Pulldown powder Degraded?

[chas442]

Ok you reloading gurus. Has anyone encountered this?
I was loading some garand ammo today with pulldown IMR4895. I smelled the powder in the container and it did not have the usual solvent smell. It has an odor slightly solvent but some thing else. Kind of acrid. It still pours well. It is still dry. No clumping. It's being stored in plastic 1 gal. jugs.
Is it still suitable for loading?
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

No smell or solvent smell: good.
Acidic smell: bad
Brown or rust colored vapors: bad
Bleaching of plastic packaging: bad
Corrosion of metal packaging: bad

Mike

 

[chas442]

Mike

Thanks for the quick reply.
No brown vapors.
What kind of bleaching are you talking about with the plastic?
What will happen if I use this powder?

Charly

 

[rcmodel]

If it doesn't still smell like ether solvent in an operating room.
And smells more acidic like salad dressing?

It will make perfect lawn fertilizer for your yard when the grass comes back next spring.

What will happen if you use it?
Who knows, but if it doesn't smell like fresh good powder.

It isn't!

rc

 

[chas442]

I'm prepared to fertilize my lawn if that is the only safe option. This is a just opened canister that has at least 8 to 10# of powder. I would hate to dump it with the cost of powders today.
That being said, what happens if this potentially degraded powder is used?

 

[rcmodel]

If in fact it is already degrading, it will continue to degrade in your loaded ammo.

If it is degrading, it is releasing acidic fumes.
Which will degrade your brass and cause cracking and internal corrosion.

Your call.

But I would not reload 1,000 rounds and put them in long term storage!!!

rc

 

[chas442]

Sounds like fertilizer to me.

Thanks

 

[joem1945]

Old degraded powder smelled like old aspirin to me. I've pulled down ammo that was sold for salvage only and it was really bad. Outgasing was so bad it almost popped the bullet out after breaking the tar seal. Stuff was from 1939 and got wet. Bullets were great.

 

[Slamfire]

I have written extensively on the lifetime of gunpowder. Contrary to the expectations of shooters, and the immortality suggested by moronic gun writers, gunpowder does not last forever. In fact it is quite mortal. The ammunition from which your pulldown powder came, if it was military, was inspected and tested by a military quality assurance specialist ammunition and determined to be too old to store or issue to troops. It is past its shelf life.

These are threads which I provided information, a couple of which has pictures other forum posters.

Old Powder Caused Fire!
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=788841


Old powder

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=787843


Shelf life of reloads?

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=758305


Look at the pictures in this thread:


Has anyone else had Vihtavuori N140 corrode in loaded ammo?

http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3745264

The green corrosion inside the brass cases came from nitric acid gas outgassing from old deteriorated gunpowder. This nitric acid gas also attacks the brass causing case splits. When the corrosion is extreme it will cause pin hole through corrosion of the case. I have seen all of these.

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. I would not trust your keg of old gunpowder, I would get it out of the house. Old gunpowder in cartridge cases will blow up your gun. Heat is the worst enemy of gunpowder. Temperatures over 86 F accelerate the deterioration.

 

[chas442]

Thanks slamfire.

Monday I'm pulling that powder out of storage and checking all the other powder I have.

Can anyone tell me what setting to use on a Scotts broadcast spreader so I don't burn my lawn.

I also have 40 pounds of ball type powder that was labelled Red Dot that isn't.
I tried working up some loads in 9mm. All I got was squibs. It has no smell at all. It probably is a rifle powder of unknown load data.

Apparently I have 50+ lbs of fertilizer.