DANGER: Old Gunpowder Can Kill You

Would you trust this old can of gunpowder? Will it explode if you shake it? Catch on fire in a hot room?

Ron Spomer Outdoors - Old Hodgdon Rifle Powder

Ron Spomer Outdoors - Old Hodgdon (back of can)

Farmers in France still uncover unexploded bombs from WWII. Local authorities often dispose of those bombs by exploding them. Yup, the things remain viable and dangerous after more than 65 years.So does gunpowder and hunting ammunition.Sort of.The smokeless gunpowder inside old rifle cartridges is quite stable and could be as potent today as it was the day it was loaded, therefore such ammunition can be dangerous if it’s chambered into a suitable rifle and fired.

The bullet flying from the muzzle is the dangerous part. The cartridge itself – and the powder within it – are no more “dangerous” than a brand new cartridge. This is because modern gunpowder (smokeless) is not an explosive. Stick a match to a heap of it and it burns, but does not explode. Even old blackpowder doesn’t explode unless, like smokeless powder, it is confined. When the powder burns, the resulting gas raises pressures and, like air escaping from a punctured balloon, goes bang. They also “blow apart” the confining vessel, or, in the case of a firearm, blow an obstruction (bullet) out the muzzle. Cartridges thrown into a fire will pop and fling debris, including bullets, but not with the force generated through a barrel.Nitrocellulose gunpowder does deteriorate with time, moisture and heat, but it becomes less potent, not more.

There have been reports of large quantities of smokeless military powder confined in relatively small spaces (small rooms, perhaps cellars) degenerating to acidic gases and those gases exploding, but I have never heard of small quantities of common handloading powders exploding.But what do you do with a canister of old gunpowder? According to Chris Hodgdon of the Hodgdon Powder Company in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, the powder in the canister shown here is WWII surplus likely manufactured way back in the 1930s or 1940s, then packaged and sold by his company in the 1950s or early 1060s. Mr. Hodgdon went on to write that the stuff in the can is “probably good if [it was] properly stored.

Check for deterioration by three factors: strong smell, rust colored kernels (or rusty dust) and warm to the touch. [If] Any of these are present GET RID IF IT. Old powder makes great fertilizer for the lawn.”So sprinkle it in your garden or lawn and water it down. But if it appears to still be good, feel free to follow directions in a handloading manual for H4831 powder and build a test load using the recommended starting dose (low powder quantity, low pressure.) Shoot this over a chronograph such as the Oehler Research 35P and note the velocity. If it falls near the numbers listed in the recipe book, the powder is still potent.Knowing this, handloaders can sometimes find and buy “old” powder for pennies. Look at the $2.50 price on the can in this picture. Today’s H4831 is selling for about ten times more.# # #