A pound of powder, (net weight), is equal to 7000 grains.
The tall Alliant jugs that Reloder powder comes in weigh almost exactly 1 ounce - a tad more. ONE ounce is equal to 437 grains.
Therefor, one pound of Alliant RL17, for example, should weigh 17 ounces (gross wt) and should contain 16 ounces of powder.
Some years ago I bought a pound of powder locally and weighed it when I got home. It weighed slightly less than one pound. I didn't follow up on it. Two weeks ago I needed some RL17 and so bought a pound at my local gun shop. Weighing it when I got home, it weighed 1.5 ounces less than a pound. Allowing for some inaccuracy on my mechanical postage-type scale, I figure I was short about 2 full ounces of powder. That's 875 grains of powder or 22 cartridges averaging 40.0 grains each. I've weighed some of the powder kegs I've received in shipping and never found one to be suspect yet.
Today I politely asked my local gun shop owner to step aside with me out of earshot of two employees and explained my situation. I let him know I hesitated bringing the subject up because I didn't want it to be taken wrong. I asked him to just take it for what it was worth, and that there were several possibilities for a short net weight, going back to warehouse storage and other possibilities. He's a smart man. He understood me. He was understanding and asked if the keg was still sealed when I got it home. Of course, these powder kegs are never sealed. Sometimes the glued paper seal will come up with the cap when opening even a new keg. He let me know that if it happens again, to bring it back right away.
From this day forward, I will weigh every keg I receive, local or shipped, even if that means breaking it down into weighable sizes for my little digital "drug dealers" scale.
Has this happened to anyone else?
The tall Alliant jugs that Reloder powder comes in weigh almost exactly 1 ounce - a tad more. ONE ounce is equal to 437 grains.
Therefor, one pound of Alliant RL17, for example, should weigh 17 ounces (gross wt) and should contain 16 ounces of powder.
Some years ago I bought a pound of powder locally and weighed it when I got home. It weighed slightly less than one pound. I didn't follow up on it. Two weeks ago I needed some RL17 and so bought a pound at my local gun shop. Weighing it when I got home, it weighed 1.5 ounces less than a pound. Allowing for some inaccuracy on my mechanical postage-type scale, I figure I was short about 2 full ounces of powder. That's 875 grains of powder or 22 cartridges averaging 40.0 grains each. I've weighed some of the powder kegs I've received in shipping and never found one to be suspect yet.
Today I politely asked my local gun shop owner to step aside with me out of earshot of two employees and explained my situation. I let him know I hesitated bringing the subject up because I didn't want it to be taken wrong. I asked him to just take it for what it was worth, and that there were several possibilities for a short net weight, going back to warehouse storage and other possibilities. He's a smart man. He understood me. He was understanding and asked if the keg was still sealed when I got it home. Of course, these powder kegs are never sealed. Sometimes the glued paper seal will come up with the cap when opening even a new keg. He let me know that if it happens again, to bring it back right away.
From this day forward, I will weigh every keg I receive, local or shipped, even if that means breaking it down into weighable sizes for my little digital "drug dealers" scale.
Has this happened to anyone else?