I messed up, Does anyone know a good way to separate powders?

[JoeMKY]

I had a bad case of the Mondays and to top it all off, I accidentally mixed powders.  I was loading up some match 308 with IMR3031 and when I was finished with the powder I accidentally dumped about half a pound of IMR3031 into a bootle that had Bullseye in it.

 

Does anyone know a good way of separating the powder from each other?

Should I destroy the 8lbs jug of bullseye by cutting it open and scooping up the top layer of IMR3031?

Or Do I just need to write off that case of bullseye and start a barn fire with it?

 

[RJH]

Spoon out what you can before you shake it. Those powders look completely different, so worst case scenario you can spread it out on some wax paper or something and separate it but it's going to be a pain in the ass. 

 

I don't know of any easy way to do it

[Banacek]

My first opinion would be destroy it but at least have some fun doing that.  My "how could I get that done" mind would be, compare and contrast and see if I could buy some screens or mess that might separate it. 

[JoeMKY]

7 minutes ago, RJH said:

Spoon out what you can before you shake it. Those powders look completely different, so worst case scenario you can spread it out on some wax paper or something and separate it but it's going to be a pain in the ass. 

 

I don't know of any easy way to do it

 

It wasn't shaken up so I might be able to cut open the 8lbs jug and scoop it out and try and separate the imr manually, as long as I can cut it open without shaking it up.  This isn't gonna be easy, but nothing ever is.  Thanks

[JoeMKY]

5 minutes ago, Banacek said:

My first opinion would be destroy it but at least have some fun doing that.  My "how could I get that done" mind would be, compare and contrast and see if I could buy some screens or mess that might separate it. 

I do have some cannon fuses, or I can save it to make the next 4th of July more fun and bright, but I might try and save it first.  Thanks  

[Maximis228]

I hope this is a joke.

 

Use it as fertilizer... get a long fuse/empty field and watch her blow ... create a line on your driveway and light it up.... anything but trying to separate powder after this mistake. 

[davsco]

bring in the new year with a serious bang!!  and videotape it for us plz!

[RJH]

6 minutes ago, Maximis228 said:

I hope this is a joke.

 

Use it as fertilizer... get a long fuse/empty field and watch her blow ... create a line on your driveway and light it up.... anything but trying to separate powder after this mistake. 

 

 

It's really not that big a deal, especially with two powders that look that different from each other. I did this once in the past and was able to save 80% of each of the powders. 20% was mixed up enough I felt like throwing it away. But, when you dump one powder on top of another powder it just sits there as long as you don't shake it, it's not going to mix up like dumping two liquids together. 

 

Obviously you have to use some judgment but, with powder being 40 and 50 bucks a pound right now, I would damn sure try to save some

[Maximis228]

Just now, RJH said:

 

 

"It's really not that big a deal, especially with two powders that look that different from each other."

Same thing I hear people who advocate to weight rounds 1 by 1 to find squibs... 

 

Its not worth the risk (Or decreased performance) IMO.  

[RJH]

1 minute ago, Maximis228 said:

Same thing I hear people who advocate to weight rounds 1 by 1 to find squibs... 

 

Its not worth the risk (Or decreased performance) IMO.  

 

 

Not really anything like weighing rounds to find squibs, because with the powder you can actually look at it and see if it's mixed up. (I would never trust the weighing rounds thing myself because, I use so many different kinds of brass there's no telling what the hell they weigh LOL)

 

Also with a little common sense, there's really no risk. But to each their own

[mmc45414]

I wouldn't try and scoop off the top, but maybe you might poke a hole in the bottom of the jug and let it drain until you see any of the rifle powder.  Then stop and dump the rest.

 

Also, I might use it in pistol, because the slower rifle powder would probably not radically alter the burn rate (especially considering the Bullseye is super fast), the rifle powder will probably be out the end of the barrel before it started burning.  But any Bullseye in a rifle, probably even a tiny amount, would probably raise pressures significantly.

 

Obviously, all of this is crazy and you should throw it all away, but if you wanna sift it... 

[Joe4d]

37 minutes ago, mmc45414 said:

I wouldn't try and scoop off the top, but maybe you might poke a hole in the bottom of the jug and let it drain until you see any of the rifle powder.  Then stop and dump the rest.

 

Also, I might use it in pistol, because the slower rifle powder would probably not radically alter the burn rate (especially considering the Bullseye is super fast), the rifle powder will probably be out the end of the barrel before it started burning.  But any Bullseye in a rifle, probably even a tiny amount, would probably raise pressures significantly.

 

Obviously, all of this is crazy and you should throw it all away, but if you wanna sift it... 

yep,,, dont shake and dont scoop,  poke a small hole in the bottom and let the bullseye drain out the bottom like an hourglass into multiple clear jars...  Should be able to get almost all the bullseye out... As soon as you see the rifle powder stop,,, poor it out on wax paper and seperate it  or chuck it at that point.

[JoeMKY]

51 minutes ago, mmc45414 said:

I wouldn't try and scoop off the top, but maybe you might poke a hole in the bottom of the jug and let it drain until you see any of the rifle powder.  Then stop and dump the rest.

 

Also, I might use it in pistol, because the slower rifle powder would probably not radically alter the burn rate (especially considering the Bullseye is super fast), the rifle powder will probably be out the end of the barrel before it started burning.  But any Bullseye in a rifle, probably even a tiny amount, would probably raise pressures significantly.

 

Obviously, all of this is crazy and you should throw it all away, but if you wanna sift it... 

 

yeah the hole at the bottom sounds good maybe a slit since bullseye is a lot finer than Imr 3031.

 

Is I’m lucky I can save some of the bullseye and just get rid of the rifle powder since it can be contaminated with bullseye and cause the higher pressure.

[JoeMKY]

14 minutes ago, Joe4d said:

yep,,, dont shake and dont scoop,  poke a small hole in the bottom and let the bullseye drain out the bottom like an hourglass into multiple clear jars...  Should be able to get almost all the bullseye out... As soon as you see the rifle powder stop,,, poor it out on wax paper and seperate it  or chuck it at that point.

thanks will do and just might hav to dispose of the rifle powder

[JoeMKY]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Been reloading since 2008 and this was an embarrassing mistake. Just a bad day made worse by this mix up.  Next time don’t reload on a bad day.

[Farmer]

I did the same with H110 and 4350. They were mixed so I poured it into a flat Tupperware bowl and carefully shook it. The static held most of the H110 to one side letting me separate the 4350. Also beings they are different densities they naturally separate. Kinda like getting the wheat out of the chaff. A flat metal pan with ribs on the bottom might work too. Good luck, it’s a PITA but it’s also a lesson. 

[JoeMKY]

2 hours ago, Maximis228 said:

I hope this is a joke.

 

Use it as fertilizer... get a long fuse/empty field and watch her blow ... create a line on your driveway and light it up.... anything but trying to separate powder after this mistake. 

the cannon fuse..yes the powder mix up I wish but no.

mostly hoping to have the pistol powder since it if finer and discard the rifle because it has a higher chance of contamination and changing the consistency of the slow burn with a fast burning powder.

 

im sure I’m not the only one this has happened to so I was wonder if anyone else ever tried to fix a mistake 

[JoeMKY]

10 minutes ago, Farmer said:

I did the same with H110 and 4350. They were mixed so I poured it into a flat Tupperware bowl and carefully shook it. The static held most of the H110 to one side letting me separate the 4350. Also beings they are different densities they naturally separate. Kinda like getting the wheat out of the chaff. A flat metal pan with ribs on the bottom might work too. Good luck, it’s a PITA but it’s also a lesson. 

 

Thanks. That's also a good option, in the Hornady powder charger, the rifle powder did like to stick to the sides because of static.

[Farmer]

10 minutes ago, JoeMKY said:

 

Thanks. That's also a good option, in the Hornady powder charger, the rifle powder did like to stick to the sides because of static.

I would just roll a small amount around and when the H110 was stuck to the bowl I’d scoop out the mixed stuff and then shake the H110 into another container. Re-insert the mixture and do it again. It’s repetitive but really didn’t take all that long. In a flat container you can also scoop out a large majority that is separated. Just work in small batches. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Farmer

[mmc45414]

Also might mention, I have always tried to abide to the practice of only having one powder jug out of the cabinet at a time, for this reason.  I don't always stick to this, but aspire to. 

[Cuz]

I would toss out the powder and not give it a second thought.

The value of the powder you are tossing out is chump change compared to the value of your gun, or to yourself if you end up having an accident during the separating process, or when shooting the ammo loaded after you "thought" you successfully separated it.

 

There's just too many things that can go wrong for me to take the chance, but then again, I tend to be very risk averse.

 

Good luck.

[Dr Mitch]

IMR3031 is a much, much slower burning powder than Bullseye.  Separate if reasonably easy.  If not, shake it up, load some up, and chrono.

[JoeMKY]

Thanks Everyone for their suggestions... Shortly as putting a small hole at the bottom, I saw some IMR come out Tried the static, no go, and there was just too much imp to try to manually separate it.  I tried all of the even seeing if running it through a sieve and the imp fell through that as well.

 

So I ended up cutting my losses and burned it all.

[RJH]

2 hours ago, Dr Mitch said:

IMR3031 is a much, much slower burning powder than Bullseye.  Separate if reasonably easy.  If not, shake it up, load some up, and chrono.

 

 

This reminds me of a story from way back. A guy I knew had gotten big barrels of surplus powder, and somehow they got mixed up. It was something like 4895 and 3031 equivalents. So they just shook it up real good and loaded it like it was 3031 and called it good. They were using it for three gun and hoser ammo way back in the day. And this was back when they were getting basically barrels of the powder. I'm not sure the exact size but for some reason I'm thinking it was like 30 lb jugs

 

That story was told as true, I got no guarantees if it was or not but it sounds reasonable to me.

[JRM83]

I have done this before. Tossed the whole jug. Just wasn't worth the risks. The plus side is that the more expensive the mistake, the less likely you are to do it again.

 

Now I only have one powder on my bench. No exceptions, no matter what.