Bad lots of N133 ?

W

WallyDog

New member
Went out yesterday for an extended range session with a new (used) rifle and N133 from 2000. Yep its 20 yrs old. I couldnt get it to shoot then and it wont shoot now. Im saying there are no bug holes anywhere in this powder. It took 30.5 gr to get 3340 fps. with a 65 gr bullet on an .825 jacket. This powder has the infuriating problem of shooting two groups. It does it with my older Hall M and the same with a Panda, These are newer barrels.
So I took some 4198 Extreme and stuffed in an unpublishable amount to get it to 3311fps. It shot a 5 shot .230 group and a .180 3 shot second group. The N133 had a very low ES. It smells fine. Looks good. Wont shoot. Got a jug of LT32 coming.

Wally
 
2005 was a bad year, but that is the one 1 know. How do I know?? it was the only year that what his name sold 11 44lb kegs of it and I thought I had scored a big one in buying one keg. I took it home and was doing some testing and that is when I realize that I would not of scored a big deal. I am pulling figures out of the air, but you get the right idea. I would start with 29 and get 3200fps, go up to 29.5 and get 3210fps, go to 31 and get 3220fps. And so on, luckly I sold half to another chap after I told my expience and he seemed happy with it, of course he never won any thing with it but he was happy, and that all that matters. I have used, I not going to say what year, until recently and I have used various years of it and it all seems good. For those people out there, I have been using that stuff since 1997.
 
Try some

N130 or H322 or Benchmark. Don't think that N133 is the only thing that works in the 6PPC.
 
I have shot about 3 different years of 133 in the past 25 years.

The four 8 pounders I shoot now are 2017. It shoots exactly the same as the ‘03 and ‘13 I used previously.

My best load has always been 30.4 grns.

One thing I can attest to is that load of 2017 is easier to get into the case than the ‘03. I had to use a 12 inch drop tube to get 30.4 in the case and have room for the bullet, while I can use a standard short one with the 2017.

That’s a plus.
 
I had some given to me after the world shoot and mixed it with some 99 lot powder and it shot very well. It was 1/2 and 1/2 of each and and if I remember the 99 lot was a little hotter than the 05.
 
I'd be going out on a limb to say that it might not be the powder. I have had to dump a fair amount of various VV powders that all went bad at right around 20 years. All single base, N130, N140, N165. It was obvious that it was bad, smelled bad, the pink cap on the bottles changed color, and any steel cans close to the powder started to rust.

Since your powder smell fine, it probably is fine. The only time I had a lot of 133 that I couldn't get to shoot I sold it all to Terry Leonard. He was having a great year and said it was "the good stuff". It was a 2007 lot and I sold it around 2011 0r 2012.

I wasn't the only shooter that had trouble with the 2007 lot and Terry wasn't the only shooter to win with it. Go figure.
 
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You are NOT going on a limb. When I had the, in my eyes, bad powder. I bought it in 2006, still sealed, and everyone that bought that powder had problems with it. 2005 was a bad year. Before and after, no problem, so in the overall skeme of things, no problem.
 
I just noticed a roughly 20-year-old 1 lb container of 133 in my powder cabinet that has the rusty lid and bad smell. About a year ago, I noticed a jug of Varget from the same era was gone.

Really expensive fertilizer.
 
fla temp and humidity ??
TomD said:
I just noticed a roughly 20-year-old 1 lb container of 133 in my powder cabinet that has the rusty lid and bad smell. About a year ago, I noticed a jug of Varget from the same era was gone.

Really expensive fertilizer.
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