Who cut the cheese?

Cerdan

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I recently bought an M14 and have been feeding it various surplus 7.62 ammo. The three lots I've shot are FNM (Fabrica Nacional de Muniçoes), IVI (Industries Valcartier Inc.) and DA (Dominion Arsenal). The Portuguese stuff is nice and shiny but both Canadian-made cartridges are quite blackened/dirty and musty smelling.

But here comes the good part: The FNM and IVI both smell like usual burnt gunpowder when fired, the smell we all know and love. The DA rounds smell like sulfur, rotten eggs; they basically smell like someone farted.

Has anybody ever experienced this? Has the powder begun to turn? What causes this?
 
I found Hungarian 7.62 X 54R heavy ball to smell horrible, I gave away several hundred rounds just because the smell made me gag. They still went bang.

I love the sweet smell of Varget burning.
 
That's the thing, see... If I was shooting old soviet-bloc or Hungarian surplus ammo and it smelled funky, I probably wouldn't've given it another thought. I would've dismissed it as the smell of old-world, probably discontinued powder.

What I have here are two cartridges made in Quebec around the same period (DA is mid sixties, IVI is early seventies), one smells normal, the other smells vile.

What gives?
 
DA was laod with CR100, a powder much like a small grained 4895. Should smell "normal". I shot a lot of it and never thought it was differnt. Have fired some Russian ammo that was vile.

Have you pulled ay bullets to see if the powder has clumped or broken down?
 
I have some old Norinco 7.62x39 ammo I picked up at a gun show that smells like that. No one wants to stand near me when I shoot it
 
On that note, I have also shot some old Norinco x39 that smelled funky. Not quite sulphuric fart smell, but enough that shoot then move (tactically reposition) was the order.
 
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