Read on a different thread that gunpowder should be good for 20-50 years if stored properly. How long could that be extended if it were vacuum sealed (foodsaver type bag) and stored in a cool dark place? How about in a freezer?

Powder in sealed cans is almost vac sealed. I wouldn't trasnfer it to plastic bags. Also no on storing in the freezer. Freezing dries out anything & I wouldn't want to count on long term freezing to NOT damage the moisture balance already in powder. Just keep the cans sealed & store in a cool place, it will out last you.

I have fired ammo from just after WW I. 7 Mauser. Long round nosed bullet... Surplus 98 rifle. Worked fine. I think I pulled a bullet and the powder was "cut" like flakes of cookie dough. That was a couple years ago. So I am guessing at least 60 years old.

Modern packaging stored in conditions you would live in, not the mustiest of basements or hottest of attics, and it should last indefinitely.

If you wished to add to the modern packaging with a freezer bag, fine. And vacuum sealing. Don't overdo. I would not go with the vacuum of air conditioning. 30+ inches of mercury... Now sucking all the air out with the hand units, cannot hurt. Another "layer." If you are going with the heat & Seal type bags, be extra careful with the heat! Luck. Happy trails.

"Moisture balance"? You are kidding... Right?

Most SINGLE BASE propellants have a considerable solvent
content (mineral ether, Alcohol, etc...)

Typically "ball" powders do not.

Equally typically Dual-base stick propellants
(Norma/Alliant "RL" series) propellants use Nitroglycerine as a stabilizer rather than alcohol/Ether/acetone

In any case storing propellants in a REFIGERATOR (COOL being the operative term) won't do anything but extend their shelf life.

Frankly I'd avoid freezing them but I really doubt it'd do much as there is no water content to speak of in smokless propellant


BLACK POWDER OTOH has FAR different storage requirements, water is death to blackpowder


I remember the words of an old timer who worked for Hercules powder: "store your smokless propellant in your basement, if the basement floods keep any metal cans awa from water, but store any black powder in yor attic."

Black powder likes being stored warm and dry.
Even hot and dry works for it.

Provided it doesn't get so hot it autoignites.\

MY Goex black powder is stored individually bagged
in half gallon ziploc bags inside a PLASTIC 30mm Ammo box
on the floor next to my oil fired furnace.
Each bag also contains a 4ounce pack of Silica Gel

Black powder must be DRY.
Heat really doesn't hurt it (provided it doesn't ignite)



MY smokless propellant I keep in my beer fridge.
smokless powder likes "cool" heat will ruin it.


Properly stored smokless powder will still "go off"
eventually due to chemical changes that are retaqrded by
cold and accelerated by heat.

Properly stored black powder will literally keep for a century.

I know of several seperate instances of loaded blackpowder firearms that were KNOWN to have been loaded in the 19th century that discharged unexpectedly after their "discovery"

One was a single shot pistol a flintlock that was loaded and stored
Someone took the pains to dribble molten wax into the bore to seal the ball and similarly used wax to seal the pan before wrapping the pistol in oil cloth.

the pistol was believed to have been loaded and hidden circa 1820.

The wax seals were observed and the pistol examined with great care after it's discovery, however care faded and impulsive urge to cock it and pull the trigger was not a disaster only because of some remnant of firearms safety training
It's subsequent act of perfect function after sitting for some 170years and it's full power discharge was amusing to all present.

It was an absolute disaster to the pile of bagged potting soil used as "Backstop"


No it wasn't me, I'm smart enough to "Guage" the bore
with a length of dowel before "clearing the nipple"

the Beeswax seal on the pan would have been a warning sign with strobes to me....

I would've expected a rusty frizzen to make sparks.
I KNOW that if kept dry black powder will store nearly forever.

I've seen releated proof of this...

I know someone else who dug up a cannon ball just outside the confines of a civil war battlefield

they showed it to me and as he started to hand it to me commented "it's suprisingly light" they could tell something was wrong by my sudden vampire palor.... it had a distinctive "lump" on one side of the ball
The lump of a boreman time fuse....

I ever so carefully took it from him and told him to fill a 5gallon pail with water.

I resisted calling the local bomb squad and we later drilled holes in it (yankee drill) and left it soaking... but not in water

Once I had holes in it I had it soaking in Denatured alcohol
we were subsequently able to make a 7/8 diameter hole with a hole saw in my 1/2" air drill

The "ball" contained just over 2lb of powder inside it's 1-1/2" thick cast iron walls.

After evaporating the alcohol out of the powder it still worked... He is just thrilled to death to have Original powder for his great-great grandaddy's civil war revolver.


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How you store yours is up to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Allan DeGroot:
"Moisture balance"? You are kidding... Right?

Yeah, probably the wrong choice of words. What I meant was solvents or whatever you want to call the non solid element to gunpowder. I'm just not sure how freezing would affect those.

The light solvents in say... IMR propellants wouldn't be affected, after all it doesn't affect the propellant in loaded ammunition under arctic conditions and you can be DAMNED SURE the military has exhaustively tested it for that....

Ditto for most ball propellants

And I'm equally sure that the various dual base Normal propellants will take it.

However it may be outside the range of what is considered "ideal" storage conditions.

I'd be a bit more concerned about long term storage of primers.



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Relax ; Either way will be just fine for storage of powder . Dry cool air an water tight canister .

If one wanted to Freeze powder it won't hurt anything . Consider how to retard solvent evaporation.

Use a volatile organic solvent for example by lower temp one retards the evaporation .

An example Paint or a mixed two component epoxy may be retarded by lowering it's Temp..

Some paints such as Water based are a NO NO to freeze .However Oil base is unaffected once

returned to a normal air temp for usage . By lowering temp your lowering their boiling point .