Hey everyone,

I've heard anecdotes about people avoiding reloading when the humidity is over a certain level, but haven't seen any hard data. Has anyone here found the humidity levels during reloading change how their loads shoot?  It's a great day to reload, but it's really foggy and humid where I live at the moment. 

Thanks,

-Nick

The only time I have seen humidity affect black powder is when shooting muzzle loaders. Especially flintlocks. The more humid it is, I use a courser powder for priming the pan. Even 2f has worked fine for priming. 4f sometimes seems to draw moisture too quickly. I know this doesn't apply to cartridges, that's all the BP/humidity experience I have.

Jesse

There's a difference in shooting cartridge blackpowder rifles when it's humid, the fouling in the barrel is very hydroscopic and absorbs moisture out of the air.  Rifles don't foul nearly as badly when the humidity is high as they do when it's hot and dry.  They even foul worse in the winter when it's cold and the relative humidity is very low.

However, in loading the amount of moisture the powder can absorb is negligible.   

I think it was Brent Danielson that did an experiment a few years ago, he spread powder out thin and weighed it before and after being exposed to different levels of humidity.  What he found is that the amount of moisture it absorbed was nearly negligible, even when he left it for a day or more.  It was immeasurable in the short time exposure that you would normally encounter while loading.  His conclusion is that it makes essentially no difference what conditions you load under.

dave

Quote:

Nick:Sporting black powder at the plant is dried until the moisture content of the powder falls to about 0.5%. until the moisture content of the powder falls to about 0.5%.
Following drying, the powder is ready to be packaged.  

Reloading centerfire cartridges Does Not change how the loads shoot - it is impossible.  Think about it: drop powder from a charger into a primed case - compress - seat wad - seat bullet lightly crimp - put round in case.  How long does this take?  In order for increased moisture in the powder during reloading - one would have to be reloading in the rain with the charger cap not on the tube!

URBAN LEGEND

Never tried a 'pig'. The Arsenal patches work fine for me with a 6 to 7-1 mix of Moose Milk (water soluble oil) and water. Some folks prefer cloth patches and wash them for reuse. Not worth the effort for me, but YMMV. 

I use my patches quite wet. Enough that they would drip a bit if wrung out. Leaves a wet chamber. I've read where some folks think the wet chamber results in stretched brass and separated cases. I've been shooting the same 350-odd cases for 5+ years. Load them ~10 times each season and have had no separated cases.