[Dave R]

The widow of a departed friend offered me some of the old fellow's powder. I could use the several pounds of H335. But I don't know how old it is.

Been stored indoors in a basement until lastyear, then the garage. Could be up to 17 years old.

Safe to use? Looks and flows good...

[Jim Watson]

I have most of a keg of Win 452 AA from a local shooter's estate. Marked as having been opened in 1981. I am currently loading my .45 ACPs out of it and getting normal ballistics.

So I figure you are in good shape. You wouldn't mind shooting 1986 ammo, would you?

By the way, I posted a request for load data, since I had not saved that old a Winchester book and there was very little pistol data for it anyway, intended for shotgun. Hodgdon came back and said it was the same powder they had packaged and sold as Trap 100 and sent me copies of pistol data from an old manual of theirs. They get my support and I will use their powders wherever suitable.

[Art Eatman]

Powder generally loses a bit of potency with age. Those cans which are unopened, if they haven't suffered lengthy periods of temperatures above 90 or 95 degrees, should work just fine. The loads might be down by five, maybe ten percent on velocity, but, so what?

For opened cans, if there's reddish or orange dust, and the smell isn't "right" for smokeless powder, I'd just lay out a trail and burn it.

I found that some of my .243 reloads from 1968 group just fine, but impact some two inches lower at 100 yards than "new" reloads.

I'd just follow the usual procedure of using starting loads for a few rounds, and then work up to whatever you feel you want...

Art

[Dave R]

Thanks for the good news. The one box that is opened is the one looking and flowing normally. Other boxes are unopened.

[Big_R]

Generally, if something has gone wrong with powder (it doesn't have to be old) it will smell bad or significantly different from new powder. I believe it has something to do with the nitrates, but I'm not a chemist. I do know I saw some surplus powder that was about 20 years old and when opened, it smelled like the fertilizer my folks used when I was a kid. It kind of resembled strong urine and ammonia (made my eyes water). Needless to say I didn't use it. I would say if it smells normal, it will perform normal.

Ryan

[Cherokee]

I'm using AA-223 that was purchased by me back in the early 80's. Works great. Also using WW542, Unique, Herco bought many years ago. Still works. The smell and appearence will tell you if its bad.

[Dave R]

I fired my first batch of loads with the old powder today. Wind was pretty strong--over 10mph I guess. And this is a .17 with 25gr. bullets.

Tried 3 different powder weights. Each shot around MOA, with mostly horizontal stringing, so would probably do better with less wind.

Guess its OK.

[PD-KILLER]

I too have some old powder and was never opened (IMR 4198) it does have orange dust, and has been stored in a box in the dark in dry Wyoming, and it still has that great smell of smokeless powder do you guys think that it is still good?

[Sport45]

I too have some old powder and was never opened (IMR 4198) it does have orange dust, and has been stored in a box in the dark in dry Wyoming, and it still has that great smell of smokeless powder do you guys think that it is still good?

First of all, welcome to The High Road. It sounds like the can is rusting. The powder is probably okay, but I wouldn't want to be blasting the iron oxide down my barrels. I'd dump it since powder (even though the price is going up) just doesn't cost enough to take chances on when things might be iffy.