How old is this powder?

Got 1,200 caps and a few cans of powder at a probate auction a while back, was wondering if anyone would know how old this can of Dupont FFFG is. Can was full and powder appears ok.

Have no idea but MAN what a great find!

I bet that powder will go bang like it was born yesterday.

Black powder is magical. It just lasts and lasts.

Columbus said:

Got 1,200 caps and a few cans of powder at a probate auction a while back, was wondering if anyone would know how old this can of Dupont FFFG is. Can was full and powder appears ok.

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So it would have been made sometime prior to 1975 as that is when Dupont ceased making black powder.

The can looksalmost exactly like a can advertised on Ebay a while back that was from 1924, although that can had FF in addition to the "superfine." https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/...powder_1_b8e176ea9511a49b381ea8a89434e085.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleut...left France to escape the French Revolution.

https://www.dupontmuseum.com/dupont-plant

https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/dupont-s-explosive-story-of-innovation-1.526311

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/07/...-powder-at-du-pont-du-pont-to-end-powder.html

early to mid 1950's. earlier were a semi oval flask type with center spout.
if yours is an original, and i don't doubt it, it is in remarkable condition! saw one go on evil bay for $99.00 . add the price of the powder and you really should buy a lotto ticket. you scored!

There were actually four cans - the FFFg in this picture was also full - the other two were a bit over half full - all of that plus 1,200 #11 caps for $80.

Sounds like a great deal. The caps alone at Walmart price today would be about $70.

Columbus said:

Got 1,200 caps and a few cans of powder at a probate auction a while back, was wondering if anyone would know how old this can of Dupont FFFG is. Can was full and powder appears ok.

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Dupont halted manufacture of black powder May 16th, 1945.
It was a common practice from the 1950's into the 1980's that members of BP clubs would buy a 25 lb. keg of black powder, and the members would re-use old powder cans when splitting up that keg. So the can is 80 years old or older. Is it Dupont powder? Maybe, maybe not.
I'd chronograph it up against GOEX and Swiss just for the sake of curiosity.

LD

Here's the answer to the age of this specific can from the collection at the Hagley Museum ... I remember using this specific packaging when I first started shooting black powder in the late 1950's

That is a fantastic find. Black powder is good like for forever too. As long as it is kept dry it is good forever. There are numerous cases of old antique black powder guns being loaded and the load was still good too.

Columbus said:

would

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The powder will be as good as new.
The can is collectable and worth something.
The caps may be weak if exposed to humidity for a long time.
You can try them and see.
Great find.

When I buy black powder in a plastic can I pour it into a metal can because it fits in my ammo carrier and my spout attachments will work, so the powder may be newer than the can. Or not.

What a great find!

Here one iv got found in antique shop fill of powder 1924

Columbus said:

Got 1,200 caps and a few cans of powder at a probate auction a while back, was wondering if anyone would know how old this can of Dupont FFFG is. Can was full and powder appears ok.

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That powder will be fine. DuPont eventually stopped making that black powder and GOEX was born. I believe that was the same powder that I bought in 1968 for my Pedersoli Kentucky cap & ball Pistol. I stored some in a jar at home when I went to college and I still had that jar in ~2004 or 2003 when I bought my first Flintlock longrifle. I had moved to Vermont and already had an unmentionable BP rifle because my wife had a deer jump on the hood of our Dodge Raider 4x4 and she said, "you should buy on of those "not to be named" BP muzzleloaders and start hunting again. There are too darn many deer here and they are BIG". Northern white tails do get big. I was using Pyrodex in that cap and ball muzzle loader but when I got my Flintlock long rifle, I could not get it to even flash in the pan. I was very bummed figuring there was something wrong with my new Traditions Pennsylvania longrifle.

Then I remembered seeing that jar of real black powder in the garage when we moved in and I wondered if it would work any better. I went out and found it, went back down Frog Hollow Road (Wells, VT) to my shooting area, and it went off first time. I shot up that half a jar of BP and then had to find more. Found a place in the next village 6-miles up the road that supplied BP to the Slate quarries in the area and they became my very reliable supplier of Black Powder.

So that powder was about 35-years old at the time and still worked perfectly fine. Do not presume it is any less powerful than the day it was made because odds are it's just as potent now as it was then. Take the same caution with it that you would with a new can of it (OK, plastic container).

Loyalist Dave said:

Dupont halted manufacture of black powder May 16th, 1945.
It was a common practice from the 1950's into the 1980's that members of BP clubs would buy a 25 lb. keg of black powder, and the members would re-use old powder cans when splitting up that keg. So the can is 80 years old or older. Is it Dupont powder? Maybe, maybe not.
I'd chronograph it up against GOEX and Swiss just for the sake of curiosity.

LD

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Dupont was still making Black Powder in 1972 in the Belin Works in Moosic, PA. That plant was built in 1908 and came into production in 1912. That brought their BP factories to three - the other two were in Wapwallopen, PA and Wilmington, Delaware. After WWII the Belin plant was able to supply all the BP the market needed and DuPont closed the other two factories. By the 1960's that Belin plant was the ONLY plant in the US producing black powder. In 1972, they sold that plant to Gearhart-Owens and no longer made BP themselves. Thus Gearhart-Owens Explosives - GOEX - was formed.

I remembered seeing the DuPont can when I first bought black powder back in 1968, so the 1946 date didn't make sense to me. I'd recalled hearing about an explosion at their plant and was searching on that when I found this info online as an historical note appended to some info on the explosion at the Belin plant in 1930. I've attached a pdf that has that info in it's "Historical Note" on page 3. This paper is from the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, DE and is supposed to help you find info in its archive. Evidently they have pictures of the August 1, 1930 explosion at the Belin Works Plant, but darned if I could find a way to access them.

Columbus said:

There were actually four cans - the FFFg in this picture was also full - the other two were a bit over half full - all of that plus 1,200 #11 caps for $80.

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That center can - DuPont, red and white can, was what I was buying in 1968 and later. That third can has to be a transition can before Gearhart-Owens came up with the brand name of GOEX for Gearhart-Owens Explosives. I'd guess the logo on that can is for Gearhart-Owend Industries.

Very cool! Thanks for the pics!

Score!! that powder dry is as good as the day it was made. Cool cans also

Twisted_1in66 said:

Northern white tails do get big.

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When I first moved to Virginia in ‘97 I asked the girl I was dating “where are all the adult deer?” We’ve been married 25 years and she still laughs about that.
Jay

Columbus said:

There were actually four cans - the FFFg in this picture was also full - the other two were a bit over half full - all of that plus 1,200 #11 caps for $80.

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That middle can is what I was buying in the mid to late 60's into the 70's. The can style on the right I was buying after 1972 (I think). The price ranged from around $2.25 to $3.50 per can in NJ if memory serves me correctly.

I like how it says "GUNPOWDER" on the old cans.