Just kinda wondering how everyone is storing their powder. I used to store mine in a small fridge but have since just been storing it on the bench. Any thoughts or ideas?

I had a buddy good with wood build me a powder box. It measures 2ft X 3ft X2ft and is made out of 3/4 inch plywood lined on the sides and top with two layers of 1/2 sheetrock. The top is hinged and has a chain to keep it from falling backwards when opened. After he built it the weight was more than I had anticipated therefore he mounted it on casters and now it rolls easily around on my basement floor. The material cost $60.00 and I paid him $40.00 for building it. I consider it money well spent. Good shooting.

I have a Locker, like a gym locker with ten lockable doors
that I store my powder in.

AD

Some is over the bench on shelves, some is under the bench on a carpeted floor and a lot is stored in a wooden closet. The area is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer.

Always thought that this was adequate. roger

Hello Everyone:

I'm a newbie here, getting back into shooting after being away from it for quite a few years. I recently acquired a fair amount of powder of various types at an auction, so bought more than I normally might. I am wondering if there is any advantage to getting an old fridge to put it in while in my basement reloading/gun room. My thinking is that the fridge will afford a more constant temperature and therefore humidity than sitting on the shelf. The room has a dehumidifier, but the lower temperature in the fridge should give a lower amount of H2O actually in the air.

Secondly, I can padlock the fridge as a backup to keeping the room locked when the grandkids are visiting, unless of course we're learning about shooting.

That works !.Fridge work well because it's got door seal as does a freezer . They don't need to be plugged in or working . Put a couple of desiccant packs in the thing , Bingo Powder magazine !.

I'm on track with Roger mine is all over the place . How ever it's cool and dry and most is in a lockable cabinet .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

Whats the deal if you store powder just in the open, on a shelve in the garage?
Does it sweat and go bad?

quote:

Originally posted by vinnyg:
Whats the deal if you store powder just in the open, on a shelve in the garage?
Does it sweat and go bad?

I'll go out on a limb and say that "powder does not have sweat glands". It can, however, deteriorate and has. In an atmosphere with moist air going from hot to cold and visaverse loosely sealed containers can breath and condensation will form.

The old water in the bottom of the gas tank routine.one more roger

vinnyg ----- The powder manufacturers advice is a cool dry storage place. A basement that has constant temps would be perfect, and a better storage spot than an upstairs closet that is hot and dry, or the garage that is hot and cold and never very constant. I store my powder in the above described container in my basement and have had no problems for 35 years of storage. Good shooting.

A non working upright fridge or freezer is the cat's azz for storing powder/primers....

I'm trying to remember the description of the odor given off by deteriorated gun powder; I want to say it has an ammonia kind of smell. If I remember correctly, that smell comes from the nitroglycerine leaching from the powder. Heat and humidity (as so many have said) is the cause of this.

A basement might be a good area temperature wise but many basements are damp/humid. I might suggest keeping your supply in a sealed cooler in a dry area of the house that is a reasonable temperature.

quote:

Originally posted by wboggs:
I'm trying to remember the description of the odor given off by deteriorated gun powder;.

Smells like nitric acid. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Originally posted by wboggs:
I'm trying to remember the description of the odor given off by deteriorated gun powder;.

Smells like nitric acid. roger

Well yea but doesnt that kind of smell ammoniaish?

It should smell like gun powder .
Perhaps if you were to buy a fresh container of powder open smell it , reseal it up tightly for future use .

Bad gun powder smells acrid or unpleasant , sniffing Nitric acid is NOT ADVISABLE !.

It can and will scar your lungs if not kill you as many of the highly corrosive compounds will !.

What does a rose smell like ?. If one has no comparison it may very well smell like an to someone else !.

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

quote:

Originally posted by wboggs:

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:


Smells like nitric acid. roger

Well yea but doesnt that kind of smell ammoniaish?

NO!!! And in observance of Dr. K's advisery DO NOT TAKE DEEP WIFFS or have a cohort do your Wifffing. roger

My understanding is that any box/magazine made for powder storage should have at least one weak side that will give way IF there is a fire. If you use an old fridge, use one with a magnetic door closure for this reason. Storage that is built to tightly contain the powder is NOT safe if there is a fire!

I keep mine in wooden crates with a hinged lid and rope handles so I can move them in a hurry if needed. Problem is I can't pick the damn things up now

If your basement opens to the outdoors directly, then a wooden cabinet on rollers is the ideal so you can roll it outside in case of a house fire (and is required for gunshops).

If you would have to come upstairs with the powder to get it outside, smaller wooden boxes with top strap-type handles are likely better, so you can hump them up and out of there!

It is important that the containers have weak sides, in case of fire. The object is to keep the powder from exploading by keeping it from being confined if/when it burns. Of course, that won't work with blackpowder, but I personally would never store blackpowder in my immediate living area anyway.

BTW, if you do have a fire and your powder ignites, if there is very much of it you can probably kiss your homeowner's fire insurance goodbye before any payoff. Virtually every policy has some boiler plate in it which voids the insurance if the homeowner has added to the danger of fire damage by negligent behavior, which can be taken to include storing more gunpowder than either the model fire code or the most restrictive of the applicable local fire codes allows.

As to breaking down, powder these days is a pretty stable composition. What causes most of the breakdown is imperfect removal of EVERY BIT of the acids when it was made. It may take years for the remaining acids to do their dirty work, but if and when they do, it can become self-igniting (suffer spontaneous combustion).

Roger was right BTW, powder in the process of going bad often has an acidic smell. And, if in metal containers, the containers MAY appear to have rust or other oxidation inside, under, or around the lid.

I store mine under my loading bench which is a old kitchen cabinet with doors works for me, I'm still shooting H-4831 bought in 1969 which was WWII surplus and it hasen't lost a FPS in the last 10 yrs on my chrono.

Smokeless powder will not blow up unless it's confined it will just burn thay's why the wooden storage.

Hey Rodger how you been

I've had one cannister, a pound of H322 go bad on me. It was the old upright cylinder style cannister with a pop-top type opening on the top. probably made in the 1980s. An identical can stored next to it is still good.

First, the can was swollen by the pressure created by the powder decomposition products. That should be your first clue if you see a container has swollen. When opened, a brown gas came out of the container with the aptly descirbed "acrid" odor, and I was instantly reminded of the smell of nitric acid from chemistry class.

The best I can describe the difference in odor is that typically smokeless powder has a slightly sweet, solvent smell. A little like weak acetone or aromatic solvents. Nitric acid is not like this at all. It has a burning sensation and you want to immediately recoil from the fumes (which you should). Ammonia, although a completely different type of chemical, will cause a similar recoiling reaction to it's odor. In that sense they have similar effect as to how a person would react to the odor.

I immediately put the top back on the container and set it in a deep laundry -type sink. I filled the sink with water and then carefully dumped the powder into the water. Immediately bubbles were generated and I knew that the alkaline water we have in New Mexico was reacting with and neutralizing the acid.
(The bubbles are carbon dioxide) After using quite an excess of water I knew that it had been neutralized and disposed of the remaining solids.