whats the oldest powder you have used?

I bought almost 50 1lb tins for a song that I'm sure are near my age, and it shoots great. They were unopened though. The only concern I had was that the recipe for the powder would have changed some over the years. Couldn't nail down the year of production to look up the reloading info for it, but I just started as low charges for it in a modern manual and worked my way up to a sweet spot, no problemo.
 
I have WW2 surplus powder, later named H4831.
I recently tried it over a chronograph and it is 100% good.
 
I've still got part of a lb of Bullseye I bought in a paper bag in 1979. Bag is long gone but the powder is fine. Also been using up part of a keg of C-300 a friend gave me. It would be from about the same time. Using it up in 12 ga skeet loads.
Couple lbs left. Interesting to see the price stickers on the old cans. I've hung on to a few empty cans to "decorate" my reloading room.
 
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H4831 said:
I have WW2 surplus powder, later named H4831.
I recently tried it over a chronograph and it is 100% good.
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Now THAT'S impressive! How many have had a powder named after them?

But why the heck did your parents name you H4831?
 
I bought a box of really old stuff from someone's estate dealing. There was about 6 of the 12oz square cans with snap caps of Bullseye. Folks informed me some time later that this was likely close to 40 years old. I wish I'd have known that at the time. I'd have kept the tins.

Anyway, at first the powder was fine. But towards the end of it I was getting a LOT of squib loads. I was just about to give up reloading when I realised that there WAS powder in the cases but it simply was not being ignited by the primers. So the last tin and a bit was used for garden furtilizer.
 
BCRider said:
I bought a box of really old stuff from someone's estate dealing. There was about 6 of the 12oz square cans with snap caps of Bullseye. Folks informed me some time later that this was likely close to 40 years old. I wish I'd have known that at the time. I'd have kept the tins.

Anyway, at first the powder was fine. But towards the end of it I was getting a LOT of squib loads. I was just about to give up reloading when I realised that there WAS powder in the cases but it simply was not being ignited by the primers. So the last tin and a bit was used for garden furtilizer.
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I bought a partly full 12oz can of Bullseye at the last Kamloops Gun Show. It smelled strongly of freshly ground black pepper, and no-one elses seemed to smell that way, so it ended up fertilizing the weeds on a nearby vacant lot. (Wife didn't want it anywhere near her garden). I kept the can, though. I bought a full can of Unique from the same guy, also with the snap cap, but it's unopened, so I have high hopes for it.
 
stevebc said:
...... I bought a full can of Unique from the same guy, also with the snap cap, but it's unopened, so I have high hopes for it.
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All but one of mine were factory sealed as well. And if opened and used promptly they seemed pretty good. But I found that it went bad MUCH faster than anything new will do from exposure. Being Bullseye and using it for hand gun reloading each can lasted a long time over many sessions.

Bottom line? Use it for practice ammo and keep a brass range rod and something to use the rod for knocking bullets out of your bores. There is a good chance that it won't be superb.

The oddball thing is that there was no rhyme or reason to which would ignite just fine and which would not. The rounds were all from the same can but I'd still get roughly 1 in 50 squibs where, as I found out in two cases, the powder simply did not ignite from the flash of the primer. It was very odd.

I finished up the last 100 or so as slow fire practice rounds. Had two or three squibs in that last batch. But as it was just for slow fire practice it wasn't a big deal to sigh and get the rod and hunk of steel bar out again.

The other oddball thing is that the ones which did fire were fine. It wasn't like there was a big difference in muzzle velocity or anything. It was either good or it just didn't light off.

If this is putting you off I wouldn't blame you if you fertilize the garden with the Unique as well. The opened but nearly full can of Unique I still have. I've used it for fire forming rifle casings for my single shot rifle. It went BANG! consistently. So it's possible that Unique isn't as sensitive to age as Bullseye.
 
I'm still using my very last pound of unique bought from Griffins Guns in Belleville(remember them?) ... from sometime or other in the mid seventies as best I recall.
It's still kickass good powder ... as good as it ever was.
Proper storage is the key ... always cool and dry and dark.

$5.99/lb .. *tear runs down 'ol farts grizzled cheek*
 
I found a steel can of Winchester action pistol this past Saturday for $15. I was able to find some old load data for 9mm that I intend to try. From what I can find on the Internet this can is from the 90's. I can't find accurate no 5 anywhere and with less than a pound of it left, I scooped up the WAP.
 
BCRider said:
The opened but nearly full can of Unique I still have. I've used it for fire forming rifle casings for my single shot rifle. It went BANG! consistently. So it's possible that Unique isn't as sensitive to age as Bullseye.
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Bullseye is double based with something like 10 % content of nitroglycerine.
Unique is single based(if I recall correctly).
That nitro could affect shelf life perhaps.
 
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