Hmmm..No RR tracks in your back yard hu?george wrote:Well, I store it in the powder locker, of course!
Just joking. The national fire people suggest a wooden box, lockable, 1" thick. I use that. Some use old refrigerators. I assume they are not plugged in.
My powder has always been in the garage, in Texas heat. I did have to throw some IMR powder 4064 (I think) out after 30 years. The Ball powder I have had since 1960 is still good. I understand that ball-type powders have longer lifespans than stick-type. Something to do with the coating, possibly. The bad powder had red fumes in the container when opened,
and had a "dusty" look to it, it smelled bad, and the can was rusted, just so you know.
All of this pertains to smokeless powders only, I don't have any suggestions on black powder.
Gasoline is much more dangerous, but I wouldn't store my powder close to any ignition source (duh). It burns really intense when set off.
It really is important to retain the original containers. You tend to forget after 30 or 40 years, tape labels get old and fall off, etc. My Ball is not in the original container (which I believe was a rail car), because we bought a several hundred pound lot when it was getting scarce.
I wonder what type of rail car they used to carry powder?
I have some Hercules Green Dot and also Unique that are in cans that are 20+ years old and they still smell like new powder and work well. They have been in all sorts of environments, heat,cold,humid areas during this time. Never wet or in direct sunlight.
In many years, I only had one can of Hodgdon powder that "went bad". Was like you mentioned, reddish dusty looking and smelled bad.
I do believe the coatings they use these days are very good.
Don2
