Old powder

[imyomama]

don't do it.. send them to me , i'll dispose of them!

[RifleBowPistol]

If, it was still sealed up, it’s probably still good, but it would test some of it. Pour some out, it should be dry, no clumps, no sticking together. Then put some maybe 100 gr. on the ground, then put a match to that pile. It should all burn, near instantly, with a tall hot flame. If it starts to burn, then starts to burn with a larger flame, that tapers off, and has a small lingering flame. It’s bad don’t use the stuff.

If it is dry and no clumps, stuck together. It should be pretty good. I have some IMR 3031, that is probably from the 1950s. It was still sealed up, never opened. I opened the fan and loaded up some rounds with it. It worked, but I did notice a lot more smoke, and powder smell, when I fired off those rounds. Than other ammo that I have I have loaded with much newer IMR 3031. I don’t think the powder was 100% good. Good enough to pop off some rounds, but I don’t think, it is good enough to produce loads, that would be identical to loads made using some new IMR 3031. I have shot a lot of rounds loaded with IMR 3031. That powder from that old can, does not burn the same. But it physically worked, I sent numerous bullets down range.

If you find the powder is sticky, any at all, or does not burn instantly, when lit with a match. I would dump it out. I had multiple cans of powder go bad on me; some years ago. I had those cans when I grew up on the coast, at some point the lids were not sealed properly, the powder got moister in it, the stuff got sticky. It would stick together in clumps. I knew that was bad, knew moister was the cause of the problem. So I dumped some out and lit it off. It would start burning, then the flame would get bigger and bigger, then taper off. Then eventually get to a small flame that would burn for maybe 5 to 10 seconds. This was the result of dumping 70% of a 1 lb. can out on the ground. I found I had three or four cans that has gotten moister in them, and had gone bad, out of about 15 cans of powder.

I started dumping out any powder, that I knew was over 20 years old. Three or four cans out of probably eight 20 plus year old cans were bad. When I would put a match to a good can of powder, it would instantly make a very large, very hot flame, that would be completely gone in one to two seconds, no lingering small flame at the end. Again those were probably 70% of one lb. cans. Of all of the cans of powder that did not burn correctly, the powder in those cans was sticky and the worst ones would actually have clumps of powder.

If the powderhas managed to stay dry all these years, I would at least try it. It may not produce the same pressures and velocities, that a new can of the same type would, but I wouLd not expect any serious problems.

[Kong]

If it doesn’t smell bad I’d load it, I loaded some of my grandfathers old IMR from the early 80’s along with primers I got from him that was manufactured in 1968 and I was more than pleased with the outcome.

The velocity differential from the exact same new powder was only 42 fps, I get those types of variations from new lots so it was a great test.