4895 powder spontaneous combustive

[ironjaw]

any one every have a container of 4895 combust .this container just went off and left a 4 foot dia. of residue and all guns near it have corrosive residue all over them. container was moved out side and then lit off again and no source of ignition was found, puzzle to me. this just happened to a friend in wa. state.
any thoughts ???

[M-Tecs]

Never heard of that happening. If the residue is truly corrosive something else happened.

[NSB]

Never heard of it happening and I've been shooting for over sixty years and I'm met literally thousands of different shooters from all over the world. I guess something happened, but I don't think it was spontaneous combustion.

[NyFirefighter357]

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=157820

[NyFirefighter357]

https://ronspomeroutdoors.com/blog/danger-old-gunpowder-can-kill-you/

[NyFirefighter357]

https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412982

[NyFirefighter357]

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/old-powder-caused-fire.788841/

[NyFirefighter357]

https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2015/9/2/product-recall-notice-imr-4007-ssc-powder/

[Peregrine]

Was this surplus or newer production powder? Hodgdon or IMR? What was it store in and under what conditions?

[Larry Gibson]

I had a similar occurrence with a container (IMR 1 lb can) that had some pulldown Nobel (square flake) from some 8mm in it. The powder didn't combust, as in ignite, but the gas from the deteriorating/decomposing gas created a lot of pressure which final burst the can. The residue and vapor also caused a lot of corrosion on everything.

[Mytmousemalibu]

If it's off-gassing nitric acid buy decomposition, yeah, I can Imagine it corroding stuff.

Kinda scary stuff having powder nearly erupt in fire.

[762sultan]

I pulled down about 300 30-06 AP several years ago and found a number of them with green gooey powder in them. The bullets and the case necks were green also. That powder was quickly made into "lawn fertilizer". The brass was discarded on the green ones but the good ones were deprimed, cleaned, and reprimed and loaded with new powder. The original reason I wanted to pull them was they had mercuric primers. I didn't know they had a problem until the first bullet was pulled.

[M-Tecs]

I had a similar occurrence with a container (IMR 1 lb can) that had some pulldown Nobel (square flake) from some 8mm in it. The powder didn't combust, as in ignite, but the gas from the deteriorating/decomposing gas created a lot of pressure which final burst the can. The residue and vapor also caused a lot of corrosion on everything.

Never had that happen but I did have two cans rust out from the inside due to deterioration. My bet is that is what happened to the OP's friend also.

[ironjaw]

this sounds like what happened. he said the lid was "melted" in the container. is was a plastic jar 1 lb.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Any guesses on age of the powder?