Powder lifespan?

F

fleabaggins

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Hi all,
I have not touched my reloading setup for about 15 years. I have a huge supply of powder, including WIN231 and Hercules. Both have been opened. The WIN is in its original screwtop container. The Hercules is in its 10lb cardboard container. The Hercules powder is probably about 20 years old, as it came with the reloading equipment when I bought it.
They were both stored in my basement crawlspace for approx 12 years, in a wooden container, and went through basement flooding in 2005 (neither container nor powder got wet).
They have been stored in my attached garage for the last 3 years.
There is also a silicon drying bag that has been stored with them.
My question is, will this powder still be any good, or should I buy new stuff?
Also, I have about 5000 primers of all sorts stored the same way. Will they still be good?
TIA
Mike C.
 
Open up the powder and look at it. Does it look ok? Does it smell like you remember? Is there a new acetic acid smell you don't recall? Are the steel and cardboard containers intact, or do they appear to be swollen, rusted, or decomposing?

Odds are if it looks and smells OK, it will be fine.

As for the primers, humidity can eventually kill them, but if they look OK, I'd go ahead and load up a test batch.
 
Canuck223 said:
Open up the powder and look at it. Does it look ok? Does it smell like you remember? Is there a new acetic acid smell you don't recall? Are the steel and cardboard containers intact, or do they appear to be swollen, rusted, or decomposing?

Odds are if it looks and smells OK, it will be fine.

As for the primers, humidity can eventually kill them, but if they look OK, I'd go ahead and load up a test batch.
Click to expand...

+1, my experience also.

Last summer I began shooting after a sixteen year layoff and had several thousand primers and many pounds of powder that I have been using up. All the primers have fired, the powder is still good, any ammo loaded has functioned perfectly.
I wish I could say the same for my shooting!

Cheers
 
powder lifespan

will last indefinetly if stored properly. Pour some out if you see a red dust in the air it has detereorated. No dust means it should be good.
 
Primers are almost immortal.
I got some CCI's from an estate a few years ago. We judged the date of mfg to be sometime in the early 60's. going by the price on the box. These had been sitting in an unheated garage of a minimum of 4 years since the guy died.....God only knows how long they were in there before that.

I loaded up 100 of them for my 300 win mag. 68.5gr of IMR7828 under 180 grain Speed Spitzers......not a single misfire or change in accuracy in the lot of them.
 
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