Vintage Powder Find (PICS)

[Shiloh]

My mother-in-law told me there was 'gunpowder' in the basement of her house. This was acquired by my now passed away father-in-law.
Stan. Stan was a Nebraska farm boy. And as what farm boys would do, he hunted, fished, and did outdoor stuff.

I had no idea I would find this. Some of the cans were rusted through and I burnt that powder on the curb. It had no smell at all. It did
have a brownish color, but I attribute that to the rusted through cans. I opened one of the 4227 cans, (Only one made the photo)
It looked fine and still smelled of solvent. Seems good to me.

The 5066 is what I am interested in. If it is in good shape, i'd like to try it. DuPont 5066 was discontinued in 1967. There is some data posted on some of the other gun forums.

One of the posts was from our own Dale53. Thanks for your info Dale.
On the backs of the cans, the lot numbers are shown. 5066 is from Lot #3. Wonder when that was made. I Googled it but no info.


140896 140897

Shiloh

[Bent Ramrod]

I've used powder of that vintage, and still do. I even reuse the cans, since they fit in smaller spaces than the later ones. As long as the powder is not clumpy or sticky, or smells sour or nitrous, it should be good to go.

Wow, three cans of 4759! You are fortunate. Was your FIL a boolit caster?

[Shiloh]

Well,

Although the vintage powder smells okay, the 4227 has rust in the powder, and the bottom of the can is rusty. Shiny rust.
When I poured it into the powder measure, there was a fine "smoke" that came out of the can. There was NO acidic or acrid smell, just a weaker odor of solvent from fresher powder. I made a pile of about 50 grs. and it burned like normal.

I poured the rest of the contents into a plastic fiberglass mixing cup, and there was a fine brownish smoke coming off of the powder as it emptied into the cup.There was rust in the white funnel I used to pour it back into the can.

My guess is that the rest of the powders are the same way. I have cans of fertilizer.

The curious part is this. Of the powder I poured into the measure, I cycled a couple of throws to settle it in. I hadn't changed the measure since the last time I loaded .30-06. It weighed EXACTLY the same for five throws as the modern powder. 23.3 grains for a 208 gr. 314299 boolit.

I may burn some this evening, but it'll go on the lawn and the brides flower and hosta garden.

Shiloh