Safely Storing Black Powder

[starman]

I am a little late to this thread by about 8 months, but I do have a question. My gun safe is in my unfinished basement. It is a concrete floor and heated and cooled by our HVAC system. I am currently storing 5 pounds of 3F Goex black powder in my gun safe. All containers are original. One is metal and 4 are plastic. Is this safe?

 

[Tumbledown]

I am a little late to this thread by about 8 months, but I do have a question. My gun safe is in my unfinished basement. It is a concrete floor and heated and cooled by our HVAC system. I am currently storing 5 pounds of 3F Goex black powder in my gun safe. All containers are original. One is metal and 4 are plastic. Is this safe?

No. You have a potential bomb. Get a thick-walled wood box and store the powder in there.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

I have 4 lbs now stored in a wooden box with loose lid in my workshop separate from house. It gets warm in there in summer but I can always put a freezer pack in it if I need too.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Do any of you guys put a desiccant of some kind in your storage chest with the blackpowder cans or bottles? I live in a humid place (Florida... ) and put the individual powder cans/bottles in sealed quart-sized ziplock baggies inside the larger box to provide a little more airtight protection. I have also put some rice grains in the baggies, as we used to believe this would help in humid conditions (remember the rice grains in the salt shakers?). Realistically, I doubt the rice makes any difference whatsoever, but I was wondering about any risks or benefits using silica gel packets.

Any thoughts on this?

Notchy Bob

 

[ord sgt]

Well, G.I. .50 calibre ammo cans have worked very much good for the last 25 years. I used to buy FFFg in 5lb bulk bags and then when needed, the powder was transferred into one pound metal cans but still kept in the ammo cans. Now, the powder comes in plastic bottles. I only need to store FFg and FFFg black powder.

These are the same G.I. 50 calibre ammunition cans that store 50 calibre BMG rounds, each a potential bomb. If the U.S. Military felt that the ammo cans were a potential bomb, then they would have found another way of storing and transporting all of of their supplies. If it is good enough for the military, then it's good enough for me. These cans are air tight and water tight and sit on a wood floor. There is a solid cement slab under the floor. I store the reloaded modern rounds the same way.

 

[Woody Morgan]

I recovered a pantry cabinet from a kitchen remodel and installed it in our horse shelter that I'm converting to an outside shop about 100' from the house. I'll add most of my primer and smokeless powder collection to it soon.
The wife and I are much more comfortable with this arrangement. After reloading for the last 35 years, one tends to collect an awful lot of support materials, ya know?

wm

 

[Rod Man]

I recovered a pantry cabinet from a kitchen remodel and installed it in our horse shelter that I'm converting to an outside shop about 100' from the house. I'll add most of my primer and smokeless powder collection to it soon.
The wife and I are much more comfortable with this arrangement. After reloading for the last 35 years, one tends to collect an awful lot of support materials, ya know?

wm

Does your shelter have A/C? Just curious, cuz I was thinking about moving mine out of the house as well. I live in Northwest Arkansas, so the heat is not as oppressive as some other areas but it does get warm sometimes and my shop does not have A/C but is fine with a couple of fans running. So how warm is "too" warm? At what point is there degradation?

RM

 

[Woody Morgan]

Does your shelter have A/C? Just curious, cuz I was thinking about moving mine out of the house as well. I live in Northwest Arkansas, so the heat is not as oppressive as some other areas but it does get warm sometimes and my shop does not have A/C but is fine with a couple of fans running. So how warm is "too" warm? At what point is there degradation?

RM

I don't think bp degrades with heat unless it's instantaneous, ya know?
The shop is well ventilated and may hit 95° a couple days each summer.
I don't consider it an issue.

wm

 

[Rod Man]

I don't think bp degrades with heat unless it's instantaneous, ya know?
The shop is well ventilated and may hit 95° a couple days each summer.
I don't consider it an issue.

wm

Same here bud.

Thanks.

Gonna make the move this weekend.

RM

 

[VADSLRAM]

These are the same G.I. 50 calibre ammunition cans that store 50 calibre BMG rounds, each a potential bomb. If the U.S. Military felt that the ammo cans were a potential bomb, then they would have found another way of storing and transporting all of of their supplies. If it is good enough for the military, then it's good enough for me. These cans are air tight and water tight and sit on a wood floor. There is a solid cement slab under the floor. I store the reloaded modern rounds the same way.

BP and smokeless are two different animals. BP is more sensitive to more things .Just look at the store shelves. I can choose from several varieties of smokeless and even BP substitutes. But REAL BP has to be shipped, stored and sold much differently. Smokeless is much less susceptible to static ignition and degradation ignition.
Plus good enough for the military is NOT a good comparison. We are trained, retrained, then trained again in safety BECAUSE what we deal with daily is just more dangerous by nature. There is a certain amount of danger acceptance involved and still you need to QA munitions to ensure they are in good condition. If they are out of date or in any way degraded they are transferred to EOD for disposal. I feel fairly safe in saying 90% of BP shooters aren't checking the powder and logging its lot number, manufacture date and condition even annually.

 

[mooman76]

Not to mention the military don't store it where they live and ammo stored in cans is completely different from bulk powder.

 

[popgun54tc]

Many years ago at the BPCR Nationals I talked to Doc., who runs the Upper Missouri Trading company that sells Black Powder, he said they store their Black Powder in under ground bunkers, and the temp in those bunkers would get to 120 degrees during the summer. He said he had know problem with that high of temp. Just food for thought.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

My shed will mirror the outside temperature. Can get some 90F summer days but very dry here as well.

 

[Hawken1980]

Mine is stored in my shop off the ground in a wooden box next to my modern stuff and stuff in two ammo crates.
anyone ever put it in an old working fridge inside of boxes an older man I know does. Seems also like a good idea.

 

[Cattywompuss]

Simple Google searches will answer many of these questions. No ambient Temps on earth are enough to ignite blackpowder. It's ignition point is very high. I think over 90C.

The idea behind wood containers is that they will not contain the ignition, which is good. Uncontained blackpowder exploding is not as dangerous as compressed/contained powder. Kinda like air, or water. Squeeze a bottle of water till it bursts and you get a burst of water.

Modern black powder is also coated in graphite to minimize static electricity danger.

This stuff is pretty simple. You just have to be as careful as you are with anything.

 

[Cattywompuss]

This thread has gotten me thinking. I had the bright idea of pre-loading charges for my ROA by using small plastic tubes to save the time of measuring in the field. Now I'm wondering if I might be creating a hazard due to the possibility of static electricity, especially here in AZ with our low humidity. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Modern powder is coated in graphite to prevent static discharge. It can happen, but it's unlikely. Alibi: you're an adult so I am not offering advice.

 

[Cattywompuss]

I was waaaaay off, in a good way. BP ignites at 494 degrees Celsius, so I now intend to store it in my car in the South in August.

 

[Cattywompuss]

There is also a handily available MSDS for blackpowder in PDF form online.

 

[gunnyr]

Mine is stored in my shop off the ground in a wooden box next to my modern stuff and stuff in two ammo crates.
anyone ever put it in an old working fridge inside of boxes an older man I know does. Seems also like a good idea.

I store my welding rod in a fridge , it works pretty good. If I were to store black powder though I would weaken the
door latch. You don't want a large version of a military ammo can bomb. In case of a preasure spike you don't
want it contained . In my earlier life I was a schooled trained Ammo Tech 5 years , then trained as a Small Arms
Repair man, 7 years.
gunnyr

 

[mooman76]

I was an Ammo Tech 76-80