Storing Black Powder

maple leaf

maple leaf

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
64   0   0
Location
SW Ontario
I am curious to know how others are storing their black powder. Trying to understand section XII of the explosives act (http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/C.R.C.,_c._599/index.html).

Are there any home made storage designs that meet the letter of the law? If not a home made design, what commercial options are there? Can someone have black powder in their home, or does it need to be stored outside of the home? Thanks for your responses.
 
I live in a rural area so I keep most of my powder outside in a buried (lid exposed ) and locked box. My concern is that if there was ever a fire, I want to minimize how much powder is in the house

cheers mooncoon
 
I found this under,
PART XII
AMOUNT OF AUTHORIZED EXPLOSIVE THAT MAY BE KEPT FOR USE AND NOT FOR SALE IN PLACES OTHER THAN LICENSED FACTORIES AND LICENSED MAGAZINES AND REGISTERED PREMISES AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT SHALL BE HANDLED AND STORED

To me this suggests a private house since our house is not any of the places listed.

141. When two or more explosives are kept on the same premises they shall each be kept in separate stores or receptacles, so separated from one another as to effectually prevent fire or explosion in one explosive from communicating with the other, except that

(a) the various explosives of Class 1 (gunpowder), Class 2 (nitrate mixture), Class 3 (nitro-compound), Class 4 (chlorate-mixture), safety fuse belonging to Division 1 of Class 6 (ammunition), and such of the various explosives of Division 2 of Class 6 (ammunition) as do not contain any exposed iron or steel, may be kept in the same store or receptacle with each other without any intervening partition or space;
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that our smokeless powders fit into the nitrate or nitro based categories. So it would seem that our black powder and smokeless can share one storage box as long as the box is secured from entry and has a label to clearly mark the container as "EXPLOSIVES".

For me that amounts to a wall mounted cabinet with the label and a cabinet lock. The cans of Goex powder have slip separators of 1/4 plywood between to avoid an obvious metal to metal contact. The cans being made from tin plated steel means that there's a bit of a gray area involved. But for my own piece of mind I went with the plywood separators to keep the cans from making contact with each other other than being stupid enough to try to jam two cans into one slot. For the usual black plastic containers no separators are needed.

Obviously primers and percussion caps should be kept well away from the powder magazine. A separate cabinet on the opposite side of the room or even in another room altogether isn't a bad idea.
 
it looks to me as if smokeless and black can be stored together as long as there is no exposed iron or steel between them. I take the nitrate mixed and the nitro compound to perhaps refer to single and double based smokeless powders although how you would know which powders are which is beyond my knowledge. Also the chlorate mixed might potentially refer to a few of the black alternatives. For small amounts of powder it is probably far easier just to put in plywood spacers or alternate metal and plastic containers (Curtis and Harvey powder is in plastic bottles)

cheers mooncoon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom