No more American powders?

[Laurie]

On further reflection, I think the biggest problems will be for people who need the very fast burning grades, or the very slow burners. There are alternatives to the 4198s, H322 and suchlike, but not many.

 

Likewise, there are Viht powders for the 338 Magnum and 50BMG, but the loss of H50BMG and US869 thins the choice out a lot.

 

Although I've not heard anything confirming it, Czech Lovex brand propellants should be OK after REACH comes into force. It has some excellent extruded tubular grades and Lovex SO40 and SO60 are among the few fast burning rifle powders that'll be left. SO62 used to be sold in the UK as Accurate-4064 and is an excellent replacement for that powder for those who'll miss the IMR powder of that name.

[VarmLR]

First of all, I hope that you make a speedy recovery Laurie.

 

I have a question which sort of seems obvious but has not been addressed by all the talk over powder imports. REACH presumably must also affect primers and primer compounds, specifically Lead Styphnate, so given that many still contain these lead compounds, how will this affect sales of primers or have they all had to change too? Also, if lead can be said to have effects on human health, will this eventually signal the death of lead bullets within EU member states at least?

 

It seems to me that this is yet another European bureaucrats wet dream, as they think that they can legislate their way to a utopia which doesn't exist. I'm all for improving our lot and lowering risks to human health, but only where those risks are proven and studied, and significant. Has there ever been any evidence, I wonder, of increased cancer risk, or of other neurological toxicity effects of powder compounds on human health? (other than the obvious one of inhaling lead contaminated dust, for example, at indoor ranges with poor ventilation or whilst tumbling fired cases....for the latter, I de-prime prior to tumbling and also have a cover to seal the lid of the tumbler when in operation).

 

We already have the requirement for COSHH data sheets to assist users of chemicals and compounds that could be hazardous, to make their own sensible risk assessment in order to provide the appropriate level of risk management. It seems that REACH simply removes another layer of human intervention by denying anyone the right to make their own informed choices and putting appropriate measures into place.