Powder in hopper

[whatmeworry]

After reloading do you guys leave the unused powder in the hopper or put it back into the jug?

Wondering if leaving the powder in the hopper for a week or two will affect the powder, or if putting it back into the jug could cause contamination.

[joelogic]

My manuals say not to leave powder or primers in the press. But someone will chime in with a story of how they left one or the other in their press for 6 months and everything was fine.

[Antihero47]

I leave my powder in the hopper, its been in there for a few months and nothing really going on with it. I used it recently after sitting in some 30.06 and they worked prefectly fine with no real noticable difference at 1-2 hundred yards.

[jwest]

If you have an automatic primer feeder - I think it is more important to make sure you don't leave unused primers in it for any length of time.

[sgtbuck]

I always put my powder back into the jug seal it tight and lock everything up. But it is to each his own I guess.

[Timberland]

How do you even safley get powder or primers out of say a Dillon?

[ronas]

How do you even safley get powder or primers out of say a Dillon?

On 650 for primers just manually cycle the primer indexing arm and collect primers off ski ramp.

For powder just dump it out and cycle the bar a few times.

[anyracoon]

Can't remember what powder it was but the left some in a RCBS Uniflow about 15 years ago and it destroyed the inside surface of the plastic tube. Sort of imbedded/stuck into the plastic. Had to scrape it out. Was last time I left powder in a dispensor.

[Jonathan Doe]

I put powder back in the can. I have several 8 pound jugs, but always pour into 1 pound can to dispense. So, if the powder is contaminated going back into the can, it will be less than a pound, but I never had a problem.

[Hans Gruber]

It can be of critical importance if you use multiple powders in your reloading so it's a good habit to get into to remove all powder from your work area as soon as you're done with it.

You don't want to accidentally throw a charge of pistol powder into your 30.06 because you forgot to completely empty your powder measure last time.

I only use one powder at this time but I know that in the future I'll be using more. I'd rather develop good habits now than go *boom* in the future.

[SDJim]

If I'm in the middle of a 2 - 3 day reloading session, I'll leave the powder in the hopper. If it's going to be sitting more than that, It goes back into a 1lb jug like topgun7 does. That way, I'm not potentially f'ing up a multi-lb jug.
Having said that, I have left Bullseye in the hopper for a month or more between loading sessions and it hasn't seemed to have caused a problem. YMMV

[f4tweet]

+1 Anyraccoon. Me too. Also if you leave the powder in, you may forget what powder it is...then you misload or have to throw it away.

[freakshow10mm]

I take out the powder unless I stopped in the middle of a run and will come back to it. Right now I have another hundred 9mm to load and then I'm pulling the setup and running 40 S&W. Then change powders, back out the dies and load 10mm with a different powder.

When I load ammo I setup for runs. I exhaust my supplies on that setup, then tear it down and move to the next run. When I load something, I load whatever I have until I can't load anymore and then put everything away.

[Fjold]

Never leave gunpowder in anything unlabeled.

One of these days you'll go to reload a quick 50 rounds of 9mm or 40S&W etc and find out when you pull the trigger that you forgot about that the powder measure was set up for 45 ACP you loaded a couple of weekends ago.

[get2now]

I leave the powder in the hopper unless I change the toolhead. I don't have any problems with it either. My loader is also in my house so there aren't any big temperature changes that would affect the powder. If I kept the loader where there might be a lot of temperature change (like the garage) then I'd take out the powder and primers. I always label the hopper with the type of powder and charge weight too.
There is one problem with leaving powder in the hopper though, it stains the clear plastic.

G