Funny you should mention this about powder age. I'm kind of in the middle of a test of some 'approaching 30 yr old powder'. My friends G'Pa died and they finally cleaned out his room and most of his gun stuff was bequeathed to me. There was about 15 lbs of various powders. About 1/2 of it was bad. Smell, like was said and poured out onto white paper the red dust was visible. That stuff is fertilizer now,
But alot of it is good. I have one can of old 2400 that looks as good as my new stuff. Curiously it says smokeless Rifle powder on it. Another younger can say smokless handgun powder, and IIRC, the youngest can says smokless handgun & rifle powder. I haven't shot any of the old stuff yet but have about a hundred rounds of it ready to test.
Some of the old powder, the red dust wasn't visible when poured out onto paper. But red residue left on the paper after pouring it back off the paper indicated that breakdown was starting. I havent tried any of my 30 yr old Bullseye yet.
We gave some 30 yr old CCI primers a go about a month or so ago, and got about a 2 to 3% failure rate with them. Not bad if you think about it.
The price tags still on these cans are depressing, 3.99, 4.99...
I wouldnt use any of this stuff for any serious reasons but will sure burn it up at the range.
The best thing in the lot was an unopened box of Hornady 168g HPBT Match bullets, Rebated BT's they are! ($6.99!)