free gunpowder

[Forrest r]

Was given this over the weekend.

The oldest can is 1/2 full, the 3031. The rest are full with a $10.50 price tag on them. They all smell good/no acid smell. Looks like I got some powder to burn up in the 308w/cast bullets.

 

[Bakebfr480]

The price was right!

 

[joeintexas]

Sweet deal there. Also, hang onto those cans, collectors may be knocking at your door.

 

[gwpercle]

If they smell good and don't have any red rust / dust in the powder then you are good to go, Nice Score !
Gary

 

[mikld]

Be very careful! That powder must be thoroughly tested so send it to me and I'll get back to you by Christmas, 2019...

 

[Nevada Ed]

Holly, Molly..........

did you kiss the Blarney Stone, or something ??

Very nice.

With today's prices, you did very well, young man.
Enjoy.

 

[Qc Pistolero]

Your lucky day heh!If I'd be you,I'd go buy a lottery ticket right away and try to stretch my luck.
Glad for you!

 

[glowe]

How are you sure the powder matches the can label? Sealed cans, blast away, and DuPont cans did have a seal under the cap. On the other hand, partially empty cans, ??????????????

 

[Forrest r]

How are you sure the powder matches the can label? Sealed cans, blast away, and DuPont cans did have a seal under the cap. On the other hand, partially empty cans, ??????????????

The only open can is the 3031, the rest are sealed.

I have all of those powders that were given to me. Not only did I do a visual inspection comparing my powders to the powders that were given to me. I did a volume weight test on every can testing my known powders vs the free powders.

All the powders smelled good, looked good, were what the labels said they were. The 7 1/2# of powder will get burned up in a 308w shooting cast bullets. My goal is to find cast bullet/powder combo's that will do +/- 1" (moa) @ 100yds in the +/- 2600fps range (10-shot groups).

2000+fps is child's play. moa/2000fps with cast bullets 10-shot group @100yds. 18.7gr of 2400 pushing the lee 312-160tl bullet.

That 2679fps group was 1 1/2" @ 100yds/10-shot group.

Cutting that last 1/2" out of those loads will burn up a bunch of powder.

The 4227 will get burned up finding a load for the "ness" bullet. Looking for a +/- 2200fps moa load.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

Sweet ! I still have some of those (4227 & 3031 & 4064) with prices in the under $4.00 range , still works as good as it did when I bought it .

 

[rwsmith]

Long live.....

Long live 'gallery' loads. I love tapping into the extreme versatility of the 30-06 with the variety of powders and bullets. And I can shoot lead bullets all day without going broke. Another economical choice are the half jacketed 'plinker' bullets like Speer makes IF you can find them.

 

[Nevada Ed]

By chance do you G/C those low vel loads or just use a bullet lube?

In my 30-06, I load the 100gr SJRN from either Speer #1805 or Hornady #3005 for
light target loads, with SR4759 or IMR 4227 for 50 yard, kids ammo.

I have used BLC, 4895, Bullseye and Unique with the copper base bullets.

Have fun.

 

[Forrest r]

By chance do you G/C those low vel loads or just use a bullet lube?

In my 30-06, I load the 100gr SJRN from either Speer #1805 or Hornady #3005 for
light target loads, with SR4759 or IMR 4227 for 50 yard, kids ammo.

I have used BLC, 4895, Bullseye and Unique with the copper base bullets.

Have fun.

It depends on what I'm doing with the cast bullets. I will gc them when I traditionally lube them simply because the lube gets all over the gc base of the bullet with the lyman 450 sizer when a gc is not installed. With coated bullets I can always coat them and then gc them afterwards if needed for hot loads.

 

[max503]

Very nice. That 4227 makes good cast bullet 44 mag loads.

 

[hdwhit]

forrest r wrote:
Was given this over the weekend.

Congratulations.

The price indicates the powder comes from somewhere between 1985 and 1994. Others may be able to refine those dates into a narrower range.

I have had no problem with 1985-vintage IMR powders even in 2017 (haven't shot in 2018). I am NOT suggesting that powders are immoral - anything but - rather suggesting that IMR powders from the 1970's and 1980's CAN (not necessarily HAVE) survived 30-40 years sealed in their original containers.

My suggestion is that you treat it like any new powder and work up loads accordingly.

Because of a neurological condition, I ended up away from my reloading bench for 20+ years. Most of the powders suffered little, if any, degradation. Hercules Green Dot was an exception, delivering 40% of the velocity obtained prior to storage. Again, I am not saying that everyone else will have the same experience. What I am saying (for a second time) is that you should treat "old" powder as "new to you" and develop a load around it using normal load development procedures.

 

[BLUEDOT37]

Was given this over the weekend.
The oldest can is 1/2 full, the 3031. The rest are full with a $10.50 price tag on them.

Nice gift!!

I'm still trying to use up this can of 3031 I bought over three (almost four) decades ago. Not doing to good.

(Yeap, there was one J.C.Penney store in town that actually sold reloading supplies.)

.

.

 

[Forrest r]

I tend not to have that problem with rifle powders, they don't collect a lot of dust.

Powders like the imr3031 & imr4227 (improved military rifle) have been around a long time (1935). The end result is tons of testing/uses in different cartridges are there.