Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Vacuum-packing powder

If one has several pound-cans of powder that won't be used for a few years, would vacuum-packing the un-opened cans individually until use have any pro's or cons?

A random Monday morning thought. I might be a little low on coffee yet.

It can't hurt.Any time whatever is protected from contact from air,it should last longer.

Gunpowder doesn't need any special treatment other than keep it sealed in the original container and keep it in a controlled climate

I am presently using some powder I got from a friend that he purchased in 1976 and was stored in his gun room. It's a fresh as the day it was made.

Haven't packed any powder due to the big bottles, but I Vacuum pack all the boxes of primers I'm not currently using...

Don't know if it helps, probably can't hurt...

That's pretty nutty. You must be a kook. Vacuum packing is strictly for food.

Moisture is the enemy of powder. Keep it dry. If it makes you feel better, backfill the bottle with dry nitrogen. Even that is probably beyond the mark.

Give your wife your password so she can let us know how ether, acetone, or other fumes react when run through the pump on your vac-packer.

Now we know why powder supplies have been tight in many places up here. . . . . . . . *Hoarder!*

I am currently using some Unique that is so old that the address on the can does not have a zip code - that means it was made somewhere prior to 1963. It had not been opened and had always been stored in a cool place.

drover

Powder can deteriorate, depending on how it's stored.

When a buddy was getting out of reloading he gave me several kegs of powder, most of which were nearly used up, and a full can of 7828. The only powder I ended up using with the shotgun powder, pretty easy to find a wadcutter plinker load for the .357 with any fast burning powder.

The only powder that had gone bad was the 7828, it had an off odor when I opened the can and rust colored powder mixed in with the grains of powder. So I used it as fertilizer.

I a cool dry place powder should be fine for decades. That said, it shouldn't hurt at all to vacuum pack it and would certainly guarantee it would stay dry.

I've never intended to not use a particular powder for a few sears, but sometimes it happens. I'm still using some 80's vintage unique that works great.

A couple other more serious issues one might easily encounter with vacuum sealing powder might be the very real possibility that the powder will react with vacuum bag plastic (like it will if left in a powder measure tube). I would also take great pains to insure that no powder gets anywhere near any heat sealing devices and that I was adequately prepared to avoid the resulting 'surpise' if it somehow happened.


*Most current powder containers are high density polyethylene; vacuum sealing bags are some other plastic

When vacuum packing powder type food, place in a paper bag first, this prevents the dust/powder from getting sucked into the machine, then add oxygen absorbing packet and you're good for 25 years in a mylar bag.
But as already stated, vintage powder still in its original can still works as intended, if kept properly.

I would only vacuum pack it if I were planning to take it in the shower with me. You never can be too safe.

I have some Hercules Unique powder from the late 1970s that still works.

There's my morning laugh!

I've never vacuum packed powder but I have vacuum packed jig head paint. I had a problem with the solvents evaporating and ruining the paint no matter how tight I screwed on the lids. Vacuum sealing the jars in a bag cured the problem.

So ...

You must be nuts. All sensible people know that vacuum packing is strictly for food. It can serve no other purpose, except for kooks.