Dirtfarmer;
Top of the morning to you sir, I trust other than the corroded cases that this finds you well.
While I'll have to look at my records sometime to verify just when this happened, I had a 8 lb container of what was sold to me as VV-N160 go bad on me.
To clarify that a tad, it was during a reloading supply shortage and we couldn't get anything through our regular sources up here. Perhaps it was just post 9/11?
Anyway an outfit in Ontario sold bulk powder - Steve Redgwell likely knows them too - it was Higginson Powders and I'd dealt with them lots.
The second order from them, the chap I talked to on the phone commented that, "You should shoot up that N160 pretty fast if you can" and didn't elaborate and I recall at the time thinking that was odd as I had and still have some WWII surplus H4831.
Anyway how I found out the powder was going off was that I couldn't chamber a round into my Ruger No 1 .300 Mag as I was following up on a good mulie buck I'd hit....
While I finally got him - bullet stuck in barrel, then I pulled another bullet with my Leatherman Wave - shoved it into the chamber - all whilst dashing across the sagebrush trying to catch up with a wounded mulie....
When I got home to examine the rounds I saw that several cases had cracked at the shoulder and the powder inside was clumped up into a solid mass. The bullets had green corrosion on the bases and the cases were less green than your's but were very brittle. Some of the cases had broken off at the shoulder while sitting in the plastic 50 count caddy.
Since I'd used it on 3 different cartridges, I ended up pulling about 200 rounds of 6.5x55, .308 Norma and .300 Win Mag and tossing all the cases. The 6.5x55 cases hurt as I'd not been able to find any up here across the medicine line for a year or more.
Again in the recesses of my memory, I believe I corresponded with John Barnsess here and he was able to shed some light on the matter - but I'll have to look and see if I've deleted that or not - sorry.
Somewhere I've got couple cases and if I find them I'll take some photos and post them up.
Lastly the remaining powder in the 8lb canister was warm, not hot - but definitely warm and was clumping so the reaction was somewhat exothermic in nature. There used to be a link I had on my computer here on the dangers of deteriorating powder, but when I tried to find it now I see it's taken down, no doubt from a forum gone the way of the dodo bird.
Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there this morning sir. All the best to you and yours and good luck on any remaining hunts.
Dwayne
