So I have a customer I have been helping sell a bunch of loading stuff and ammo,, and ammo cans. This is not an ad. Do not ask about buying.

He had buckets and buckets of stuff. He also had an entire barn wall of assorted ammo cans. All of which in varying stages of decay. I got a trailer load of 30mm cans. Yes 30mm not 30 cal.  Some seemed heavier than others. I opened them up and in 2 of them I find gun powder. Older and different types of powder. Now all of these 30mm cans have some rust on the outside but the insides are pristine. The even make the pshhhht sound when you open them, so I know they seal well. To add to the back story of this. The guy that previously owned all of this, owned a gun store, closed it and later died. This stuff that I found I know was for personal use, but some was for sale in his store.


The only one that does not have some sort of label on it is the Sanka coffee can. It yealded about 1lb of large grain extruded powder. I can tell the candy bowl had Red Dot in it. Hard to miss Red Dot and Blue Dot.  I am not sure what "GD" is. The 296 poured out with large turd like clumps in it.


Some old 414 and BL-C2 in boxes. To bad they have been opened. They both look like they should, but there is no way I am using either of them. The bags themselves are not labeled, and with the previous owners lack of good common sense, it would be stupid to try.


On the good end of things I did find 2 completely sealed new containers of 414 and 4831. I will be using these as long as they pass the sniff test.

Dang, interesting find, to say the least.  What is the stiff test?

suppose to be sniff test.

your lawn should look great next year.

My humble stash I obtained earlier this year

Interesting find. There is so much good stuff out in old barns. I helped an old lady out for a min a while back. She knew I was into guns so she said to go lookin in the barn for anything I thought I wanted. Her husband had passed and all his guns were nabbed by thier kids but the barn still had some old stuff in it. I found 5k of Remngton ThunderBolts and a few big trash bags of hulls. I tried to pay her for the ammo but she would not have it. I still check in on her from time to time to shoot the breeze.

Pour it all in a big pile and light er up.

If the powder in the bags is still good, I'd use it.  

So much waste, it makes me sad.

*noob question*

Whats the sniff test?

Good powder smells kinda like rubbing alcohol.  When powder goes bad, it turns kinda reddish and actually oxidizes like rust.  When it does go bad it smells like it went bad.  It has a sour smell to it.  Like when you've had something in the tupperware in the back of the fridge too long.  All you have to do is smell good powder one time  ....... and then smell bad powder one time.  You'll know the difference for the rest of your life.

Mutt

The  "GD" may be  GREEN DOT"......

Maybe sell the containers to somebody who collect old stuff, or do like 1 FFL I used to visit, they took asked for empty containers top decorate the shelves around perimeter of store.

Of course. Green Dot.

I might just keep them for decoration. I thought about selling them but, I'm not sure if anyone would buy them. Let alone the issuse that might be envolved in shipping a former gun powder container.

that's sad.  Torch the powder, it's fun.  Save the two 1 lb cans in the first photo, you can sell them on eBay and get some $ out of them

My local shop told me he used to buy surplus 4895 in unmarked brown paper bags, like coffee.

When I worked for Hercules Inc, we made Reloder with acetone and alcohol as the solvents. I was told that DuPont used ether to make IMR.

When I worked for Hercules Inc, we made Reloder with acetone and alcohol as the solvents. I was told that DuPont used ether (that's ETHER, not either) to make IMR.