Old powder

[aintright]

Ok , what I have is some old H4831 . I am loading 59 gr under a 190 gr Berger vld in 30-06 . According to Hodgdons 2008 loading manual a 61gr. Charge should be giving me a compressed load . With 59 gr I am 1/16" from top of case . This just looks like to much powder , so I have a can of new powder and I open it , load same wieght and now am 3/8" from top of case . The age difference in powder is unknown to me as I can not remember how long ago I bought it . But the new powder is less than a year old , price difference is 13.85 lb. vs. 24.95 lb. I know moisture is a no no in powder but like everything there is a certain amount of it in everthing . So my question is , is it possible the old has lost some wieght per volume ? And if so I would assume this could cause an overload . I have used this powder less than a year ago in a 243 and didn't notice this . Matter of fact I have several pounds of various powders from about the same time frame and I also noticed the old is much darker than the new . Haven't loaded in several months , maybe it finally reached its shelf life and went south ? I most certainly have decided not to use it , just would like some options as to what is going on ? Thanks , Kenneth

[Tuna]

I don't think much of anything is happening here. H4831 has changed over the years. The very first was military surplus. When it finally ran out they had to make it new. Since then they have had the powder made in Scotland, Canada and now I understand it's made in Australia. While the powder is still the same with the same burning rate and pressure there have been changes made to it. If you do not have a strong acid smell or a color change to a brown rust color then your powder if most likely fine. There are two versions of 4831 now. One is the standard length sticks and the other new one is the short cut sticks.

[dogtag]

If it doesn't have an ammonia kinda smell it's still good.
I recently used up some old 2400 that was in a neat
yellow/red square can with a pry lid. Worked fine.

[aintright]

Thanks that's good to know . I had never really compared them till loading today and was alarmed that the powder was almost to the top of the casing .
What had happened , was I found a box marked with 58.5 gr. that I had loaded sometime back and shot them and only got 1"-1 1/2" three shot groups , so I thought I would try 59 . When I saw the difference in color and volume between old and new H4831 I became alarmed as I didn't remember loading the 58.5 , but that is not so unusual these days . Again , thanks , Kenneth