I've got 3 old pounds of Hodgdon Powder. One is 4831 in a yellow and red square can. Price was $1.95 Next are two pounds of H 4895 in square blue and black cans. Address is Shawnee but the powder is stated as produced in Scotland. Looks good to me, but the question is would you load this stuff or pitch it? I've had it several years and it got it from a friend who passed on. No telling how old it is.
I also have some Lake City Arsenal, 30 U.S., 1942 and shoots just fine out of my Garand.

If it looks right and smells right then I'd shoot it without a second thought.
Others may have differing opinions.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
If it looks right and smells right then I'd shoot it without a second thought.
Others may have differing opinions.

Precisely.

The above advice is spot on.
I remember the days of H 4831 surplus powder at less than $2 a pound.

thank you gentlemen,
Obviously I hate the thought of getting rid of it. As you know, current demand for all reloading supplies is beyond understanding.

i still have about 35#'s of 4831 that i bought at about $.40. guess that really dates me huh. anyway its still good stuff

If it smells like ether and not like acid and does not look like red powder, definitely shoot it. I still have a 20mm ammo can full of W870 ball powder from WW2; works fine. I have black powder from the 19920s but that doesn't count since BP literally never goes bad.
Oh, demand for ammo and components these days? Entirely due to hoarding. Entirely.

I would not hesitate to use it, however, if you have a Chrony, you could proof the old powder against some new and see of the old still has the same oomph.

Save the cans. They make good decorations. Smokeless powder is funny stuff. I had some Reloder 7 from the '80s go bad, 30 years old isn't usually considered old by smokeless standards. It was going, going, had red dust in it and I burned it up in as big a hurry as I could, it actually left red dusty residue in the rifle!

In 1978 (or was it 1980?) Swanson's in Denver was going out of business and had a great sale on all things in the store. I bought a LARGE supply of powders. I'm still shooting a lot of the stuff, mostly Norma 201, Norma 204, Norma 205, Norma MRP, and H870. No problema.