Clumpy powder in factory ammo: any effect on performance?

[Adam in WI]

Yesterday I picked up a new 6.5 PRC in a rifle known for very good accuracy. I also picked up one box of factory ammo just in case I'd have a chance to shoot before I got anything loaded up. My groups at 100 were pretty disappointing. I think the best came in around 1-1/4". Just for laughs I backed the target out to 300 and was rewarded with an approximately 8" group. This is with a new scope, properly torqued. Action screws were tight and nothing in the bedding appeared out of place. The bore scope showed a clean throat and minimum copper throughout the barrel.

Turning to the remaining 6 rounds; CBTO was within .001". I pulled bullets to weigh charges, but found the powder was stuck in the case. Anywhere from 1-4 grains would pour out and the rest wouldn't budge until I tapped quite hard on the side of the cases with a small wrench. The charges were within 0.3 grains and the powder wasn't discolored.

Is there something faulty going on with this ammo; or did this particular brand stumble on the exact wrong combination for this rifle? Does the barrel need a good number of rounds to settle down? I've got hand loads ready to try, but the clumpy powder is something I haven't run into before.

Appreciate your thoughts.

 

[David Milisock]

Yesterday I picked up a new 6.5 PRC in a rifle known for very good accuracy. I also picked up one box of factory ammo just in case I'd have a chance to shoot before I got anything loaded up. My groups at 100 were pretty disappointing. I think the best came in around 1-1/4". Just for laughs I backed the target out to 300 and was rewarded with an approximately 8" group. This is with a new scope, properly torqued. Action screws were tight and nothing in the bedding appeared out of place. The bore scope showed a clean throat and minimum copper throughout the barrel.

Turning to the remaining 6 rounds; CBTO was within .001". I pulled bullets to weigh charges, but found the powder was stuck in the case. Anywhere from 1-4 grains would pour out and the rest wouldn't budge until I tapped quite hard on the side of the cases with a small wrench. The charges were within 0.3 grains and the powder wasn't discolored.

Is there something faulty going on with this ammo; or did this particular brand stumble on the exact wrong combination for this rifle? Does the barrel need a good number of rounds to settle down? I've got hand loads ready to try, but the clumpy powder is something I haven't run into before.

Appreciate your thoughts.

If was a spherical powder that doesn't surprise me.

 

[Adam in WI]

It was. A very large grain powder, I'd add.

 

[K22]

While factory ammo, especially the bullets are far superior to when I first started in the sport, it's still can be problematic. So, I wouldn't indict the rifle just yet. While I have seen better groups at the range with Federal Premium ammo, 1 1/4" groups with factory ammo are fairly consistent of what I have seen at the range.

I would try another lot or brand of ammo. You may also have to put some more rounds down the new barrel before it settles it. Over cleaning, namely aggressive copper removing, has always cause increased shot dispersion in my rifles until the barrel is "re-conditioned" with copper.

Regarding "lumpy" powder, I wonder if this is due to moisture or a processing issue. It doesn't sound like this would aid in shot-to-shot consistency, but I am no powder expert. I haven't shot centerfire rifle ammo in over 50 years, so I don't know if this is the norm or something else. Also, I never disassembled factory ammo so I wouldn't know what to expect.

 

[Doug Beach]

I have pulled apart hand loads with compressed charges of various stick powders. Powder sticking in the case is very common, I go in with the back end of a wood q-tip to knock it out. In my cases, this did not seem to affect performance.

 

[209jones]

Sticky powder is supposed to be related to humidity and possibly the deterrent coatings breaking down as far as I know. One thing with factory ammo, is there is no control over the enviro factors after it leaves the shipping dock, sure that anything is possible, could have sat anytwhere in a train car, trailer, warehouse without controls on it that could conceivably affect it down the road.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

When I travel to shoot prairie dogs, I will turn over the cartridges a couple times after I setup to shoot. Long duration vibration could settle and compress the powder.

 

[jds holler]

I'll preface this by saying that I simply haven't shot very much factory ammo, but when I have I've rarely gotten better than 1.5 MOA accuracy.

I'll also say that if I grab some of my own reloads that have been sitting around for years, they often don't shoot much better. And that bums me out.

 

[Wild Bill IV]

Yesterday I picked up a new 6.5 PRC in a rifle known for very good accuracy. I also picked up one box of factory ammo just in case I'd have a chance to shoot before I got anything loaded up. My groups at 100 were pretty disappointing. I think the best came in around 1-1/4". Just for laughs I backed the target out to 300 and was rewarded with an approximately 8" group. This is with a new scope, properly torqued. Action screws were tight and nothing in the bedding appeared out of place. The bore scope showed a clean throat and minimum copper throughout the barrel.

Turning to the remaining 6 rounds; CBTO was within .001". I pulled bullets to weigh charges, but found the powder was stuck in the case. Anywhere from 1-4 grains would pour out and the rest wouldn't budge until I tapped quite hard on the side of the cases with a small wrench. The charges were within 0.3 grains and the powder wasn't discolored.

Is there something faulty going on with this ammo; or did this particular brand stumble on the exact wrong combination for this rifle? Does the barrel need a good number of rounds to settle down? I've got hand loads ready to try, but the clumpy powder is something I haven't run into before.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Factory powder can be different than over the counter powder!!! That is why factory load data is higher than reloading data!!! (((DO NOT TRY THIS!!!))) Some use special proprietary blended duplex loads, less carbon coating, and/or special proprietary formulas!!!! Clumping can be common!!!

 

[Old Navy]

Very poor quality control for sure.

 

[Straightshooter1]

Yesterday I picked up a new 6.5 PRC in a rifle known for very good accuracy. I also picked up one box of factory ammo just in case I'd have a chance to shoot before I got anything loaded up. My groups at 100 were pretty disappointing. I think the best came in around 1-1/4". Just for laughs I backed the target out to 300 and was rewarded with an approximately 8" group. This is with a new scope, properly torqued. Action screws were tight and nothing in the bedding appeared out of place. The bore scope showed a clean throat and minimum copper throughout the barrel.

Turning to the remaining 6 rounds; CBTO was within .001". I pulled bullets to weigh charges, but found the powder was stuck in the case. Anywhere from 1-4 grains would pour out and the rest wouldn't budge until I tapped quite hard on the side of the cases with a small wrench. The charges were within 0.3 grains and the powder wasn't discolored.

Is there something faulty going on with this ammo; or did this particular brand stumble on the exact wrong combination for this rifle? Does the barrel need a good number of rounds to settle down? I've got hand loads ready to try, but the clumpy powder is something I haven't run into before.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Over 5 years ago I bought a box of ARM cartridges for my .308 to test that were supposed to be precision loaded i for long range with 176 gr all brass CNC rounds. The results of the first 10 rounds were not good and I was disappointed to say the least. I decided to measure everything. Upon pulling the bullets on the remaining 10 cartridges, I could see the powder was being compressed and was stuck together. But the powder didn't stay that way once I got it out of the case. After getting the total powered weight of the 10 cartridges, I divided that weight by 10 and reloaded the cartridge, making everything more uniform original numbers (e.g. seating depth). The result was the SD went from 12.2 to 7.8 and the group went from 1.234" to .722"; a good improvement and ok for a load that wasn't actually tuned.

I don't know what powder it was, but it looked a lot like IMR-4064, and since I had some of the 176 gr projectiles, I loaded them up with .2 grs more of IMR-4064 (using QuickLoad to estimate close the same velocity). The results were really good on paper (two 5 round groups: .391" and .258"), though the SD's were not so good. . . I think because there wasn't enough neck tension to hold the compressed load to a consistent seating depth.

 

[Webster]

Yesterday I picked up a new 6.5 PRC in a rifle known for very good accuracy. I also picked up one box of factory ammo just in case I'd have a chance to shoot before I got anything loaded up. My groups at 100 were pretty disappointing. I think the best came in around 1-1/4". Just for laughs I backed the target out to 300 and was rewarded with an approximately 8" group. This is with a new scope, properly torqued. Action screws were tight and nothing in the bedding appeared out of place. The bore scope showed a clean throat and minimum copper throughout the barrel.

Turning to the remaining 6 rounds; CBTO was within .001". I pulled bullets to weigh charges, but found the powder was stuck in the case. Anywhere from 1-4 grains would pour out and the rest wouldn't budge until I tapped quite hard on the side of the cases with a small wrench. The charges were within 0.3 grains and the powder wasn't discolored.

Is there something faulty going on with this ammo; or did this particular brand stumble on the exact wrong combination for this rifle? Does the barrel need a good number of rounds to settle down? I've got hand loads ready to try, but the clumpy powder is something I haven't run into before.

Appreciate your thoughts.

I don't think any powder should stick together? Must be some moisure present. Dry some out in the sun and see if it still sticks together. Maybe the permenently bound? A lot of modern powders are coated with weird stuff.

 

[Walt Krafft]

IME it is not uncommon for stick powders to appear to be stuck in a case. Very common with compressed loads. It is not a problem at all.

 

[Fclassfool]

Bergara? If it is stop cleaning it and just shoot it you might get 3/4 moa with your handloads at 100 send it back and try or just sell it. There are a few rifles you always see for sale on the forums Bergaras and Christensen Arms there is a reason for that...

 

[nakneker]

I’ve pulled bullets on compressed hand loads and had the powder not wanting to come out of the case a couple of times with both stick and ball powder, slightly compressed I might add. Wasn’t a big deal, it wasn’t sticky, just compressed enough that gravity wouldn’t pull it out. I take a pic and just stir it a couple of times and it falls out easy enough. Didn’t affect the accuracy of the load, in fact one of those loads was very accurate.

I’ve good luck with 6.5 PRCs and accuracy. We’ve been using H1000, N568 and retumbo with 153 Bergers. A group of 6 of us shot a lot of 6.5PRC last summer and fall.