you can tell some of that powder is old because the price stickers have reduced price stickers on top of them.
Lots of this powder was bought at Gibsons and they have been gone for a really long time ??? early '80s ??? all the plastic containers are current unopened
which is way cool ! the 4lbs tote has a price of $69.95 .. What is it now ??$120.00 bucks???? Hmmm ........
Ol Deuce
Do the Best with What you have !
I wouldn't open a sealed large can just to check it. If you have a chronograph you could check a minimum load of the gift powder against the same load of known newer powder to verify that it's the same powder (allowing for lot differences) and where it falls relative to loads you have worked up with newer powder you may have on hand.
Check the lot numbers on the one pound cans; you may get lucky and have a can or three of the same lot. A few years ago I contacted Hodgdon to try to get manufacturing dates for some IMR in one lb. cans I was given. No luck. Their email said that they did not have manufacturing dates for the DuPont or IMR powders. Maybe someone here knows how to decipher the lot numbers to get at least a month and year, or can provide a link to deciphering the codes.
BTW, 3031 is a very good powder for various rifle cartridges. I've gotten good results with it in .308 Win. and .303 Brit. I read just the other day that it got less popular when more people started throwing charges with powder measures and the long grains got to be more aggravating. That may be true but I think it became overshadowed by newer wonder powders. Looks like you're set for a while.
Great score .
Grumpy Old Man With A Gun....... Do Not Touch !!
I bought an estate ten years ago. Included were some powders like you got. The metal Bullseye tin is almost gone but interchanged with what I had previously and grouped the same. While I didn't Chrono it I saw no need to as group sizes didn't change. My 296 stash is in the same cans as yours.
[The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze
A find like that of Holy Black would be incredible!
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I'm going to test the oldest pound of 4198 ! its kinda in question!! If it works well the rest is going tobe perfect !!! But lots of the powders I've never shot
some of these powders !!! Hahaha it really gives me a selection to do some testing !!!!
Ol Deuce
Do the Best with What you have !
the old guy should have bought more powder looks like he was running low
Great score. I am green with envy.
I loaded some 30-30 yesterday and some 22-250 today with IMR 4320 with a $4.95 price tag.
That 5 bucks was a lot for a 14 year old back then.....
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Seems there were two pink cans.. the one in the back being a dupont powder.. and the one at the bottom of the photo.. which looks to be a surplus Hodgdon can... that we haven't seen a closeup of..
So far the pink can in question might contain H4831 or 4895 or BL-C2. I can't tell by the image myself.
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In my 47 years of handloading, the only powders that have gone "bad" were IMR......4064 and 4198. The 4064 was a sealed can I had bought and stored for about 15 years, the 4198 was given to me and very old, but I have no idea how it had been previously stored.
In my case, there was no doubt that they were bad, an ammonia smell and red dust which appeared to be rust from the metal can. I once had some Unique my grandfather gave me that was about 40 years old and still looked and performed normally.
I also have cans of ball powder that I bought 35 years ago that are fine.
You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |