Leaving powder in powder hopper

Horty · Jun 30, 2012

Is it bad to leave powder in a a powder hopper for extended periods of time? I left some longshot powder in my powder hopper for about 3 months and it turned the clear plastic hopper tube brown. The hopper has been inside my climate controlled house the whole time and it seemed ok (no clumping or anything like that). When I saw the discoloration I poured the powder back into the longshot bottle and now I am worried I have tainted the whole thing. What do you all think?

Chris_Andersen · Jun 30, 2012

You are fine. That discoloration is actually more to do with the plastic on the hopper than your powder.

Ksmirk · Jun 30, 2012

Your not reloading enough if the powder was in there that long LOL I've never had powder in for that long but yea the powder is just discoloring the plastic tube you should be fine. Later,

Kirk

Wall · Jun 30, 2012

honestly, what's the difference between sitting in the hopper & sitting in the jug?

Deathtrap · Jun 30, 2012

The jug is sealed and keeps moisture out

OUshooter · Jun 30, 2012

The powder hopper being in your house vs. say the garage means it probably won't matter much. I've not done any research to see how much moisture a given powder will absorb out of the air.

The biggest danger is forgetting what powder is in the hopper. You may think you know what is in there, but if you go 3months between loading sessions you are taking a potentially dangerous chance. The best thing is to unload the hopper after each session and only have one powder jug at the bench per session.

If you do want to leave powder in the hopper, then I highly recommend a piece of masking tape with powder name and lot# written on it.

Wall · Jun 30, 2012

Jake Burki said:
The jug is sealed and keeps moisture out

right, but he said it's in a climate controlled environment. Not much chance of it absorbing too much moisture.

I leave powder in the hopper all the time & I check the weight of the charge at the begining of each loading sesion, I've never had to change the charge bar between sesions.

ChrisC · Jul 1, 2012

The hopper.....

Joel Clouse · Jul 2, 2012

Fine to leave it in the HOPPA, as long as you know what it is!

Scott Hearn · Jul 2, 2012

Like Chis A. said you are fine. What is going on is the nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose in the powder is causing the plastic to discolor. Those two items happen to be made with nitric acid.

You can leave it in there as long as you want, but the two biggest things that break down powder is high storage temps and light. High storage temps are the biggie, light takes a good while.

poopgiggle · Jul 2, 2012

OUshooter said:
The best thing is to unload the hopper after each session and only have one powder jug at the bench per session.

My system is to just use Bullseye for everything.

nikatkimber · Jul 2, 2012

OUshooter said:
The powder hopper being in your house vs. say the garage means it probably won't matter much. I've not done any research to see how much moisture a given powder will absorb out of the air.

The biggest danger is forgetting what powder is in the hopper. You may think you know what is in there, but if you go 3months between loading sessions you are taking a potentially dangerous chance. The best thing is to unload the hopper after each session and only have one powder jug at the bench per session.

If you do want to leave powder in the hopper, then I highly recommend a piece of masking tape with powder name and lot# written on it.

After throwing out a couple hoppers with probably a couple hundred grains each because I couldn't remember for sure what powder was in it, I do what he said. But I just write the powder info on a scrap of paper, and drop it on top of the powder in the hopper. Hard to miss.

hrt4me · Aug 24, 2012

Scott Hearn said:
Like Chis A. said you are fine. What is going on is the nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose in the powder is causing the plastic to discolor. Those two items happen to be made with nitric acid.

I've had that reaction between nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose actually damage some cheap plastic powder hoppers...

WinchesterModel12 · Sep 14, 2012

I use so many powders that I would never leave it in there because I would probably forget which one it was.

dennishoddy · Sep 14, 2012

Brent Akin said:
After throwing out a couple hoppers with probably a couple hundred grains each because I couldn't remember for sure what powder was in it, I do what he said. But I just write the powder info on a scrap of paper, and drop it on top of the powder in the hopper. Hard to miss.

This! I did the scrap of paper for many years, but recently came into some stickers, that are put on the powder tube.
When the run out, its back to the paper scraps.