Ball vs stick powder shelf life

[JO JO]

is it true ball powder has a longer storage/shelf life as in ammo storage ?
Thought I read somewhere that ball powder does but not sure where I read this maybe it's a myth I don't know but it's on my mind so I will ask if anyone knows?

 

[Blue68f100]

I've had some of all go bad over the decades I've been handloading. It thing it's more related to how it's stored, high temperatures speed up the breakdown process.

 

[hdwhit]

Jo Jo wrote:
is it true ball powder has a longer storage/shelf life as in ammo storage ?

I'm not aware of a hard and fast rule on that.

I still have powders that I bought in the 1970's that have been stored in garages in Arkansas and Texas their whole life that still smell and look "right". In testing some of this ancient powder, the only one that has varied materially from how it performed when it was new was some Green Dot. It still works but yields inconsistent velocities that are about 40% less than what was expected.

My experience suggests that even if ball powder does have a longer life, it will be in terms of one type having a life of 50 years while the other one only lasts 40. Unless you buy powder as a teenager (which I did) these questions will mainly be the concern of your heirs.

 

[VoodooMountain]

The military has done research on this. I'll try to find a link and post it.

They did find some powders had a small advantage but how it is stored is much more important.

 

[Slamfire]

I don't see a particular reason whether the powder is round or tubular should make a difference for shelf life. What will make a greater difference is whether gunpowder is single based or double based. The primary constituent of single based gunpowder is nitrocellulose. Nitrocellulose is a high energy molecule breaking down to a low energy molecule. Polar and ionic chemicals will attack the double bonds in nitrocellulose, so humidity is bad, so is rust. Double based powders are a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. Nitroglycerine attacks the double bonds in nitrocellulose and it turns out, double based powders have about half the shelf life of single based.

Gunpowder lifetime is unpredictable, a rule of thumb is 20 years for double based, 45 years for single based. Some fails sooner. Hardly any gunpowder is safe past 45 years. Old gunpowder in bulk will autocombust. Old gunpowder will blow up your gun. If you notice pressure indications with normal loads, such as blown primers, sticky extraction, or blown case heads, stop using the powder. Heat is the worst enemy of gunpowder. Temperatures over 86 F accelerate the deterioration.

There are a bunch of links on posts I have created on this subject in this thread


Powder in 1pound or 8lb for extended storage?

Unfortunately I can't link my Photobucket pictures and it will take a long time before I re host them on a different site.

 

[JO JO]

a rule of thumb is 20 years for double based, 45 years for single based

very interesting thank you

 

[hdwhit]

Hodgdon also addresses the question of powder life, in general, on their website:
http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/reloading-education/safety/gunpowder-stability

 

[Sunray]

No. U.S. military used 'stick' powders like IMR4895 in .30-06 since W.W. I, at least. U.S. military stored and used W.W. I ammo from 1918 to ~1935-36 with no fuss whatsoever. It's how the ammo and powder is stored that matters.