I recently rush bedded one of my rifles to use in a competition. That was mistake number one, but I tend to push the envelope. I wasn't sure of where to get more Devcon locally. The old tub was bought while travelling in another province, so I decided to use the last bit rather than lose time waiting on shipping. (Anyone in northern BC ever heard "no, but we can order it for you"). Bought in the fall of 2006, this tub had a "use by" date of 11/06/2008. Never trusting this form of dating things I figured the stuff expired in either June or November of 2008. Either way I was timed out by at least 5 months. Anyway I mixed the compound 9 to 1 on a scale and bedded the action. It shot around MOA, but deteriorated to minute of two yard accuracy as the shoot went on (1000+ yards). The bed is not crumbly, but if you drive a punch into it, it breaks out in hard glasslike chunks, so it's not as hard as usual.
When I started, the hardener looked normal, but the old putty had a thin crust on it which I scraped off to use. It was also thicker than usual, as if it had dried out somewhat. I think this is the thing to watch out for. The containers have always been in my basement and never frozen. When I mix the components I use clean different tools. I'm sure some guys have used stuff that is far out of date and been successful. I write this as a caution. As a further bit of info, my newly arrived Devcon is "use dated" 12/27/2012, so now we know the code, and when the expiry is approaching.
When I started, the hardener looked normal, but the old putty had a thin crust on it which I scraped off to use. It was also thicker than usual, as if it had dried out somewhat. I think this is the thing to watch out for. The containers have always been in my basement and never frozen. When I mix the components I use clean different tools. I'm sure some guys have used stuff that is far out of date and been successful. I write this as a caution. As a further bit of info, my newly arrived Devcon is "use dated" 12/27/2012, so now we know the code, and when the expiry is approaching.
