older powder imr 4350

profesional 111 said:
so i have an older can a imr 4350 in an 8 pound steel tin. i just opened it and poured some out still dry but a little dusty. lighter in colour than my newer jugs..was gonna try one round a old and one a new and compare velocities.

whats the general opinion on this.?
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Good plan. Every jug of powder can be a bit different than the jug it replaces.
 
If you have known velocities you should be able to tell immediately if its gone downhill.

I have some powder that my Father purchased over 50 years ago. Some as good as new and the odd can I dumped out cuz it was squibbing good cast loads
 
I’m using the same powder out of an old 8# can. I put it in plastic when I opened it and have noticed no difference in burn rate/velocity compared to the newer 8#er I used up. If it was sealed and stored properly it is as good as any powder you can buy today imo.
 
From a Bench Rest shooter acquaintance, he tells me he has experienced up to two grains difference with a "new" can to get back to the "old" can's velocity - was an important thing to him and what he did. And he has gone through many more pounds of various powders than I ever will. For decades, I would buy one pound containers - when empty, go get another at a store - for my purposes, I never changed my recipe - did not see any difference, although that may have been occurring. Changing 8 pound cans - consider that like changing bullet brands or changing primers - maybe might want to back off from where you were and confirm the new stuff still acts like the former stuff did - velocity, accuracy, etc.
 
Higginson use to sell a clearance powder 47N, "two grains faster than 4350" . As it was cheap I used for Bang, practice ammo. I found each lot number was different. I would just start low and work up to the velocity the rifle liked. Each lot had a different charge weight. I used it to shoot a five shot cloverleaf at 200 meters with Hornady 165gr flat base sp . Remember cheap ! The rifle was 1964 M-70 30-06. That target is on the wall of my shop.
 
If it was mine the first thing I would do is transfer it to a plastic 8lb jug. Only ever lost 2 cans of powder, both were in IMR metal tins. They were probably close to 30 years old and partially used but always stored properly. The inside of the tins rusted and the powder had rusty orange dust. Didn’t want to experiment and didn’t have much value at that point.
 
profesional 111 said:
will give it a go . Its at least 600$ worth a powder. be a shame not to use it.
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As jethunter says, still good but may be a bit faster and likely not as consistent as it once was. Work up a new load with a lower powder charge and all should be well.

I'm still using WWII #4831 surplus powder I bought from Bruce Hodgdon over 50 years ago.
 
B.U.M. - I had read it was thing in old days Africa to want to use "fresh" cartridges from Europe - the stock that was stored in the Africa metal warehouses was believed to deteriorate to squib loads and worse from the heat in there - no doubt similar to powder in a jug that is not kept cool - so I would guesstimate that powder can deteriorate BOTH in a jug and in a cartridge. And I have also read that the brass can "age crack" in elder cases as well.

No doubt is examples of both loose powder and cartridges that work fine albeit 70 or more years old - goes to the conditions that they were stored in, I think.
 
Potashminer said:
B.U.M. - I had read it was thing in old days Africa to want to use "fresh" cartridges from Europe - the stock that was stored in the Africa metal warehouses was believed to deteriorate to squib loads and worse from the heat in there - no doubt similar to powder in a jug that is not kept cool - so I would guesstimate that powder can deteriorate BOTH in a jug and in a cartridge. And I have also read that the brass can "age crack" in elder cases as well.

No doubt is examples of both loose powder and cartridges that work fine albeit 70 or more years old - goes to the conditions that they were stored in, I think.
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Storage conditions definitely play a part in the deterioration of powders.
I have seen the age "cracking" mentioned by this poster. Necks cracked
in 4 out of 20 factory rounds of ammo. Probably 40 year old ammo, but
not military stuff. Hunting ammo from Winchester [270-130 gr PP] Dave.
 
A neighbour dropped off a plethora of previously fired 22-250 cases - he does not reload, so I presume all those cases were once fired factory ammo. I sorted out about 140 with W-W head stamp from the others - found four of them with cracked case mouths - I do not know if the cracks occurred before or after the rounds were fired. It is entirely possible that some of those cases could have been from that era. And he is the type that if the round chambered, he would have fired it - so I doubt whether he noticed if the cases were cracked, before firing, either. I was actually trimming one to length when I discovered the first one - I had never seen that before - I looked more closely at the rest and found three more, before they got processed at all. That first one could have cracked when I resized it, but I did not hear or feel anything to tell me that.

I have been told that annealing that brass can "reset" for that age cracking thing - none of those brass were annealed - I had never done so with once fired factory rounds - but I will do so when I process the rest of these.
 
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BigUglyMan said:
Is old powder in a jug and different than old powder in a handload?
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I don't believe so.

I had some powder that went bad on me sold as OEM4350 or Ammomart 47N (vvN160)

Fantastic powder in medium size cases with heavy bullets.

I noticed it had clumped with moisture and had an acidic smell.

Went back through my notes and looked at the reloads which were about a year old and the powder was just fine at the time they were reloaded.

The powder in the cases had all gone bad as well.

Similar issue with some surplus Bofors #44 from Ammomart, after 20 years I had several containers go bad at the same time. Looked at the handloads it was used in and they were all bad as well.
 
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