Does powder go bad ?

[SideShow Bob]

I hav e several pounds of powder that is unopened, but has been sitting on a shelf in a climate controlled basement, all purchased between 2010 and 2016. It gets a little cold but otherwise room temperature.
I know that the two opened containers (one pound each) would suspect and need fired with caution if used to load rounds.

So what say you all you reloading Gurus ?

[TFOGGER]

Absent contamination from moisture or oil, most powders will outlive all of us. You should be fine.

[Ah Pook]

I have rounds from the Korean war. No problem. Guessing if they are kept from the elements, they should be fine.

[Colorado Osprey]

Powers can and do degrade with time. Heat degradation will cause them to become hotter burning with age. Now when I mean time WWII and WWI ammo is still good if climate controlled. I wouldn't worry about the power in your lifetime. I have powders from the 1980's that I would not hesitate to load and shoot.

[def90]

I believe what is hard on powder/ammo are huge temperature swings such as storing it in a place where it might break into the hundreds during the day and then drop below freezing at night. Not too many places on this planet where that would be likely to happen.

[Mazin]

Supposedly bad powder has a sweet or sour smell to it (cant remember which).

[SideShow Bob]

Supposedly bad powder has a sweet or sour smell to it (cant remember which).

Well that was a whole lot of help.............[Tooth]

[whitewalrus]

As others have said, the ~10 years yours will be at the oldest are fine. Stored inside and in a closed container you should be good to use it.

[Mazin]

Well that was a whole lot of help.............[Tooth]

I do what I can when I can or feel like it [Coffee]

[Irving]

I'm shocked there haven't been at least three people offering to take all your bad powder off your hands. Times must be good right now.

[Little Dutch]

Supposedly bad powder has a sweet or sour smell to it (cant remember which).
It smells acidic.


I’ve seen several pounds of bad powder, but it’s always been obviously bad. Most were in old metal tins in poor shape, but I had a new plastic bottle full of bad powder last year. Again though, you’ll know if it’s bad.

ETA - 10 years is a blip in the lifespan of modern powder. Don’t worry about it.

[whitewalrus]

I'm shocked there haven't been at least three people offering to take all your bad powder off your hands. Times must be good right now.

Helps when you can find what you need in stock at decent prices :)

[SpamOnRye]

I read an article a bit back talking about certain powders, typically manufactured in ? not the greatest or stable? countries that was made out of spec and degrade over time. Essentially the grain breaks down into smaller pieces and makes it burn faster thus creating more pressure which may be dangerous in some actions. IIRC it was surplus 8mm Mauser made in a place that probably doesn?t have the same name. If it?s not that, you?re probably fine.

I have some U.S. made 30-06 from 1952 that shoots just fine.

[SpamOnRye]

. . . Why is my punctuation not what I typed?

[Irving]

It's recent issue with the board programming. Don't worry about it, most of us are used to it and know what you meant. It's when you use special characters on mobile devices.

[spqrzilla]

Years ago, I recall that this question was answered in Handloader magazine with the observation that there was a glass container with a century old sample of Bullseye powder stored under water that was occasionally sampled, dried out and shot with consistent results.

Powder that has been manufactured in good quality - properly washed of the acids used in its manufacture - and stored in decent conditions will last indefinitely. I had a large metal container of the very old WWII surplus Hodgdon 4831 that my father passed down to me and while it had a bit of an acrid odor, it shot well in the '90's when I finally used it up.

[Mazin]

It smells acidic.


I’ve seen several pounds of bad powder, but it’s always been obviously bad. Most were in old metal tins in poor shape, but I had a new plastic bottle full of bad powder last year. Again though, you’ll know if it’s bad.

ETA - 10 years is a blip in the lifespan of modern powder. Don’t worry about it.

Bam that's what I was looking for!

[Zombie Steve]

I have some herco that was sold in paper cups back in the day... tastes the same as always.

[Little Dutch]

I forgot to check. I may still have the new plastic bottled pound of "bad" powder. If I do, I'll get some photos or something up so everyone can see what it looks like.

I usually save that stuff, because worst case is that it still burns and is fun on the 4'th of July. You can use it to lay out a line of powder leading to the fuse of an M-60 fire cracker, for instance.