Left over powder

[Red Ryder]

What does everyone do with their small amount of left over powder. I have a few ounzes of N320 left over. Do I just add it to a new can (of N320 of course)? What is the smallest amount of powder I can load with in the 650 powder hopper before I have to worry about inconsistent loads?

[Postal Bob]

Unless you are making up benchrest type of loads, you can add the leftover powder from one lot into a new one. Only extreme target shooters will stick to a single lot of powder, then start over when they acquire a new lot of powder.

As far as powder in hopper, I wouldn't let the powder baffle get uncovered. But the worst is you might get loads .1-.2 gr less.

Edited April 23, 2011 by Postal Bob

[kevin c]

Sorta depends. For N320, I'll take a small left over amount and mix it into a new 1# container, knowing that the lot to lot variation of that particular cannister powder is very small, and that even if different, I'm not likely changing the ballistics in any way significant to my load (10 points over PF) by adding 100 grains to 7000.

As far as N320 specifically, I've found it literally "good to the last drop". Ran the measure dry out of curiosity - the drops were on target down to the last partial drop as the powder ran out completely.

Other powders, who knows...

[blaster113]

noticed the same thing with HP38, ran the powder measure dry. only the last two cases had inconsistent charges.

N320 is like gold to me. If you're going to load some more N320 I would just leave the leftovers in the bottom of the measure, load cases until its just about empty then dump some new powder in. If you'd like to just dump the powder a veteran reloader told me leftover gunpowder makes good fertilizer for dead spots in your lawn.