lawle102 wrote:I know that like the article says, Hornady uses blended powders in their 450 offering.
lawle102-
There is some confusing terminology connected with the word "blended" as used in the gunpowder industry. Most powders used by ammo makers are blends; so are those that are sold to reloaders in cannisters.
The burning characteristics for the named and numbered powders we reloaders use have been standardized. To make up a standard powder, the manufacturer will run off batches of powder following their usual recipe. It's not likely that any batch will conform exactly to the standard. So they run off several batches of the same recipe, and then mix them to achieve the standard characteristics. So they may take 20 tons of batch A and 14 tons of batch B and 18 tons of batch C and mix them (blend) to arrive at the standard.
The blend of A, B, and C is assigned a lot number and put into containers and passed along to us.
Powder makers work with the ammo makers, who can test a particular batch or blend to find the powder drop that will meet the pressure and velocity specifications for the ammo. Because of their testing capabilities, ammo makers can use powders that need not be as standardized as powders sold to reloaders. The ammo makers can get their powder at a considerably lower cost than reloaders, not only because they buy it by the boxcar load but because the powder makers don't have to work to blend batches to match a standard.
It's not unusual for an ammo maker to work with a powder maker to develop a powder for a specific new type of ammunition. Like most powders, the new types will be a blend. Hornady has been working with Hodgdon to produce some special powders, which are blends, but they aren't blends of currently available cannister powders.
However, I think there is a bit of marketing hype in the "proprietary blend" statement. A statement of "proprietary powder" would have been just as meaningful, and less misleading. "Blend" provokes an image of the Hornady and Hodgdon chemists dressed in black robes in a back room, chanting around a cauldron:
"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
(Somebody let me know if I've gotten any of this wrong. I'm pretty sure the Shakespeare quote is correct.)
--Bob
--Bob