Fly in Gunpowder

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DrMLap

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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.

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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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That fly is a squatter! He's been getting free room and board, see if you can bill his estate! I only have pity on homeless humans!

He has probably been there from when the bottle was made or shipped.

Ivan
 
The fly got in when you were reaching for the bottle top and before you could get it screwed on. Any one experienced with swatting fly's can tell you them fly's are fast !
Gary
 
I found a rubber grommet wedged in my powder measure. Did not come from anything I could identify.

If I'm not mistaken it was HP38..:eek:
 
Fly in powder

My fiend gave me his old reloading equipment as he hadn’t used it for years.
My first attempts gave very inconsistant powder weights. I took the powder dispenser apart and a dead earwig fell out of the cylinder where the powder drops. Problem solved..Willyboy
 
And here I was thinking "Fly in Gunpowder" was some sort of daredevil stunt with an airplane. ;)

It could have been in the powder from the factory, or it might have started out as an egg (like the other one you saw that didn't hatch). You just saved it from being cremated, spectacularly...
 
More than likely it got into the can during can filling at the manufacturer's facility. I doubt if it would have caused any problems even had it gotten into a cartridge case while you were reloading with it.
 
In the late 1970s I met and shot with Jim Cirillo at City Island range. He told me about reloading in his basement with the door open on a warm evening. A June bug got into the powder measure on his Star machine. He discovered this after shooting duds at the range. What a nice and generous man.
 
Now you have to spread out all the powder and try to separate out the fly poop ... sorta like you do with the black pepper on a boring winter's day.

Long before we'd heard of "OCD," such a person was accused of trying to separate the fly poop from the pepper.
 
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