Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Old gun powder?

What do you all do with gunpwder that is left over , and is too old for reloading?

I was thinking of putting some water in each can , then putting it in the trash, I don't want any animals (Dogs) getting into it.

I am not going to be reloading much anymore.. and don' want it to be setting around???

Who said it is "too old" for reloading?
Give it to a friend who handloads.

Fertilizer?

If it looks good and there's no red powder, I'd use it. It's good.

Smokeless- - - - -pour it out into a long trail on bare dirt and toss a lit match to the end of the string. It will fizzle, smoke, and crackle. Black powder- - - - -mix it in with potting soil as a fertilizer. DO NOT try to burn BP- - - -it expoldes with the same force unconfined as it does in a muzzleloader barrel.

Give it to someone who can use it. Why throw it away @ current availability/ prices?

What exactly do you have that you consider “old” and how much are you talking about.

Google “gun powder art”.

Gunpowder has a very long shelf life.

Gunpowder will usually out last the shelf it is sitting on.

You can put water in the cans and that would do it, you can put it on you lawn as a fertilizer as well.

I would suggest you offer it up here to a Penn resident, I'm sure there are several that would be ecstatic to get it and meet up with a valued Fire member.

Yep. Smokeless powder lasts decades.

Only once have I thrown out powder.
When I got outta the Army and started hand loading again, my press was in Dad’s cellar, along with the other few tools I had. In the cabinet was a pound of powder that was unmarked.
I had no idea where it was from, and sure wasn’t gonna take a chance.
I had a hornets nest in a tree outside, so I dumped the unknown powder in a metal coffee can and set it up about a foot below the nest, tossed in a match.
It was like a rocket motor! One hornet made it out. His wings were burnt off as he got out.
As others have said, powder has a long shelf life, and with the price of components now, I’d find some way of using it. Only if unidentifiable is it a waste.
7mm

I don't know about double base powders, they have a significant amount of nitro I believe, and we all know what happens when dynamite gets old and starts to sweat....but...single base IMR types, I think the dangers of using that may be exaggerated. I have shot up a lot of really old ammo, some of it dated in the '30's...never had a pressure incident. And I have used a lot of old Hodgdon 4831 bulk from God knows when or where, stored in coffee cans, displaying the dreaded rust dust, with no noticeable differences in performance that I could detect without a chrono (I lived in Alaska then, and shot what I got, no trips to the store.

Hubert,

I am using powder from WW 2. Like MD521 says, it will out last the shelf.

Back when I started reloading, I was using some very old powder in the cardboard cans etc, and I noticed the rusty dust on some of it so I asked an old reloader (had to be one of the earliest). if I should use it. He told me to pour it into a bowl and blow the dust off of it while pouring it. He said it would be just fine so I used it----on my old Tru Line Jr. and Herters scales. It worked great .
I wished I would have saved the empty cans!

Scatter it in the yard!

You all are trying to get me into trouble..

Sounds like a plan.
Pretty much useless after that....
Sounds like you already knew the answer anyways.....

You don’t know enough about powder to have ever been reloading in the first place. Put your water in your cans and be done with it.

Good lord, what a bunch of Over the Hill, Play it Safe, Pussies.

If smokeless, dump it in a pile, light it with a barbecue lighter.
(Stand back, dont get your face above it)

If black, (shouldn't be bad if kept dry) put it in a paper sack and light
the paper, step back.


And watch. (Best done in the darkest possible conditions)


You are fixing to destroy a number of $$'s. Get something out of it.


Hotrod Lincoln is half right/wrong on Black.

It burns at the same speed, and that is fast. A flash.
But there is no real pressure, unless it's confined.
If you are
Too close, it can burn hair off. And give a good scare.
(I absolutely know that😲) 4 or 5 feet is far enough for a few hundred
grains, never lit a pound.





Do not, empty a couple rounds smokeless and dump it in the furnace, thinking
the big burn box with a 6" flue can easy vent it.

It will over pressurize the flu pipes and blow smoke, and soot out every pipe connection.


No bang, but a nice WOOOOOF!!!

She Who Runs the House, and Is Not To Be Triffled With,
will come
running down the stairs and will be scared and upset.


You, will immediately fall back to an 8 year old little boy trying to
answer Mom's questions without lying, or telling the truth.

Your grin will give you away.

She will,
Give you Hell,
grin,
walk away shaking her head. (Mine did, others aren't as understanding)