buying surplus powder in paper bags back in the day.

So yeah, probably normal.

 

[Squaregrouper]

Question: I purchased brand new IMR4064. I was surprised when I unscrewed the cap that there was no "peel off" membrane similar to over the counter medications. The bottle was just wide open. Is this normal?

I've already shot some of those reloads and they were fine. Just curious about the seal.

There should have been a thin, styrofoam/plastic "gasket" between the lid and container. You can feel it hold vs. release when unscrewing the lid the first time. (Not unlike a gentler version of breaking the seal on a bottle of Coke- the resistance isn't strong, but clearly there before the seal is broken) I have never had a LGS question me when I loosen (not remove) the lid on a can of powder. They know what I'm doing.
.
ETA- In layman's terms, a sealed container will usually have the "foam gasket" stay on the bottle, while an unsealed container will have the "foam gasket" stay in the lid. The important part is feeling the resistance midway through unscrewing the lid. The resistance is only felt before the seal is broken.

 

[Growler215]

I keep powder in a large, thick wooden chest in a temperature controlled environment. I  try to keep it under 25# (I  do  keep it under 50#.)

 

[trickg]

Best practice is to have only one container of powder and primers at a time on the loading bench.

I absolutely follow that rule, although prior to that I screwed up a can of Unique because I started to pour Bullseye that had been in the hopper into the can of Unique. I caught it just as I started to pour, and I probably could have mixed in the very little bit that got in there with no ill effects, but I dumped the whole thing on the lawn. Fortunately that was back at a time when powder was still $15-$16 a can, and it was still fairly available, so I wasn't out too much money and I was able to replace it with another one from Bart's Sports World when it was still there.

Oh my. (#5 cough, cough).

@chilipeppermaniac I have also recently joined the reloaders. Squaregrouper is right on in his responses. My reloading bench is in the garage and subject to all sorts of temperature and humidity swings. I store all of my powders and primers in the house. I purchased a 40mm grenade ammo can to store everything in. It has a watertight seal. Toss in a few desiccant packs for good measure. You can often find them locally on Facebook marketplace for reasonable prices.

40mm Ammo Can Used Grade 1

Buy Used 40MM ammo cans here! The 40MM is A.K.A M116A2 and features a hinged lid, tension clamp, rubber seal and a carrying handle.

ammocanman.com

My Dad's reloading area was in the garage, and he never did anything special to store his powder - it just sat on a shelf against one wall of the garage - although the climate in SW Nebraska when I was growing up was fairly dry. It would get cold in there, although he had a gas heater stove in one corner that he'd turn up when he wanted to work out there in the winter.

Temperature swings in that garage were pretty high, although I don't think he ever turned the stove off completely in the winter - he'd keep it running on low if he wasn't in there. I imagine it would get as low as the low 40s in the winter and 90+ in the summer - it was not air conditioned.

Again, I can only ever recall him having a single can of powder that went bad.

 

[trickg]

I keep powder in a large, thick wooden chest in a temperature controlled environment. I  try to keep it under 25# (I  do  keep it under 50#.)

Oh I NEVER have more than about 4.5 lbs of powder at any given point!

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Oh my. (#5 cough, cough).

@chilipeppermaniac I have also recently joined the reloaders. Squaregrouper is right on in his responses. My reloading bench is in the garage and subject to all sorts of temperature and humidity swings. I store all of my powders and primers in the house. I purchased a 40mm grenade ammo can to store everything in. It has a watertight seal. Toss in a few desiccant packs for good measure. You can often find them locally on Facebook marketplace for reasonable prices.

40mm Ammo Can Used Grade 1

Buy Used 40MM ammo cans here! The 40MM is A.K.A M116A2 and features a hinged lid, tension clamp, rubber seal and a carrying handle.

ammocanman.com

Ponder, you should rethink your ammo cans as storage for powder.

See the first video I posted especially at 5:40+ and/or follow squaregrouper's method, or build a wooden box, use an already built wooden crate. This is to mitigate the change of essentially a bomb going off if things ever did get HOT.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Uncle Duke, Growler215, Defense Initiative, etc all good posts.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

I keep powder in a large, thick wooden chest in a temperature controlled environment. I  try to keep it under 25# (I  do  keep it under 50#.)

I knew something like this would be posted. Based on my initial thought when I began to consider hand loading, I thought I would accumulate as much powder as possible and pack my brass while I could still afford to.

It wasn't until I was thinking about accumulating powder at the best prices possible before they got unobtanium, that I found out the storage limits. Seeing that it was way lower than I thought it could be, I said, "5 lbs wtf?"

Then I thought about things. If someone needed/ wanted to have more, it would be possible to keep something like <5 lbs in My house, <5 lbs at my sister's, <5 lbs at dad's ... Not that I would blow through 15 lbs that fast, but for example for any of you who may do high volume shooting and reloading and want to stay safe and within the law.

Anyone see any issues with this?

 

[Squaregrouper]

Ponder, you should rethink your ammo cans as storage for powder.

See the first video I posted especially at 5:40+ and/or follow squaregrouper's method, or build a wooden box, use an already built wooden crate. This is to mitigate the change of essentially a bomb going off if things ever did get HOT.

Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) is a very inexpensive and effective moisture absorber. It is marketed as Damp Rid for basements, but can also be bought for 1/10 the price as driveway ice melt (check the ingredients)
The big caveat is the CaCl2 "juice" is so corrosive it makes seawater seem mild. Do not use it around metal if spilling is a reasonable concern.

Robot or human?

.

 

[Blacksmith101]

I knew something like this would be posted. Based on my initial thought when I began to consider hand loading, I thought I would accumulate as much powder as possible and pack my brass while I could still afford to.

It wasn't until I was thinking about accumulating powder at the best prices possible before they got unobtanium, that I found out the storage limits. Seeing that it was way lower than I thought it could be, I said, "5 lbs wtf?"

Then I thought about things. If someone needed/ wanted to have more, it would be possible to keep something like <5 lbs in My house, <5 lbs at my sister's, <5 lbs at dad's ... Not that I would blow through 15 lbs that fast, but for example for any of you who may do high volume shooting and reloading and want to stay safe and within the law.

Anyone see any issues with this?

You can keep as much powder as you want as long as it is stored in individual freedom pills.

 

[Defense Initiative]

Question: I purchased brand new IMR4064. I was surprised when I unscrewed the cap that there was no "peel off" membrane similar to over the counter medications. The bottle was just wide open. Is this normal?

I've already shot some of those reloads and they were fine. Just curious about the seal.

Can you see any residue on the mouth of the container?

 

[BFMIN]

I was once given an old , now passed reloaders "stuff".
Included were 4 still sealed "Cardboard Pringles tubes" of "Unique" & "Bullseye" pistol powders.
I have no idea when they stopped using those with the silvery-pink & silvery-orange color scheme.
Sealed even I checked them & they were both fine.

 

[Growler215]

I knew something like this would be posted. Based on my initial thought when I began to consider hand loading, I thought I would accumulate as much powder as possible and pack my brass while I could still afford to.

It wasn't until I was thinking about accumulating powder at the best prices possible before they got unobtanium, that I found out the storage limits. Seeing that it was way lower than I thought it could be, I said, "5 lbs wtf?"

Then I thought about things. If someone needed/ wanted to have more, it would be possible to keep something like <5 lbs in My house, <5 lbs at my sister's, <5 lbs at dad's ... Not that I would blow through 15 lbs that fast, but for example for any of you who may do high volume shooting and reloading and want to stay safe and within the law.

Anyone see any issues with this?

Whatever makes you happy.

Personally, I don't have any relatives in this state - and I have more that 15 different powders.

 

[Uncle Duke]

I was once given an old , now passed reloaders "stuff".
Included were 4 still sealed "Cardboard Pringles tubes" of "Unique" & "Bullseye" pistol powders.
I have no idea when they stopped using those with the silvery-pink & silvery-orange color scheme.
Sealed even I checked them & they were both fine.

Had the plastic pull out spout that the cap screwed on to? Are they labeled Hercules, or Alliant?

If my memory serves, those containers were around into the early to mid 1990's.

 

[BFMIN]

Would you believe I don't remember?
Vaguely, a flat tin top with a smallish screw cap, no memory of a pull out anything. The "Hercules" sounds familiar.

 

[Uncle Duke]

Would you believe I don't remember?
Vaguely, a flat tin top with a smallish screw cap, no memory of a pull out anything. The "Hercules" sounds familiar.

Here's an example of what I'm referring to. It might jog your memory.

The powder in this photo is 2400. All of the powders had different color schemes. The red ring you see atop the 2400 container actually could be grabbed to pull a plastic spout out of the top of the can. It worked well for pouring. The spout could then be pushed flat again after use. Flat with the spout pushed in is how product originally shipped, as pictured.

Alliant purchased Hercules in the mid 90's I believe. For awhile, these cardboard containers continued, but were relabeled. Later on, they did away with these containers, and Alliant transitioned to plastic.


EDIT: UNIQUE pictured below, with threaded spout pulled out of can as mentioned. Cap is missing in this example.

 

[BFMIN]

That sounds about right.
I don't remember pulling anything out but I use a powder meter so I may not have.
The one on the right, as viewed, looks right.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

You can keep as much powder as you want as long as it is stored in individual freedom pills.

Yeah buddy, Blacksmith101

After Thursday when I pick up my primers, I hope to make some freedom seeds of my own soon.