Does Powder Have a Shelf Life?

[5hundo]

I'm just curious, does gun powder have a "shelf life"? My Dad has a bunch of powder lying around and I'm not sure if powder ever goes bad. It's been sitting for about 5-10 years...

Just curious...

[bohoki]

well i dont think the powder can really tell if it is in a sealed can with all his buddys or a cartridge with only a few of his buddys

[CoinStar]

If you search the rec.guns archives with Google, you will unearth loads of hits on this subject. Generally speaking, shelflife is determined by how powder has been stored.

My own empirical evidence:

I have an old metal can of IMR 700X that was given to me at least 15 years ago. The age of the powder is likely quite a bit older than that. It's spent most of it's life in a hot garage and yet it still produces flawless handgun rounds when I'm feeling cheap and it's all I have on hand.

...as always, YMMV.

[Beelzy]

If you store is correctly, it will last as long as a good Kentucky Bourbon.
For a REALLY long time.

I have powder that is 20+ yrs. old and it still is as fresh as the day they put
it in the can.

[Revoman]

There is a shelf life, but as stated, it's a long time and depends on the storing method.
Usually if the powder has a very strong sulfphur odor, it has turned and gone bad.
It will probably still burn, but not worthwhile for loading.
I have had powders for close to 25 years stored in a garage in SoCal, which does get warm, but I believe that a good thing as water or moisture would be absolutely detrimental.

[Moonclip]

Doesn't it turn reddish or something when it is bad also? Doesn't black powder get better with age if stored correctly?

[Darklyte27]

prob like anything else man made, im no pro but if you use it in a timely manner you should be gtg.
I personally would not want to wait 10 or 20 years to use some powder.
use that stuff up!

[gottarollwithit]

If stored properly, it'll last for a super long time. Just think, ppl are still shooting surplus ammo from decades ago. I just loaded up some ammo that had powder from the early 90's, maybe even before. Standing in front of it while testing would be a bad idea....

[gunboat]

First liar doesn't have a chance :-) -- I am still using Hodgdon Ball C 2 that I bought in 1959-60 -- The 4831 from the same time finally gassed off and got tossed -