A while ago I received a tin of propellant.
It contains S335 as well as S321.
How can one proceed to split the two types?
Use a sifter with small enough holes. S321 are small balls; much finer than S335.
As they have very close to the same burn rate, a few granules here or there won't make much difference.
If you recall my post a few years back on Gunsite ? I emptied my powder dispenser into the wrong tin, same mistake - 335 and 321.
After much doom and gloom predictions from a few persons I went quiet on that thread where I asked about the safety of the mix and so forth.
End result was: I marked the tin "Not for Cody(my son for whom 223 was bought)" and used that propellant for self only.
We each had our own cartridges and I shot those load with the mixed propellant batch. My load development was along the lines of the lessor propellants measurements and ended well into the hotter propellants suggested load. In short it was actually just another batch of SOMCHEM.
The only concern I had was that the two propellants could be found in greater or lesser amounts in a particular cartridge due to separation. I circumvented this by shaking can well and insuring that load in use was never above either propellants suggested max load. I am still using and shooting that batch of ammo and propellant.
Quote from: janfred on Aug 03, 2022, 11:09 PMUse a sifter with small enough holes. S321 are small balls; much finer than S335.
As they have very close to the same burn rate, a few granules here or there won't make much difference.
Did the same - mixed ball and extruded. Using the appropriate sieve (think it was a normal kitchen one for cleaning cake flour of bigger entities) I then separated the two.
I'm a timid little reloader so the propellants would need to be veeeerrryy different from one another for me to do this. I burned over a kilo of flake propellant that was given to me as part of a hoard of shotgun reloading components from a long deceased oom because I couldn't be 100% certain that it was MS200.
I would not try to seperate the powders.
If they are mixed, who can tell you for sure if it's not actually 3 types of powder, or if the two types are what you think they are.
No, that is just pot plant fertilizer now.
Quote from: Tripodmvr on Aug 04, 2022, 12:22 PMQuote from: janfred on Aug 03, 2022, 11:09 PMUse a sifter with small enough holes. S321 are small balls; much finer than S335.
As they have very close to the same burn rate, a few granules here or there won't make much difference.
Did the same - mixed ball and extruded. Using the appropriate sieve (think it was a normal kitchen one for cleaning cake flour of bigger entities) I then separated the two.
What were the results?
Have used the propellants without any mishap or weird groupings.
Quote from: 414gates on Aug 04, 2022, 04:53 PMI would not try to seperate the powders.
If they are mixed, who can tell you for sure if it's not actually 3 types of powder, or if the two types are what you think they are.
No, that is just pot plant fertilizer now.
Well, sometimes we do stupid things, like top off the hopper that contains S335 with S341. In 25 years of reloading I have never had more than 1 type of powder within reach of my press. The one time I did, I screwed it up. Lesson learnt.
Quote from: Treeman on Aug 04, 2022, 12:47 AMIf you recall my post a few years back on Gunsite ? I emptied my powder dispenser into the wrong tin, same mistake - 335 and 321.
After much doom and gloom predictions from a few persons I went quiet on that thread where I asked about the safety of the mix and so forth.
End result was: I marked the tin "Not for Cody(my son for whom 223 was bought)" and used that propellant for self only.
We each had our own cartridges and I shot those load with the mixed propellant batch. My load development was along the lines of the lessor propellants measurements and ended well into the hotter propellants suggested load. In short it was actually just another batch of SOMCHEM.
The only concern I had was that the two propellants could be found in greater or lesser amounts in a particular cartridge due to separation. I circumvented this by shaking can well and insuring that load in use was never above either propellants suggested max load. I am still using and shooting that batch of ammo and propellant.
The concern with using it mixed,is that the small balls gravitate to the bottom of the column during use if there is any vibration. As you operate your powder dispenser the first few rounds may be well mixed. Subsequent rounds will start to contain more of the ball than the extruded.
Yes thats why the load can not have the max of either powders allowed charge. I dropped one OBT to be in a mild load for either propellants.