Last night in the reloading chat room there was an informal discussion of powder deterioration and the "smoking" of the powder as it was poured from it's container. The smoking most likely was rust colored dust, but the overall color was similiar to relatively fresh powder. I did not read what smells may have been found.

I would also suggest that if an identical volume of the suspect powder were compared to a similir volume of know to be good powder of the same origin and type, that the older questionable powder may well be lesser in weight as it's having lost moisture content. This does not however mean it has lost it power. Comments appreciated.

This powder has given good results in a rifle, so is it good or is it bad?

quote:

Originally posted by 308Sako:

Last night in the reloading chat room there was an informal discussion of powder deterioration and the "smoking" of the powder as it was poured from it's container. The smoking most likely was rust colored dust, but the overall color was similiar to relatively fresh powder.

I have read numerous times that when powder goes bad it gives off an acrid or vineargy smell and has an orangish or rust-colored dust.

I had never had personal experience of this until a few days ago. I had a one-pound can of IMR 4350 that went back to the DuPont days. When I poured some of it out of the can into a small glass jar it did indeed have that smell and gave off a rust-colored or orange-ish dust. I noticed also that the powder kernels themselves had taken on a color cast like that. (Nearly all powder will give off a slight amount of dust when poured, so a small amount of dust does not indicate powder deterioration.)

I recognized that these were the signs that this powder had indeed deteriorated, so I scattered it on my lawn as fertilizer.

Here is the powder in question.



In this picture, old powder on right, new on left.


And the dust it leaves behind.

It also smells just like the IMR 7828, and brand new IMR 4320 smells like Sharpies or dry-erase markers, much more pungent.

When a chronograph becomes available it would be very informative to try identical loads the only difference being old versus new powder in this case.

Sorry for not paying attention in the chat room...it usually chimes when someone logs in!