Found a hole- small puncture in a 8# of BE-86

I don't see any reason why you couldn't patch it. 3 or 4 wraps of tape should seal it ok. You might rotate it to be the first to use whenever you load that type powder again.

I would just make it first in my rotation for whatever I needed to load next. If you get to use some at least even if it goes bad the more you use the more value you got out of it

Slap a square of duct tape over the puncture and put it back into storage.
it's what I'd do,

Duct tape! Every reloading shop should have at least one roll of "duck tape", as my wife calls it. The powder is probably OK as long as no water seeped through the hole...

later; I just remembered that guy on TV that slaps a square of "Flex Tape" on a gushing water leak. Leak stops immediately. Mebbe my shop need some Flex Tape in case something starts leaking...

If the powder is not coming out of the small hole, to me it is effectively "self sealed" Slap some duct tape and it's fine
Containers are not "vacuum sealed" anyway.

Don't worry about it. Use the powder up after patching the hole. Air has water in it, it is called humidity. Water is a polar covalent molecule, which means it acts ionic, even though it is not an ionic molecule. The oxygen end of water has a charge, and when it lands on nitrocellulose it breaks the double bonds, just like ionic molecules. It also wicks nitroglycerine to the surface which spikes the pressure curve. Nitroglycerine also attacks nitrocellulose which is why double based powders have less than half the shelf life of single based. A little bit of air exposure is not bad, years of it is, and especially real humid air exposure.Don't soak your gunpowder in water.

Temperature is the worst normal environmental condition for gunpowder, gunpowder breaks down exponentially faster as temperatures increase. So don't store your gunpowder or ammunition in the attic.



and combustion pressures rise as gunpowder ages




there is a lot of information out there on this, but the shooting community not only does not want to know, many actively deny that gunpowder or ammunition ages. Humans are quite irrational, regardless of what they say. Humans only see what they want to see.

I believe the reason many shooters think gunpowder lasts forever is that they think they are immortal, and therefore, so must be their ammunition and gunpowder. And if either are not immortal, that blows their delusions of living forever. I can tell, spiking their delusions of shared immortality will cause some to feel that I have personally murdered them. Hence, denial goes to angry denial. It is scary.

This is an interesting lecture on Willful blindness

https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_willful_blindness#t-862866

I have used clear packing tape for exactly that purpose. I thought about super glue but didn't want to find out how gun powder and super glue might react with each other.

I would recommend black gorilla tape. Way better than ole grey tape. But gtg.

GoldieMI said:

sealed with Duct Tape
labeled with gold sharpie to use next - open container with today's date

all set...No I luckily keep my powder and primers indoors - 60-72 degrees all seasons- with 35% humidity. it's better stored than I am lol.

Click to expand...

Periodically open the bottles and sniff.



Gunpowders can fail at any age,









but when they are around 20 years old, they start failing with a vengeance. You won't be able to take a big sniff if the powder is fuming



those fumes are nitrogen dioxide, a highly reactive oxidizing gas that you won't get a big lung full before it knocks you across the room. If you do get a big lung full, I wonder if it will remove the lining from your lungs. It is bad stuff. When powder is fuming, it is about ready to autocombust, which you can more or less find in all those powder recalls. It is perfectly fine at that point to fill the bottle with water, as the nitric acid gas will dissolve into the water, and the water will keep the gunpowder cool. Gunpowder that is fuming is dangerous, it will burn the house down, and it is not worth waking up dead. So, inspect and sniff your powders.

Mind you, you will not read this in the popular in print press because you might want things like, best buy dates. Or you might not buy old gunpowder. You are only going to read material that increases your consumption, not decreases your consumption of goods and services. As Orwell said "ignorance is strength".

I’d be willing to test it for you.

I gave up on 1 lb containers, and just use the bigger ones. It helps when times like this come and certain people feel the need to hoard.