Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Powder gone bad

I have reloaded since '79 and have heard about, and been concerned about, my powder going bad all that time. However, I have used new and old powders all those years with no problems including powders that date back to the 50s.

That all changed yesterday. I pulled out an 8lb jug of AA3100 and found that the 4lbs or so of powder in it was fused into a solid block and had the dreaded 'acrid' smell to it. I bought 4 of these jugs when Accurate Arms first introduced it in, I think, the mid 80s. I've used it with much success every since. This 4 lbs is the last of that batch.

All of my powder it kept in a small closet in my insulated reloading/gun room in my shop building. Although it does get warm in there in the AL summers, I would guess it seldom would get to 85-90 degrees.

Is it time to go into panic mode and come up with a better storage method?

Umm, I wouldn't. Sounds like this is the first problem you've had. Not to mention the fact, that powder took 30 years to go "bad." Will you still be shooting in another 30?

Good point Ape, but I do plan to load and shoot at least a while longer and all the powder I have on hand is not starting off new today. I last loaded from this jug about a year ago and wonder what the status of those loads may now be.

I bought a new stainless M700 in 280 the first year Remington made a stainless ('92, I think). The first load I tried used a 150 gr R-P bullet and this powder. It shot so well I have never tried or used anything else in it. The 50 280 rounds I loaded last year are the ones I referred to above and I am a little leery of using them now.

I do have several cans of powder that came from a friend's estate that have not been manufactured for decades. It seems to be in great shape. I wonder why the newer powder suddenly went bad and the older stuff is still good.

At the time you bought the 3100, Accurate was selling "surplus" powders from various companies, which may have been in storage somewhere else for a while already, under varying conditions.

These days Accurate powder is newly-made for them.

I'd be tossing or pulling the bullets out of those loads. The solidifying of the powder may have turned it into a much different burn rate, and could either be way over pressured or way under pressured; either way is dangerous.

They could be totally fine too, but it wouldn't be worth the possible face reconstruction to me.

I don't know who is making their AA2495, but that powder is scary accurate in my .30-06 and .45-70.

Yep, 2495 is good stuff--as are many Accurate powders. Dunno how many I regularly use, but it's quite a few.

I had 223 Remington ammo loaded with AA2200 and sat around for 2 years and I pulled the bullets on some of them to load the bullets in my 22-250 when A-max were hard to find and had to dig the powder out with a screw driver it was caked so bad. Never had any other powder do that.

Any spherical powder will do that if it's compressed very much when seating the bullet, one reason it's not a good idea to compress spherical powder much.

What might be the result of lighting something like that off?

Dog Hunter;
Top of the morning to you sir, thanks for the VERY USEFUL post in my experience.

When the first powder shortage out of the US hit us in the early '90's I picked up a few different lots of bulk powders from a chap in Ontario who specializes in such things.

A couple were WW military ball type and have still stayed fine in regular storage, as has some Nobel which was from Scotland. However I had some stuff that he called "H 4350/N 160 equivalent" that went bad - in the very same manner as the OP described.

I found out that it had gone bad while hunting - the reaction actually pushed the bullets out of the necks enough to stick in the lands of my No. 1.

When I got home I went to the range to see what was going on and subsequently blew a case in a Ruger 77 and then in the No. 1. Talk about a flinch.....

Anyway I pulled all the bullets loaded with that powder and ended up throwing out somewhere between 100 -150 new cases as they were indeed damaged.

Oh and I've still got WWII surplus H4831 in the same storage and besides it being a wee bit lighter than new H4831 for the same volume of powder - it's fine.

Anyway sir, I'm with you 110% on pulling all the loads and likely tossing the brass as well - sorry but again better safe than not.

All the best to you sir in the remaining days of summer.

Dwayne

Dog Hunter, I got an email from Western Powder advising the same so I pulled a few bullets. The bullets were corroded on the base where they were touching the powder. The powder came out of the case only when the case was inverted and tapped hard, but was not fused nearly as much as the contents of the jug. The acrid odor was not as evident in the cases as it was in the jug either. I went ahead and broke down all those loads to salvage the case and bullets.

The experience has made me a little paranoid. BC, I also have a stash of old H4831 that is one of my go-to powders for several calibers. That, along with old goodies like 2400, 4227, some Alcan stuff, and a few others that I obtained in cans that could probably be sold as collectors items, now have to watched closely.

BTW, the Western tech said the brass should be fine considering the light corrosion involved. It buffed right off the bullet bases. I will closely inspect the cases after they have been thoroughly cleaned.

Hook -

Sounds promising. I'd not jump to the worst option first either.

Caution is always prudent. Proceed slowly.

Best of luck man, nothing is cheap these days.

Except me, jwall. ...... I'm pretty dang cheap. Guess that's why this hurts so bad.

I do UNDERSTAND !

Dwayne and Hook...good evening to both of you...your posts have some relevance to my own experience, as I have some pistol powder that is older than I am, though when I do occasionally use it it is fine. I don't reload pistols much (obviously) but it has been stored properly.

Anyhow I did have some factory .38 Special rounds do some goofy stuff at a time that I needed them to work real bad. I had two consecutive incomplete discharges and had two stuck bullets in the barrel while I was kicking a wounded mountain lion off of the dogs. How I didn't blow the gun up is beyond me.

Still don't know if it was a quality control issue or was improperly stored before I bought it or what, but it did leave an impression.

Hook;
Top of the morning to you sir, I'll just fire this off before sliding down the road to work.

The bullets on the stuff I had were a greenish/grey - different than standard verdigris one sees on old brass - and the powder caked to the point where it wouldn't come out easily.

I'll see if I've kept any of the cases - but they were definitely weakened as some actually broke off at the shoulder - while sitting in the MTM case box! There were a number of split necks as well.

Perhaps it would be prudent to section at least a couple of the brass to ensure it's still sound?

I've been told I'm Boone & Crockett frugal and up here brass is almost unobtainable for the last couple of years so believe me I feel your pain on tossing out good reloadable components.

The sticky wicket of course is the "good" part now.

Oh, I shot the bullets after cleaning them up and saw no ill effects whatsoever.

Good luck whichever way you decide sir and all the best to you in the rest of our fast vanishing summer days.

Dwayne

Dog Hunter;
Good morning to you sir, hopefully the week is treating you well thus far.

That sounds downright sporty and certainly poor timing on all counts. I've got to say though that overall in my experience things seldom malfunction for me at a convenient place and time.

I'm glad to surmise you survived that melee though and hopefully the hounds came out alright too.

In the '60's before the constabulary became concerned about such security risks two older shooting friends of mine - fathers of better said - used to chase Okanagan cats quite a bit and their tools of choice were a Model 10 in .38Spl and a Ruger Flat top in .44 with the rareish 7½" barrel.

Had I the funding I might give a kings ransom for the flat top.

All the best to you for the remaining summer days sir and good luck on your hunts this fall too.

Dwayne

For those of you that are interested.....

I put the bullets and brass in my Lyman TurboTumbler and ran it about 24 hours. Was on the road a couple of days but got back this afternoon and took a look at the results. The bullets came out plenty clean enough but the inside of the cases looked kinda rough. I cut the worst one open and could see that the case interior had definitely been corroded. Opened one of the cleanest and it had obviously been impacted as well, but was more of a discoloration.

Now, understand that I doubt any of the cases had pitted enough to be dangerous. When I punched the primers out, the yellow priming material under the anvil was bright and clean looking, as was the anvil itself. Despite all that, I discarded the cases. Just couldn't get "better safe than sorry" out of my head. But it sure did sting when they went into the scrap brass bucket.....