Powder shelf life?

[talkingamoeba]

Good news, I will be getting the package this week, the Goex FFFg was now in stock. Thanks for letting me know that BP is stable enough to store.

 

[Sperit de bois]

I figure if you do it correctly ,,,you should shoot it up long before the shelf life is a problem,,,

 

[1911nutjob]

Good news, I will be getting the package this week, the Goex FFFg was now in stock. Thanks for letting me know that BP is stable enough to store.

Glad to help, but really do recommend that you try the Graf's. I try to support made in the USA but it's a good substitute. Stable? More than I am after eating white castle. :grin:

 

[wojciste]

I had Goex 4F purchased in 1985 that I was using up to a year ago in the northeast. Stored in a shed for the majority of those years, cap on, in an ammo can. Still "fresh as a daisy"

 

[talkingamoeba]

Powder came, the FFg is in plastic "cans", which I have a prejudice against, maybe they are made of a stable plastic that doesn't degrade over time, but I'll be using it and keeping the FFg I already had that is in the metal cans for my insurance policy. The FFFg and FFFFg are in metal. I have some strange be prepared gene and I was never a boy scout.

 

[necchi]

Funny,
I'd take the Plastic jug over a Tin one anyday.
Trust me, the plastic they use for powder jugs is/has special ingredients that make them very stable.
It's the 21st century man.
Don't get me wrong, Tin is fine if properly stored, but I have seen neglected rusted tins,,

p.s. I make the stuff that makes the plastic,,

 

[MSW]

plastic works for me, even if some of the stuff supposedly lets air in... i've shot FFFg that's nearly forty years old with no degradation that I can discern...

I am reminded of the story (might be apocraphal, but it sounds goofy enough to be real) of Bubba and Billy Bob, who after no small quantity of long necks at the dew drop in, decided that the South would indeed rise again, and that the firing of that Civil War ("war of yankee agression") cannon on the village green was just the thing to start things running... it had been filled with cement, and the touch hole covered over, but they were sure that a propane torch would loosen things up ...

bits of the two, along with some empty propane torch canasters, parts of the cannon, and assorted debris was found at a considerable distance after they managed to get the powder close to the touch hole hot enough to ingite ... seems that the cannon had been loaded when it was plugged with cement ...

take - home points: don't play with cannon if you don't know where they've been and, BP has a really long shelf life.

just my two cents worth ...

 

[Stumpkiller]

I recently read an article claiming Goex in Moosic, PA had "bacteria" in the water used in the process that metabolized the sulphur and degraded powder.

Have not experienced this myself or heard from secondary sources. Be interesting to hear of ANYONE who has observed degraded blackpowder. I imagine the result would have to be Hydrogen Sulfide (the "egg smell" that is a gas at room temperature) and sulphuric acid. I guess you'd know when the sealed cans burst or thee acid ate through the steel and dissolved the Potassium Nitrate.

Anyone observed this? I sure haven't.

 

[Dphar]

I tried the search, but didn't find the answer... how long will BP keep if stored in the original can?

Good BP has no shelf life so long as its kept dry, even in a flask or horn.
Powder made with contaminated components may or may not. Sodium nitrate in the powder can cause it to absorb excess moisture which can cause it to perform poorly.
The Moosic GOEX would let the bacteria eat the powder as long as the oxygen level was sufficient for activity. There would be a lot of dust in the powder and if loading BOCR with a drop tube before the can was used a lot of dust would appear in the case when it was dropped through a drop tube. ML shooters might never see this.
None of the substitutes are particularly stable and may not last a year.

Dan