That powder is part of a 25,000 pound WW2 surplus. It was made for the military 303 Brit ammo but rejected because of excessive flash.
3031 data is good. In a short barrel rifle it delivers a terrible bark.
Do not add all the little containers into one jug. This powder goes bad. It becomes a bright orange and develops a very obnoxious strong smell.
If one little box goes bad, not a big deal. A big jug would be a loss.
I had two different orders of that powder and both of them went bad in a very nasty way.
If one container is bad, you can bet the rest are close behind.
When Tom Higginson was still alive and well he warned me about that powder right away. He felt it had about ten years of shelf life left in it and some of the powder he received was already bad and had to be disposed of.
I used that as 3031 powder from 1978 until appx 2000. I ruined the bore on a very nice Winchester Mod 70 FWT, 257 Roberts with it. I took it to a shoot and put close to a hundred rounds through it with proper cleaning every 30 rounds or so. The accuracy suddenly went awry. Later, looking down the bore it looked like it had been peened.
I wasn't sure what caused it. Winchester was having some issues with their barrels at the time and that was my first thought. A few weeks later I went into the magazine and there was a very strong acrid smell and a few rusticles were hanging from the metal shelves the #44 powder was sitting. At first I thought only a few containers were bad. No such luck
I pulled the brown tape they had across every lid off and popped the lids. All of the lids and inside metal were rusty on all of the containers. It all made a nice fire. In the end I lost close to 20 pounds but I had purchased 125 pounds of it 20 years previously at very good prices. Tom had also given me a 25 pound container to help him make up loading charts for a few cartridges, one of which was the 6.5x55.
It was good powder.
Kjohn, if there is any rust inside those containers. Throw it out.
I paid $150 per CWT back in the day.
