How old is "Old" powder?

[Sportsdad60]

NOT that I am considering on using this (I certainly wouldn't risk a 137 year old rifle), but how old is "old" when it comes to black powder?

This unopened can came with the .45-70 rifle I purchased over 2 years ago.
I opened it today.
Smelled good, no overbearing ammonia smell. Grains are consistent.
Who knows what temps it's been in over the decades.
Good fertilizer I am told. Or keep it, and put it in the SHTF pile of stuff?

[k arga]

black powder will last almost forever , very nice to have to go with the rifle.

[mhb]

Black powder...

is an intimate mechanical mixture of separate, stable ingredients. It is not a chemical compound and does not 'break down' as smokeless powders sometimes do. Heat lower than ignition temperature has little or no effect on BP, though residual moisture may be lost, slightly increasing the speed of burning.
Moisture is the worst enemy of BP, causing the grains to disintegrate and the ingredients to separate. So long as BP is properly stored in the original, moisture-proof containers, it lasts indefinitely.

mhb - Mike

[Sportsdad60]

Lessee if I can remember from chemistry class...salt peter (Pot Nitrate)....charcoal, sulpher, what am I missing?

[Major Tom]

Artillary rounds from the civil war are still exploding after having been buried for 150+ years.

[Dick Hosmer]

That powder (1960s?) is a lot newer than the rifle!

[Sportsdad60]

Hehe, good point Dick!
Okay, I'll go ahead with my first BP loads using my best friend's fathers powder (May he rest in peace)

Hopefully he'll be watching over me when I pull that 12 lbs of trigger on the first shot!

[free1954]

did you try pouring a little on the ground and igniting it? or fire it in a muzzle loader with only wadded up paper?

[Sunray]

"...what am I missing..." Spelling. It's spelt sulfur. snicker. Oh and in the Middle Ages, the proportions differed by where it was made. Tended to settle into the ingredients when travelling too. Roads were worse then, than they are now.
BP doesn't have the chemicals in it that create the ammonia smell.

[jon_norstog]

When we were kids we used to shoot old UMC .43 Spanish rounds in our rolling block rifles. That stuff was at least 60 years old and maybe older. If the primers fired, the round would go off with a bang and an evil, blue cloud of mephitic smoke. The duds we would pull the bullets and use the powder for bombs. We were kind of evil, feral children.

jn

[Griff Murphey]

When we were kids we used to shoot old UMC .43 Spanish rounds in our rolling block rifles. That stuff was at least 60 years old and maybe older. If the primers fired, the round would go off with a bang and an evil, blue cloud of mephitic smoke. The duds we would pull the bullets and use the powder for bombs. We were kind of evil, feral children.

jn

For SHAME! Shooting Assault Rolling blocks. In the pre-GCA 68 high school ROTC years we cadets made plenty of home made pyrotechnics....

[jon_norstog]

What can I say? It was fun! And we're still at it, too.

jn

[Dick Hosmer]

The late Paul Parsons (noted cartridge collector from So. CA) had, many years ago, a LARGE supply of Frankford Arsenal Benet inside-primed .45-70s, enough to shoot with impunity. Hey, in those days, no one cared, there was ample to go around. Back to the point - even at 75 years old, he reported that about 90% of it fired perfectly normally.

[PhillipM]

Once in awhile, someone around here will dig up a civil war cannon ball and the EOD from Camp Shelby will take it down there and detonate it. There was one relic collector in Biloxi a few years ago that blew himself up trying to demil civil war ordnance.

[Sportsdad60]

For the record, I 'tested' the old black powder. It's fine!
Sorry for the video editing. It was for fun!
(Smokeless line of powder leading up to a little tissue ball of the old black powder)
Link to 14 second video--> https://vimeo.com/176676475