feed dust in reloading room...

[caleb90]

so long story short, i ended up with 16 bantam chicks. much to small and fragile to put up in the brooding pen outside. so i stuck em in a dog crate with a heat lamp in my gun/reloading room. been in there two weeks or so and today i noticed an enormise amount of chick feed dust on top of every thing, dies presses ect. curious to how this might affect my presses and reloads if not cleaned completely. feed dust is flamable not sure if more annoying than the harm

[grayfox]

Bummer. Nice to be good to those chicks, but it's a contaminant for sure in all you're doing reload-wise.
Can't help that's for sure.

[caleb90]

its a very fine dust, might help lube the powder drops 😅

[BCHunter]

I work in the poultry industry, a lot of the dust is dander and your bedding breaking down, I wouldn't be as worried about it being flammable as it being corrosive. (Shouldn't be having open flames near powder any how?)...Poultry manure is high in phosourous, nitrogen and ammonia.

Hang a curtain and try to close off your reloading equipment and clean it off as soon as you get the chicks out of there. Move them to the garage?

[caleb90]

I work in the poultry industry, a lot of the dust is dander and your bedding breaking down, I wouldn't be as worried about it being flammable as it being corrosive. (Shouldn't be having open flames near powder any how?)...Poultry manure is high in phosourous, nitrogen and ammonia.

Hang a curtain and try to close off your reloading equipment and clean it off as soon as you get the chicks out of there. Move them to the garage?

there starting to get there pin feathers, i might just intraduce them to my layer poulets that are a week older.

[LR1955]

I work in the poultry industry, a lot of the dust is dander and your bedding breaking down, I wouldn't be as worried about it being flammable as it being corrosive. (Shouldn't be having open flames near powder any how?)...Poultry manure is high in phosourous, nitrogen and ammonia.

Hang a curtain and try to close off your reloading equipment and clean it off as soon as you get the chicks out of there. Move them to the garage?

BCH:

Dust composed of phosphorous, nitrogen, and ammonia is not flammable? Sounds like a fantastic dust initiator. Just stir up the air a little and introduce a spark.

I don't know a thing about raising chickens but that doesn't sound like the type of dust I would want in a confined area with no ventilation.

LR55

[SCJim]

I would be more concerned about the ammonia than the dust. Ammonia is bad juju for brass. British Army found out the hard way when they stored ammo in a horse barn http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/...onia-solvents/

[grayfox]

It's not going to do the powder or the primers any good, either...

[BCHunter]

BCH:

Dust composed of phosphorous, nitrogen, and ammonia is not flammable? Sounds like a fantastic dust initiator. Just stir up the air a little and introduce a spark.

I don't know a thing about raising chickens but that doesn't sound like the type of dust I would want in a confined area with no ventilation.

LR55

My point wasn't that the dust wasn't flammable,...but you shouldn't be introducing ignition points in a reloading room either way. And with the small number of animals the corrosive nature of the dust is more likely an issue then the likelyhood of a spark igniting the dust. A lot of border houses run open flame propane brooders in this environment, granted they have negative pressure ventilation. But it would take a lot for the dust to ignite.

[caleb90]

all brass is in some sort of container with a lid, all ammo is in there ammo boxs or a mtm ammo box. i keep the pen clean, no smell of ammonia. i feel like it more of a annoyance of having to clean it all up as i have ocd lol. i just wanted to post this thread mostly because im sure this is the first time a question like this has been asked here

[Mad Charlie]

" im sure this is the first time a question like this has been asked here"

I could believe that. Clean the hel out of everything!

[Jeepster18_88]

I second that about keeping ammonia away from brass and copper! Major mistake! I couldn't afford a tumbler when I started reloading and my uncle told me that he used brasso to clean the outside of his cases. It worked, but a year later I found some of the loaded cases had split necks and I was having issues with bullets fragmenting that used to work perfectly fine. It wasn't till much later that I realized that the ammonia had made the cases and the bullets brittle causing the issues.

[BCHunter]

18 poults isn't going to create a lot of ammonia. Was just trying to relieve the OP'S concern about it being flammable. The dust is more animal dander, bedding dust, and fecal matter then feed dust.

But yep probably first time I've ever seen a question like that on any forum.

[SCJim]

18 poults isn't going to create a lot of ammonia.

without knowing the size of the room and the ventilation that is baseless speculation. Without knowing the concentration and exposure time there is no way to call it safe. Growing up we had 10 full grown hens in a 8 x 10 block chicken coop and it got real strong in there during the colder months, even in the spring and summer with the door and window open it was not exactly a perfume counter. I admit I have no idea of how strong for how long it would take to crack my cases and finding out is one experiment I will take a pass on. Anyway I did my part and alerted the OP, everyone is responsible for their personal safety

[caleb90]

chicks are out, spent the day cleaning the entire room. then loaded 100 357 mag for my rossi m92, i swear the powder drop on my lnl ap ran smoother🤔. none the less i will never do that again, and i hope every one got a good chuckle!