Company:IMR Legendary Powders
| Industry | Firearms |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | E.I. DuPont |
| Founded | 1892, Carney, New Jersey, United States |
| Founder | E.I. DuPont |
Area served | World Wide |
| Owner | Hodgdon, Shawnee, Kansas, United States |
| Website | http://www.imrpowder.com/ |
IMR Legendary Powders is a line of smokeless powders which are popularly used in sporting and military/police firearm cartridges. The initials 'IMR' stand for Improved Military Rifle powder. IMR powders makes a line of various types of smokeless powder suitable for loading many cartridges for rifles, handguns, and shotguns.[1][2]
History
First powder plant
The French Revolution caused E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company to migrate to the United States in 1802. He built a factory to produce gunpowder near the site of Eleutherian Mills in Newark, Delaware. Today that site has been repurposed as the Hagley Museum and Library. DuPont's first product at the site was blackpowder. DuPont powders were instrumental in helping to build the infrastructure of nations worldwide.[3] They were vital to the mining and construction industries until replaced by more modern explosives.[4][5] DuPont became a major producer of Dynamite and eventually developed many other products lines.[6]
The line of improved military rifle powder came into existence in the 1920s. It consisted of nitrocellulose, dinitrotoluene (DNT), graphite, and a small amount (0.6%) of diphenylamine (stabilizer). Potassium sulfate is added to decrease the amount of muzzle flash. Cartridges loaded with this powder include .30-06 Springfield and 7.92×57mm Mauser.[7]
Plant expansion
DuPont began production of the IMR line of smokeless powders across the river from the Wilmington Plant at Carney's Point, New Jersey in 1892. The first powders were called "MR" for Military Rifle powder. In the 1920s these powders were improved and the name was changed to IMR. Various different powder are produced and are given numbers to distinguish them. The different types of powder typically have different burning rates. Due to the construction of metallic cartridges, different amounts of powder of different burning speeds are used to obtain optimum performance and accuracy.[8]
Due to the increased demand for these powders which resulted from World War I an additional plant was constructed in Valleyfield, Canada which remains the primary source of IMR powders today. During World War II up to 1,000,000 pounds of powder was being shipped per day.[2]
Product detail
DuPont released their first handloading guide in the 1950s which was aimed at reloading of shot shell.[2] IMR Legendary Powders includes powder lines for rifle, handgun, and shotgun reloading.[9]
IMR Legendary Powders
- Rifle powders
- 3031
- 4007 SSC
- 4064
- 4166
- 4198
- 4227
- 4320
- 4350
- 4831
- 4895
- 7828
- 8208 XBR
- Handgun powders
- PB
- SR-7625
- SR-4756
- SR-4759
- Trail Boss
- Shotgun powders
- 700-X
- 800-X
- Blue
- Green
- Red
- Target
- Unequal
Current ownership
In 2003 the Hodgdon Powder Company purchased IMR powders.[10]
3031
4064
4198
4227
4831
TrailBoss
References
- ↑ "IMR Powders". http://www.reloadammo.com/rel-powd.htm. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "A Brief History of IMR Legendary Powders". http://www.imrpowder.com/history.html. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ "Hagley Museum & Gardens". http://www.thebrandywine.com/attractions/hagley.html. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ "Brandywine River Powder Mills". https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/221-brandywine-river-powder-mills. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ American Artisan. 71. RareBooksClub.com. 2012. ISBN 978-1155059143. "Part One commences by dispelling; the illusion that explosives are associated only with bombs, riots and crimes, by pointing out how dependent modern progress is on the use of explosives and how they serve in the mining, farming and construction industries."
- ↑ "Alfred Nobel". https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/alfred-nobel. Retrieved 21 March 2018. "The DuPont Company in the United States became one of the chief companies associated with Nobel"
- ↑ "Propellants: Smokeless Powders". http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/propellants-smokeless-powders.html. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ "Choosing The Right Gunpowder – Reloading Part 2". https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/choosing-the-right-gunpowder-reloading-part-2/. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ "List of Powders & Their Physical Characteristics". https://www.reddit.com/r/reloading/comments/2pxwgp/list_of_powders_their_physical_characteristics/. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ Wakeman, Randy. "Muzzleloading Babylon, A Very Basic History of Propellant". http://www.chuckhawks.com/muzzleloading_babylon.htm. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
External links
- Granger, Drawing of the DuPont Blackpowder Plant
- Early DuPont Pistol Powder No. 5
- IMR Handloading Guide
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