The short answer is yes, powder does have a shelf life. It is very long, as in decades. If stored even reasonably well 30 year old powder will be as useful as the day it was made. I've never smelled bad powder but apparently it has "bad" or "bitter" smell, not the ether/alcohol/solvent smell of good powder.

You might find a date code on you container. A current date code will read something 81231151234, that is 8 pound, 12th month, 31st day, 2015, lot number 1234. The code on your container might have something similar.

Your description of the problems with the load sounds more like too little powder rather than old powder. What hull/primer/wad/weight of shot/weight of powder did you use? Cross check with data for 20 gauge Universal published at www.hodgdon.com reloading center to see if you were in the ballpark.

Old powder is possible, but not likely.

Good luck.

Dan

 

I loaded a old container of Herco last year that was 35 years old that shot fine. If stored properly last a long time.

 

I am currently shootings reloads from 2003, 12's and 20's
No failures at all.

 

I have reloads over 30 years old, no issues. IIRC, the makers of Unique store a batch of the original lot under water and they took some out, dry it and shoot it.

here is a sample of Laflin & Rand (aka: Hercules) now Alliant Unique that was placed in storage under water in 1899. It was tested in 1996. They say it will be tested again this century and is expected to perform as well as when it was made. (From The ABC's of Reloading 8th edition).

 

If smokeless powder has a shelf life, I have yet to discover what it is. I was shooting at our local trap field a year ago and in the empty buckets, I found a whole bunch of Remington Express "Kleanbore" ribbed high brass paper shells that used #57 primers. That ammo must have been at least 40 years old, possibly older. How long has it been since Remington sold paper shells? Yet apparently it shot just fine.
I guess someone just decided to shoot up some ammo they found in grandpa's closet or something like that.

 

I inherited a lot of shot shells from the 1930s that belonged to my step dad. Some of it was still in wood cases. It had been stored in his garage since 1963, and before that??? Anyway, there were a lot of loose shells and I tried a few at my local club. Bottom line is that they shot just fine. Not a single dud.

 

Last year I loaded up 3 1 pond bottles of Unique for my 20 ga which had price tags of $1.07 on them. Finished off the league with them and they have started off this year's league without a hitch.

As has been mentioned, powder has a long shelf life and it takes a bit for it to go bad. It sounds like there are some other issue rather than the powder going on with the OP.

 

I'm still using H-4831 that is WW II surplus. My loads are more consistent with it than new H-4831. Old powder and ammo is not something 10 years back, not even 50 years back. Well, it might be old to you depending on your age, but to me it's not old and it dang sure isn't unusable! It's not like fresh fish.

BP

 

The Clays family of powders was introduced in the 90's. When it comes to powder, that is not old. You could have one of the first jugs ever sold and it should be fine. I'm not up there with BP's WWII surplus but I have loaded powder (couple pounds) stored in a coffee can with a plastic lid for 35 years and it all worked fine.

 

It will last for decades if stored properly. I have shot paper shells with the brass completely covered in green , had to clean them up just to chamber them, and they all went bang.

 

How about the primers? I've bought a lot of "properly stored" powder that was from some older shooters at the club... as others describe... I've had not issues.

Maggs

 

Same deal with primers. WW I ammo still goes bang pretty loud! It's corrosive primed, but fire it did.

BP

 

Well we are on the subject of powder, I have a 3lb. can of Win. 540 and all the shells I have loaded work just fine but there is a little bit of rust forming on the inside of the can, should I move it to another container, or is this nothing to worry about?

 

jsteed-
Here's some information on how to check powders for deterioration: Alliant on Powder Storage.
--Bob

 

jsteed-
Here's some information on how to check powders for deterioration: Alliant on Powder Storage.
--Bob

The link calls for storage of powder in a "cool, dry" place. How many people are storing their powder in a cool, dry place? For those who don't store their powder in a cool, dry place, what is the temperature variation your powder has been subjected to?

FWIW, I have been storing my powder in an insulated cooler with the lid unlatched in my garage with a temperature variation (low -> high) of approx. 30 degrees F between winter to summer. So far, I haven't had any problems with the powder going bang, but I have only been doing the hand loading for a year.

 

aBrowningfan-

Temperature variation by itself should not pro0duce deterioration of powder. Temperatures above usual human environments can accelerate rate of powder deterioration.

How cool is the cool in "cool dry place"? If it feels sort of cool to a human, then it's OK for powders.

Hodgdon has a helpful notice: Hodgon on Powder Stability.

--Bob

 

I havd some 700-X some years back that had been stored out in a chicken house with windows on the south side. It was in plain sight close to the windows. The guy that had it said it had been there at least 15 years, probably 20 or more. It was an 8# square DuPont can. It shot fine. In fact I've still got some in a jug and both shotgun and pistol shells loaded with it. I'd hate to guess how hot it got sitting in front of the window in that closed up chicken coup all those years. There was a gallon milk jug of Unique there too. When I picked it up the jug started to fall apart. It loaded quite a few 20 and 28 ga shells with no problems. I'd guess I still have shells loaded with it. This has been probably 15 years ago too. Like Pitted Bore said, if you can stand it, the powder can too.

BP

 

aBrowningfan-

Temperature variation by itself should not pro0duce deterioration of powder. Temperatures above usual human environments can accelerate rate of powder deterioration.

How cool is the cool in "cool dry place"? If it feels sort of cool to a human, then it's OK for powders.

Hodgdon has a helpful notice: Hodgon on Powder Stability.

--Bob

Thank you for the link. The last two paragraphs on the page kind of summarizes the storage consideration:

"The entire stabilizer / decomposition process is a time and temperature function - the higher the temperature, the shorter the safe life of the powder. Even moderate temperature, over extended time, leads to propellant decomposition. As a rule of thumb, any temperature over that which is comfortable to a person is accelerating the decomposition of smokeless propellants.

Under proper storage, modern smokeless powder can last for decades. However, this does not mean the reloader can ignore how the powder is stored, particularly if in an uncontrolled environment such as a garage or storage building."

I definitely don't have my 20/28 powder being stored in the conditions described by Burnt Powder (probably the hottest the powder I am storing has gotten is 75 - 80 degrees F during the day). In the insulated cooler, it may not have gotten to 80 degrees.

Thanks for the responses. {hs#

 

I had an old red metal keg of Red Dot (from the 60's?) that did go bad. I tried it in a few test shells back in the days of empty LGS shelves in the hopes that the grayish powder would still to its thing and got pooch results. Didn't smell bad (to me) but I can't smell things all that well, I guess.

 

Y'all need to go online & read the history of Laflin & Rand. They have a picture of the jar of loose Unique powder soaking in water that they sample periodically. They dry it out & shoot it. Really interesting stuff.

 

tash & others-

The photo of the powder in the old lab jar, stored under water, certainly made a lasting impression. It's referred to a couple of times a year on this forum. The purpose of the ad was to emphasize the consistency of Hercules/Alliant powders. At the time the photo was published, Alliant had just taken over production of the Hercules powders, and they wanted to reassure their reloading customers that they would continue to produce powders that did not vary significantly from one lot to the next.

When the topic of powder longevity was introduced in a thread in this forum in 2014, some Alliant customer service persons made some posts. Here's a link to that thread, which includes an image of the ad with the underwater powder: 1983 and earlier components.

(As the footnote to the ad states, the powder was stored underwater because it otherwise became unstable. Stabilizers began to be added to powders soon after, so that storing your own powder underwater is not a good idea.)
--Bob

 

I had a keg of 800 go bad on me.If you got un burned pouder then it has to be the powder or the primers.