So an old crony died, and his wife gifted me with a plastic tote partially full of various powders. This stuff has sat in a
garage in Oklahoma (varied weather) for probably 10/12 years. They are all 1# plastic (original) containers with metal screw on lids. .All the lids show obvious rusting to the point of discoloring the top shoulders of the containers. When opened the rust has not gone past the lower rim of the cap. Some of these" are as new" un-broken seals, and some are partial. All the powders are IMR and Hodgdon. The opened containers do not display any discoloration in the remaining powder, or smell different than some current powder I have. With the current cost of powders today (23 1# jugs) sure would like to use this stuff. What say yea?
Gary

Pffft

I’m still shooting metal can powder

Still shooting powder from ate 1970's. As long as it was sealed & stored where it did not extreme cold or heat . Got some Korean war surplus ammo that still fires fine.

I have some from the late 70s

Pics or it didnt happen 😃

The smell and appearance will tell you. Pour some on a white piece of paper and look for a reddish dust that occurs when powder degrades.

I have powder from the late 90's that I'm not worried about in the least.

I have some old square metal reloader 11 that still works fine. Load data is hard to find though

If you still smell the ether or it doesn't smell odd, and isn't clumped together it is probably still good.

Years ago we had a storage area at work where the owner's deceased father had kept some reloading stuff. This environment was not controlled. There were jugs of smokeless powder that had been out there since Lincoln was a private, evidently...the production manager decided the area needed to be cleaned out and a good deal of the grunt labor was done by a certain individual who is as sharp as a bag of marbles. He came in asking me what to do with all this "black powder" so I told him I'd take a look. All of it was spoiled, most of it clumped together like concrete. I dumped what was loose in the grass, and buried the clumpy stuff in shallow holes. A while later Mr. Marbles wanted to know what I'd done with the clumpy powder, and I told him I'd buried it. With a look of panic on his face, he asked "where?" Just for fun I told him I couldn't remember. I'm sure he regarded the entire area as a minefield from that day forward. That gives me a reason to smile to this day.

I had the same question that I asked on another message board. I have a bunch of powder that I've had for many years, stored in an outbuilding.. in not the best conditions. The consensus was that unless it's turning red or smells bad, it's fine. No red, and it all still has the familiar light gunpowder scent, so I figure I'm good to go. I still haven't gotten my reloading stuff all set up yet, though.

Hopefully it is still usable, it’s hard to find now.

I got one can left of 4 cans an old dude gave me. One of the 4 was bad, had the red dust and off odor. Other 3 cans were fine.

Shoot it.

How old was this? I dunno.

Does it shoot OK? Yes....

I bought several of those at Scheel's in Salt Lake for $2.98 each in 1991. Seems like powder was normally about $15 per pound in those days.

I recently obtained a nice cache of powder from a friend. In the metal cans. Cans were rusty on top and on the inside. Rusty dust cloud when I poured the powder into the hopper.

Took it outside on a breezy day and dumped the powder back-and-forth between two containers, letting the breeze carry the rust particles away. The dust was from the rusty cans, not from bad powder. Powder passed the smell test, and it looked like, well, gunpowder.

I picked a gun, that if it got ruined, I would be the least upset. Strapped it to the bench, tied up 30' of string, loaded a round and hoped for the best. 5 test rds. per can. 4 cans. Bottom of the charge range to the top.

The choice I had was maybe blow up a $300 gun, or toss $500 of powder.

I now have enough powder to last for a long time.

$ 500.00 for 4 cans - how big are the cans?

8 lb kegs?

^^^^^Your math skills are excellent^^^^^^

Yup. Red/rust colored dust & off odor =NG. If it looks good and has that normal "chemical" smell (at least that's what i'd call it), you're GTG. I still have metal cans of IMR powder that were my fathers from the early 1970's, and the resulting hand loads shoot fine. I think HOW the powder is stored is far more important that how old. I know the 1917 vintage, cordite rounds I bought in the 1980s still go bang in my 303 Enfield. -Tom

Thanks for all the reply's Always something to learn on the "Fire".
Gary.

You did sign and return the waiver, right?

i found a couple cans on the family farm last month. The steel can of 4350 had a good bit o' rust, but seems intact. The can of ? next to it crumbled when I picked it up, sending an extremely fine red dust throughout the room.

I may go back for the 4350. It's probably worth about $8,000 in today's market, age be damned...

FC

Not a problem at all. I've got powder in the old tin cans I bought in the 1980s that's still good.