Fly in Gunpowder

D

DrMLap

Inactive
I thought my fellow reloaders might be amused by this.

I had just poured some HP-38 gunpowder into my powder measure in preparation for loading up some 357 Mag cartridges when I noticed some odd pieces of gunpowder sticking up inside the dispenser. On closer inspection, I found this was not gunpowder but actually a dead fly. So I picked it out with tweezers and took a picture of it with my macro lens. See attached.

The lines at the bottom of the photo are the edge of a mm ruler. So the fly from wingtip to head is about 6mm.

Upon further inspection, I found what appeared to be either a body part of the fly or one of its eggs. Unfortunately, I could not grab that piece with my tweezers. I'm afraid it is going to one day be blasted to smithereens inside one of my 357 Magnum cartridges.

I don't normally leave my gunpowder bottles open. Even while I am dispensing powder onto the dish of my scale, I put the lid temporarily back on top of the bottle if for no other reason than to keep moisture from my breath from contaminating the powder. So, my only question is, how did that fly get inside my 1 lb bottle of HP-38?
 

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I opened a can of tightly packed fine ground coffee a few years ago. the coffee was sealed in a metal can that required an opener. I checked to see if the coffee had 'that fresh' coffee smell. The coffee did not have that great smell; after cutting through the caked coffee with a spoon I found small tunnels made by very small worms. I had the coffee for over 10 years before opening.

I do not remember if the can had that swoosh sound when I opened it.

F. Guffey
 
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It could have been trapped in the bottle at the manufacturing plant.
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The simplest explanation is usually the correct one^.

I close the lid on my propellant at my work bench for safety - since I set it so close to my ash tray :D. JUST KIDDING of course.

Seriously, I do put the cap back on as soon as I'm done dispensing it into the hopper, for safety.
 
Excuse me Mr. Dupont, there is a fly in my powder.

And what does that do to the burn rate?

Fly in and fly out testing is now needed.
 
Actually you are privi to our new dual product: gunpowder/insecticide. Thank you for appreciating our new feature.
 
typo fix

I came across an eyeglasses screw in a pound of Bullseye once upon a time which concerns me FAR more than a fly as the metal will damage the barrel.

Only reason I found it was because I weigh out each charge on a scale whilst loading. Powder made a unfamiliar sound when it hit the metal powder cup on the scale.
 
I found some brass in one dispensed load today.

There is no brass involved in the process, so it got shaved off something in the IMR system.

I finagled it out, I am pretty sure liquid brass would settle where I don't want it even though it was pretty tiny.

Interesting to see it after the post.
 
We had a member fire 4 rounds without inspecting his cases after firing; he did inspect the 5th round fired. When he inspected the 5th case fired he noticed the case was missing the neck. And of course, :confused: he wondered and then checked the necks on the first 4 rounds fired :eek:. It was then he noticed all 4 cases were missing the necks.

He removed the bolt and checked the chamber; he found the neck of the last case fired in the throat of the chamber.

F. Guffey
 
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I believe that this is actually some form of parasitic wasp, there are thousands of them. I could be wrong, there isn't a lot of visible detail. If it is in fact a wasp, the odds that there was a wasp of that size farting around inside your home that later died in your powder are kinda slim, IMO.

My thought is that it wound up in the jar prior to loading the powder. The thing is capped immediately at the next station. the jar itself would have been shipped without a lid. The big spaces in some factories would be more likely to harbor occasional wasps.
 
That isn't a fly. That is the front part of a wasp, etc., and the other piece was probably the business end of said wasp!!! The round thats holding that part should be a real stinger!!!
 
The big spaces in some factories would be more likely to harbor occasional wasps
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and spiders, snakes, feral cats, squirrels, raccoons, scorpions, fire ants and opossums. Pretty much saw it all in industrial maintenance. Had a electrical short once where red ants built a 50 ft long 1 inch diameter nest inside electrical conduit. Squirrels gnawed the security camera a cables and a snake blew up a big old 480v control cabinet.
 
That looks like the endangered South Smokey Mountain Whoopie Wasp. They will need to stop all development and building permits in your state, and around your house and look for more of those Wasps, Barking Spiders, Legless Lizards, Snaggle-tooth Tigers, native americans sacred sites, Jimmy Hoffa, and Woolly Mamooths. Who knows what they will dig up.
So load it. Shoot it. Forget it. And don't tell a soul.
I would use a magnum primer and all the Bullseye that will fit, under a Wax wad-cutter for that one.
 
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