Inherited Powder

I wouldn't touch it. Call your town/village/city/ whatever and ask if there is special disposal procedure at the dump, if any. It really isn't worth the trouble of having your first shot getting stuck 1/2 way down your barrel .... or worse.

There is only one proper way to get rid of smokeless powder, new OR decomposing...burning.
I am a professional! I've been disposing of smokeless (I am way cautious with black!) for over 50 years!!
If there is any doubt, send it to ME, and rest assured it'll be taken care of safely and correctly!
Gene

They tell you to fill the container full of water then send them a picture of the lot number. Then they send you replacement powder.
I am sorry. I don't send you anything. just the knowledge that it was gotten rid of safely.
Gene

I would be less concerned about the age of the powders and more concerned if they have been mixed.
Assuming those are the only powders in the mix it would be obvious to me if the Accurate #9 was contaminated with any of the other five powders. It would be less obvious if the W 231 and Lil gun were mixed, but I think I could tell if they were. I would be comfortable using the W 231 and the A #9 if they look okay, If the Lil gun were in the W 231 it should not be as much of a problem if it was the other way around.
I don't use H 335 or H 414 so I couldn't be sure if it was present in IMR 4227 but if it was it would not concern me that much, some test loads would tell me if it has been corrupted. W 231, AA #9 and Lil gun would be easy to spot if were present in the 4227.
If you do try any of these powders having a chronogragh would be helpful.
As the old saying goes " when in doubt throw it out "

Apart from the smell test, which might be quite noticeable with newer powder, or almost gone with older powder, another simple test is to burn some.

Use a tinfoil pie plate or such and ignite a sample outdoors with a fuse or an improvised long match.
It should burn brightly and fairly slowly like the fires of hell, not in a flash like black powder.
If it burns poorly, then it's obviously no good.

You could then load a few rounds and compare their performance to the same new powder.

Old Stumpy said:

another simple test is to burn some.

It should burn brightly and fairly slowly like the fires of hell, not in a flash like black powder.
If it burns poorly, then it's obviously no good.

Click to expand...

I see a lot of Yes and No answers. Just for my edification, what would occur if it was bad and loaded. Not fire?

MI2600 said:

I see a lot of Yes and No answers. Just for my edification, what would occur if it was bad and loaded. Not fire?

Click to expand...

In my own experience, bad powder just becomes almost inert, resulting in a squib load. So, you might have to drive a bullet out of the barrel if you fired a cartridge loaded with it.

Personally, I think that if the powder looks normal, does not smell off, and burns brightly and intensely in the open, then it should be safe to use. Of course, you need to be certain that the powder is actually what the container says that it is. And it would make sense to try some reduced loads at first.
Even if good, it might not result in as much velocity as new powder.

But this is just an opinion.

I suppose that, if nothing else, you could take the powder somewhere safe and burn it off, a pound at a time.
As long as you can improvise a way to ignite it at a distance safely.

joneb said:

I would be less concerned about the age of the powders and more concerned if they have been mixed.
Assuming those are the only powders in the mix it would be obvious to me if the Accurate #9 was contaminated with any of the other five powders. It would be less obvious if the W 231 and Lil gun were mixed, but I think I could tell if they were. I would be comfortable using the W 231 and the A #9 if they look okay, If the Lil gun were in the W 231 it should not be as much of a problem if it was the other way around.
I don't use H 335 or H 414 so I couldn't be sure if it was present in IMR 4227 but if it was it would not concern me that much, some test loads would tell me if it has been corrupted. W 231, AA #9 and Lil gun would be easy to spot if were present in the 4227.
If you do try any of these powders having a chronogragh would be helpful.
As the old saying goes " when in doubt throw it out "

Click to expand...

Amen to that. I put a pinch of aa5 next to aa7 and they appeared to be indistinguishable.

I'm still using up powder I bought from a guy who was getting out of reloading 15 years ago. Some of that powder is over 40 years old.

Now I was reasonably confident that the guy knew what he was doing, so the risks were small (he reloaded for revolvers and shotguns). So that played a part.

He used the Hercules Bullseye, Unique, and the dot powders. So I examined the opened dot powders, and they were consistent and didn't appear mixed. There was also an opened can of bullseye and one of unique. No dots mixed in them.

One thing I did do (for the opened cans) was look through the reloading manuals was find common uses for the opened powders, and figure out what min and max charges for each one. Dealing with Bullseye was easy - just load for it and see what it did. I loaded up a few rounds with unique as if it were bullseye (they overlap in 9mm). The unique became a 45 colt powder, so I laddered those the first few rounds up to ensure everything was as it should be. The risks were low, and I had enough experience by then that I knew I'd be able to determine what I was working with. I knew squibs were a possibility, and made sure each round went downrange. I also started off on the low side with the dot powders, just to make sure they were consistent with expectations. Eventually it was clear that the powders were in their correct containers.

BTW, a couple of those old powders seem slightly milder than their newer versions. I assume they've lost a little energy over time.

Anyway, I don't recommend experimenting with powder in every situation, but if someone is willing to put in the time and effort, and doesn't hesitate to take a loss on anything questionable, or where there too many risks, it is possible to figure out. I would not do that with rifle powder though - the risks are way too high.