Pappy, I'll certainly report back. If this stuff is still good I'd really like to move it to a different container. The outside of the cans have a light coat of surface rust on the top. I know moving from one container to another can be dangerous, but no one gets near my loading stuff but me, so I might get away with it.
Just in case anyone is curious, here's how I came by it. The father of one of the fellows on our hunting lease died not too long ago. My friend doesn't reload but his dad certainly did. But the stuff is really old. In addition to this old powder, I have an assortment of equally ancient CCI and Remington primers (score!), several sets of reloading dies and bullets for things I don't load. I'm going to keep the .223 stuff, but I don't own a .30-06 - there's even what looks like the precursor to the Lee Loader - or a .44 RM or .357 Mag anymore, and I don't plan to ever reload .30-30 or 9mm since that stuff isn't all that hard to come by and I don't shoot mine often enough to warrant hedging against the next ammo shortage. Oddly enough, while there was a box of 7x57 reloads there weren't any dies or bullets (no matter about that; I have plenty). There's even a set of .32-20 dies, some brass, and some bullets. Ironically there's an article in the current Handloader all about the .32-20, but who shoots one of those anymore? And there are some other odds and ends - mostly old loaded ammo - in some very, very old Peter's boxes. The entire time I was sorting through all of this I was thinking to myself, "I'm going to make sure that by the time I've squeezed my last trigger I've gotten rid of all my stuff so my wife and daughter don't have to say, 'What the heck are we going to do with all of this'" Anyway, that's how I wound up with it.
Back to the powder. I'm heading to the lease this afternoon, but this week I'll pour it all out on white paper as suggested - I think Nifty-Two-Fifty did a post on rust left in a funnel - and check things out. If it's still good I'll use it up before I break into my new jug of IMR4350. If it's not, it'll go into the compost pile. What to do with the black powder is another question. I'm a little stumped. Hey.....
RM
