Quote:
Originally Posted by ferretkona
I have my old .50 cal I need to clean up and go shooting with. I found some caps for it in the garage but I know I got rid of the powder a decade ago. I found mine to be a nice flat shooting rifle and I could keep a nice tight group with it back 30 years ago. I might take it out for a early deer season next year.
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Got rid of the powder?
What for? Every so often some one will bring me powder "It's gotta be at least 100 years old!"
So far I have been using this stuff that comes in a old maxwell house coffee can that sat around in a shed for 20 years which is some what more realistic, and the plastic cap on the can is cracked. Of course I moved the powder into a better can with a screw on lid.
So far as I can tell old back powder stays pretty good, unless it gets wet, or unless it lives for a long time in a place that vibrates.. That might be a powder hold in a ship that runs on some sort of big engine, or maybe in the trunk of a car, but for a very long time.
Over years of time I have seen powder that got wiggled and jiggled that came into contact with a little water too and that filters itself to be finer grains on top, and leave larger grains on the bottom and some of the larger grains form clumps.
If you break up the clumps and invert the fine powder it will re mix in the powder and it works about right.
Or I guess you can throw it out..... LOL
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