another powder question

[Mobuck]

I recently broke down some .223/5.56 factory reject ammo and found maybe 10-15% had a white or light tan granular powder that resembled fine ground cracker/corn meal. The bullets were some sort of solid monolith construction.
What the heck type of powder was this?

 

[contender]

Many people don't know that various factory ammo makers use proprietary powders in their ammo. And quite often,, it's not stuff available to the general public. It's very possible that's what you have.

 

[Hvymax]

I recently broke down some .223/5.56 factory reject ammo and found maybe 10-15% had a white or light tan granular powder that resembled fine ground cracker/corn meal. The bullets were some sort of solid monolith construction.
What the heck type of powder was this?

Weigh some of the charges to establish a baseline and then Chrono and accuracy test your loads. Of course it would help to know why it was rejected.

 

[Johnnu2]

Maybe some kind of filler to save $$$$........... It wouldn't take much to save millions of $$$. Chrono would provide some insight as suggested

J.

 

[Mobuck]

Since these were 'cull' loads or damaged during loading, there weren't any 'full' charges and I certainly wouldn't trust what I found inside these cases. Only worthwhle for cases and bullets.

 

[Pál_K]

It might be instructive to pull the bullet on a few known-good rounds of the exact same type from the same manufacturer, examine and weigh that powder, then chronograph the good rounds. See if that matches known reloading data.

Even so, I wouldn't use the powder from the rejects - there may be a problem with it.

 

[Mobuck]

That's the thing about pull down ammo. The brand of case or bullet may not have any bearing on who/when/where the ammo was loaded or if it was a 'special purpose' load for a specific user. I've just never seen a tan colored granular powder. All powder from this 'recycled ammo' is considered throw away.