I grabbed my 5# jug of RL22 the other night to put some .300 Win Mag loads together and got a potentially terrible surprise.

The screw on lid that came with the jug has been "weak" to say the least. I can't tighten it like I can on any other canister I have had without it stripping so I put it on the best I could. Well, during the course of time since I loaded with that powder last (probably 9 or 10 months) the cap got knocked off the jug. I don't know whether it happened 10 months ago, or a week ago when I moved that powder to access some other powders, but the end result is the same...the cap has been off for an undisclosed amount of time.

I checked the powder by dumping a small amount onto some white paper and it "looks" normal. I smelled the canister and it smelled normal, but weak. It seems like there is usually a stronger smell than what was there, but there was definitely not a rancid smell...just a lack of the strong smell you usually get when you pop open the lid after storage.

I live in Idaho where the climate is very dry and I store my powder in a cool basement.

I am hoping I haven't done any damage to the powder, but want to hear others opinions and experience on the matter.

Thanks.

If it were me ,I'd load up some mild loads and gage the performance, but that's me not you. Get some wax paper between the lid and the canister till it just pops on. roger

use it.....it's OK.

It's OK in your dry climate. In a humid climate powder could absorb some moisture and this will make it slightly less potent.

What you smell in (unburned) gunpowder is mostly the solvent. Leaving the cap off allows some of the solvent to evaporate, thus the weaker odor. This typically makes no difference to the actual chemical content of the powder, the burning characteristics of which are unchanged.

The reason "dry" powder seems more potent than "wet" powder (powder which has absorbed some humidity from the atmosphere) is that by weight, you are putting less wet powder into a given charge. In other words, if the moisture content goes from (as a simple example) 1% to 2%, then a 50 grain charge of the 2% powder contains only 49 grains of nitrocellulose (and other chemical components) as compared to the 1% powder's 49.5 grains.

Bottom line: The difference in open-bottle RL-22 and sealed RL-22 is probably less than the variation between two different manufacturing lots of RL-22.

RL22 is double base and as such uses nitroglycerine as the main solvent. Nitroglycerine does not evaporate. What this means is the powders are generally not affect by moisture or deterioration like single base powders. In other words you powder is fine.

Thanks to everyone for their knowledge.

I feel lots better now

The only problem you will find is that the humidity content has changed the weight of the powder by volume. So if you load with a scale, the amount of powder may be slightly less or more than it had been before. You may have to adjust your pet load by a few tenths, then again, dry climate... maybe not.

quote:

Originally posted by 308Sako:
The only problem you will find is that the humidity content has changed the weight of the powder by volume. So if you load with a scale, the amount of powder may be slightly less or more than it had been before. You may have to adjust your pet load by a few tenths, then again, dry climate... maybe not.

No, actually the weight of the powder by volume won't vary much with moisture content in that most of the slower burning rifle powders are almost the same density as water to begin with. What will vary with moisture absorbsion is the percentage of actual "powder" per grain of weight. But it amounts to the same thing: It may theoretically take more "wet" powder than "dry" powder to generate the same amount of propellant gas.

quote:

Originally posted by unique:
RL22 is double base and as such uses nitroglycerine as the main solvent. Nitroglycerine does not evaporate. What this means is the powders are generally not affect by moisture or deterioration like single base powders. In other words you powder is fine.

I think you may have it backwards on the "shelf life" of powders. Both double-base (nitrocellulose/nitroglycerine) and single-base (nitrocellulose) powders have a very long shelf life, but single-base powders are generally less suceptible to deterioration, I believe. Maybe someone who has some concrete information on this will step in here and set us straight.

I too live in SW Idaho and am using powder that came in a carboard container with a less then airtight metal pop in lid. Have had no problems with this powder that is many years old.