Colorful Powder?

[JWinAZ]

One of the cartridges in the box of S&B .32 Longs I recently bought had a badly seated primer, looks like it went in sideways. I pulled the bullet in preparation to de-prime the case and was surprised by the appearance of the powder. Gray-green and lavender! Very fine about .030" diameter. Charge was 2.2 grains. Interesting.

 

[glassparman]

Not sure what that is. For a few years when I started collecting vintage ammo, I started also looking at vintage powders and examining them and keeping small glass test tubes of different items. One of them i ran across looks like yellow granules and I was not even sure it was powder until I lit some up!

I'll have to go out and look at my little test tube samples and see if I have anything that looks like your stuff there.

 

[Tomme boy]

I have seen shotgun powder the same way in Euro hulls. But in flake form.

 

[Rushcreek]

That looks like common NPK fertilizer!

 

[Rockydoc]

1. That is European powder unfamiliar to most of us.
2. It could be a blend custom formulated for that specific load for S&B to make hundreds of thousands of cartridges.

 

[Intel6]

Some Vihtavuori powder is like that. Vit 320 that I load in some of my pistol loads is green like that, I figured it was a European thing. Seems like most powders are coated with graphite to keep things from clumping and the make it flow better. If there wasn't the graphite on powders you would see lots of different colors I think.

 

[bruce381]

vectan BA 9.5 have some now loads about like 231 in 45 acp, But cause it looks like it it may not be it

 

[Jeff H]

If nothing else, it looks rather festive.

 

[TXTad]

Not sure what that is. For a few years when I started collecting vintage ammo, I started also looking at vintage powders and examining them and keeping small glass test tubes of different items. One of them i ran across looks like yellow granules and I was not even sure it was powder until I lit some up!

I'll have to go out and look at my little test tube samples and see if I have anything that looks like your stuff there.

It is my understanding that the natural color of smokeless powder is similar to the color of pasta. I think it is various coatings and graphite that give it the dark gray that we are familiar with.

 

[Ian]

Looks like it ought to be on a doughnut.

 

[Foo]

Looks like it ought to be on a doughnut.

It's a new powder made to sell to Law Enforcement departments. I believe it is called "Hodgdon's glazed sprinkles"