Reading Powder Lot Number

[Rugerfanboy]

Recently had a guy try to sale me some powder and said it was recently manufactured powder. I looked at the lot number and it was manufactured back in 2005. The jug looked recently cleaned/wiped down....so I asked him if he just wiped it down and he said it just came from the UPS truck a few days ago. Ok....decided to walk away cause that was lie number 2. Thought I'd share my experience with you guys encase you might run into something like I did.

The date the powder was manufactured on.....will be part of the lot number.
1 lb bottle or a 9 oz bottle (9 oz bottle is rounded up to 1 lb like Trail Boss in the lot number)
1st digit - Size of bottle or jug
2nd and 3rd digit - month the powder was manufactured in
4th and 5th digit - day the powder was manufactured in
6th and 7th digit - year the powder was manufactured in
8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th digit (4 numbers) - lot number of the powder

9 oz bottle lot number - 10112165466

9oztrailboss.png

The date the powder was manufactured on....will be part of the lot number.
8 lb jug or a 5 lb jug (5 lb jug is rounded up to 8 lb like Trail Boss in the lot number)
1st digit - Size of bottle or jug
2nd and 3rd digit - month the powder was manufactured in
4th and 5th digit - day the powder was manufactured in
6th and 7th digit - year the powder was manufactured in
8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th digit (4 numbers) - lot number of the powder

5lb jug lot number - 80705165573

5lbtrailboss.png

[Steve51]

Thanks! I did not know that.
I have learned a lot on this site.

[Rugerfanboy]

There's allot of these shady retail sellers out there in the world and us reloaders/handloaders have to be informed or at least be on tops of things. If not...they will take advantage of us in a heartbeat.

[MapleHill]

They will get worse now that the election is over. Some have hoarded stuff with the hopes of gouging if Hillary was elected. Now that didn't work they will want to dump stuff however they can

[Big Old Boy]

I have some powder that's over 20 years old that I use if it's good it's good.

[CT_Shooter]

I have some powder that's over 20 years old that I use if it's good it's good.

I have some old H110 powder, too. Here's something to consider when using very old powder:

…Once a container has been opened, (and even slightly before it's opened), the chemicals used for 'drying' the powder "off-gas". That doesn't, to my knowledge, change the burn characteristics of the powder, but it does change its "bulk density". You may recall that this came home to me 'in spades' a few years back when I took the .338 MAI to Colorado for the first time. The charges of BL-C(2) were not even 'warm' let alone hot, but I was blowing primers - REALLY blowing primers when I got down there. Turns out, the powder I used for loading THOSE cartridges up was the last of a cannister of BL-C(2) that I had had for almost 30 years, and that I used almost the last of loading those cartridges.

A 50-grain charge of "new" powder will contain less energy than a 50-grain charge of "old" powder because the "old" powder will have a higher bulk density than a "new" cannister of powder does. So...

My suggestion is that you work up on the TRULY 'low' side of "book" charges to start with 'til you get to 'know' that cannister of powder. AND, when you get a new cannister, don't expect it to produce the same MVs or pressures that a really old cannister did.

This isn't an issue once a cartridge is loaded because the chemical energy is fixed forever - the amount of powder doesn't change, only it's weight. That's why milsurp ammo from the late '30s (and especially the nazi 8x56R stuff), is still good to this day.

In my case, a 1 cc Lee Dipper of the old H110 powder weighs a full grain less than the newer H110 does.

[JEBar]

info appreciated .... I wasn't aware of that numbering system