Hi all, I got some surplus powder that came without a container. What would be a good thing to store it in? I have some Clean metal coffee cans and cardboard hot chocolate cans also. Any thoughts?

As long as they're clean, I don't see why either wouldn't work. I'd lean toward the coffee cans. Make sure they're well labelled!

Did the powder just come in a bag?

Clean dry plastic jugs/bottles with srew on tops.

I have a bunch of old 4350 that was in metal cans. The cans started to corrode quite badly, but the powder was still good. So, I bought some of those Tupperware juice containers with the combination screw and flip top. They work great and are reusable. But like NR said, MAKE SURE YOU LABEL THEM. It's very easy to get powders mixed up.

The powder came in a plastic bag inside of a cardboard box.
I wonder if the plastic container would work? I remember the story about Skeeters Cow Killer Loads and the powder loosing something from being left in the powder measure. Any other substansiating evidence or just a coincidence?

I've used the one gallon plastic jugs/bottles that milk comes in at the supermarket. I clean the jug thoroughly and then make sure it's completely dry. One advantage is that these jugs are readily available free -- just save them after you empty them of their milk. Another is that they have screw-on caps. You can write the powder type on the outside of the jug with a Magic Marker.

Two liter soda bottles.

Just be careful. I read about a group of SDS who were screwing the cap on a pipe bomb, and the friction set off the powder in the pipe. Killed them. It's quite possible that commercial powder containers have threads designed to not squish or rub the powder strongly enough to set it off.

H. C.

Those guys were using black powder, which can be set off by friction like that. Won't happen with smokeless. Not with that sort of friction, anyway. We put it through lots more provocative pinching and grinding in rotary powder measures, all the time.

The only problem I forsee with some plastic jugs, jars, etc. is whether they will react with the powder itself and with transmitted light. E.g., the instructions which came with my powder measures (plastic hoppers) caution against storing powder in them because it softens them. Generally my milsurp powders have come in 1 gal. bleach jugs, but I don't know which type of plastic they are. Try the bleach jugs and because they're opaque, you won't have to worry about damage due to light either. ...Maven

Yeah I think opaque plastic would be the best way to go. The Nitro groups such as the ones in nitroglycerine are notorious for being able to be photodegraded and coming of as NO2 gas which is a brownish red color. Don't know if gunpowder will do this, but I worked with a lot of nitro containing compounds when working on my thesis and most of them would do this to some degree so they were always stored in opaque glass.

But in all reality if you are going to use this up quickly it I would bet it wouldn't matter.

Carl