Yellow/tan powder?

[BCall]

I had a friend ask me if I wanted to buy her husbands old reloading equipment the other day. I went and took a look at it, and it was all shotgun reloading equipment. I bought it all from her, and was hauling it off. She had a bunch of old paper hull 10 and 12 gauge shells that I told her I would get rid of. Originally I had planned to soak them in water and dump them, but I thought better of it and decided to salvage the lead from them.

These were old shells and appeared to have spent alot of their life in the weather. Alot of the heads were corroded, the paper was molded and mildewed. Some were falling apart and some of the shot was corroded in the shells. I spent some time cutting them apart, claiming the shot, and I thought- some guys say that powder is great fertilizer, why not cut it out and pour it in the garden?

Anyway, I began cutting the powder out, and some of the hulls had powder that was yellow or tan. What kind of powder is this? I never thought that ammo manufacturers used anything but black or regular looking smokeless powder. A bunch of it was clumped together and appeared to have been wet at some time. Curiosity got the better of me, and I took a small pinch outside and lit it off. Burned just like smokeless powder as far as I could tell. Here is a pic of the tub of powder I was getting. You can see it mixed with the regular smokeless powder. I've already dumped it in the garden now. Anyone have any idea what it was? Thanks, Billy
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851053.jpg

[lylejb]

Just a guess, but I've seen old, degraded powder that turned from black to rusty /brown. Maybe this is the stage (s) AFTER brown, as it goes from going... going... to gone.

[BerdanIII]

You may want to give yourself a little more ventilation than normal when you smelt that salvaged birdshot; shot has a little arsenic in it.

[BCall]

Just a guess, but I've seen old, degraded powder that turned from black to rusty /brown. Maybe this is the stage (s) AFTER brown, as it goes from going... going... to gone.

I had considered this, and I guess it's possible, but there were a number of different types/brands of shells, and the yellow came from a specific type, and the tan from another specific type. I would not have expected such a uniform appearance from powder that was degrading/corroding. Guess I could be wrong, but the powder that was odd colored was in specific shells and very uniform in appearance.


Thanks for the reminder about the shot melting, I smelt it out side and pour small ingots to use for hardener when casting some boolits. This stuff is all mixed, so I don't know if it is magnum shot or chilled. Even had some old corroded punkin ball factory loads. Not sure what I'll do with it, but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.:grin:

[Shiloh]

Seems like I read in my 1949 edition of Phillip B. Sharpe's Complete Guide to Handloading, there were colored powders. Pink seems to be one of them IIRC. I have seen tan colored powder. My surplus 4759 clone is sort of tan and brassy looking.

I have NEVER seen anything like what you pictured. I would guess, and that is all it is, what you pictured is deteriorated powder.

Shiloh

[jmh54738]

Back in the 60s I had cans of DuPont Bulk Shotgun powder that was off white irregular crumbles like your photo. According to Sharp's "Complete Guide to Handloading" (1944), it was a favorite with trap shooters. Introduced in 1893, discontinued in 1937. Hercules E C Powder was a soft orange color and was still being manufactured in 1937.
John

[John F.]

I have seen recent production rifle powder that was baked in an oven at 125 degrees F for 2 hours, three times as part of a lab test to check for degradation.
The powder turned from standard graphite black/grey to yellow. Really looked strange. Unsafe to fire, of course.
John

[BCall]

Back in the 60s I had cans of DuPont Bulk Shotgun powder that was off white irregular crumbles like your photo. According to Sharp's "Complete Guide to Handloading" (1944), it was a favorite with trap shooters. Introduced in 1893, discontinued in 1937. Hercules E C Powder was a soft orange color and was still being manufactured in 1937.
John


Interesting! I had read about bulk smokeless shotgun powder in some old NRA reloading manuals I have. Could be reloaded by volume with black powder. There was more of it per shell than standard smokless powder. I wonder if it was corrosive at all? Too bad something like that isn't made today. I would think it would be the thing for brass shotgun shells. Probably be great for the CAS crowd. Add a little smoke and it would be like Trail Boss for shotguns.

The shells could have been that old, some of them didn't have regular shotgun primers in them. looked more like rifle primers.

[w30wcf]

BCall,
jmh54738 information is "spot on". I have some Hercules EC powder and it is the same color as your photo. I have a small amount of earlier DuPont Bulk smokeless which is also the same color. Later lots of DuPont Bulk Smokeless Shotgun powder were more of a light green color....at least the few lbs of the stuff I have is.

Dupont SR80 is a yellow color but its granulation is smaller.

w30wcf

[Mavrick]

I notice some of the powder is European, probably Nobel. I've seen some of it in the "old days", but haven't seen it in the last 30-40 years. The yellow stuff could also be European or Asian.
Because of the lack of ID, I agree the garden is the best place for it. Good luck with the begonias.
Have fun,
Gene

[Rocky Raab]

Agree. I've seen older bulk powder that was orange. Have read about but never seen pink. I've seen modern stuff that is bright green and others that were yellow. The first runs of Hodgdon Clays were a light tan - and looked like tiny dried lentils.

BTW, the natural color of single-base powder is a greenish yellow. The deterrent and graphite coatings turn it grey to black.

[SciFiJim]

I have seen recent production rifle powder that was baked in an oven at 125 degrees F for 2 hours, three times as part of a lab test to check for degradation.
The powder turned from standard graphite black/grey to yellow. Really looked strange. Unsafe to fire, of course.
John

That doesn't seem like much temp to degrade powder. The inside of a car can get much hotter than that for longer than 2 hours. If you happen to have a box of ammo in a car for a few days in the summer, do you have to worry about degradation then?