Age of powder

Curious if some of you long time reloaders can tell me how old this pound of 380 is
It has $3.15 marked on top of can.

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Early 60's is my best guess, and I know it is not early 70s. I believe that in the late 60's, they were still using a cardboard can, but went from a steel plug lid to a plastic plug lid. By the early 70s, the cans were round with a plastic plug type of lid.

When this can of H380 was produced, my dad would order 12 lb cans of bullseye, and the post office would deliver them to the front door step. You could go into the local hardware store with your own paper bag and get a pound or two of H4831 or H4895 sold by the scoop.

A pic of the top of the H380 can also help in the identification.

Old lol. I would say late 60s

Real olde - possibly 59-60 years old, like mid 1960's.
Is a cardboard/paper container a "can"?
Probably contains lots of calcium carbonate, (CaCO3) as a stabilizing agent- not real clean burning.
Made from reclaimed, like dissolved huge amounts of older extruded 4895 powders used for cal .30 WWII rifles, producing surface tension formed ball grains. Huge means tons, not pounds. Powder was real cheap then.
I once had some red & yellow cardboard/paper containers of reclaimed, pull down from other calibers, H4831.
I too am real olde.

As a side note - I once had some cardboard powder containers stored in a steel lock box. After a month or so I saw lots of rust inside the box. My best guess is that nitric acid (HNO3) fumes penetrated the cardboard and caused the rust. Rusty steel cans would not be good. Plastic cans are used today. The CaCO3 neutralizes the HNO3 that is continually formed by decomposition and extends powder life. Powder needs to be stored in a cool dry place. Probably other stabilizing agents are now used. I never did too good at school chemistry, possibly my simple analysis indicates this.

Yep, that Old 380 would clog up a 22/250! I have seen some barrels that were ruined from never being cleaned. Of course, back then, good brushes did not exist, but I wish I had 5 gallons of the old Hoppes #9.

h380 was named by Bruce hodgdon when building a load for the 22-250 while it was sill a wildcat, remington picked it up and put it through saami in 1965-- so if that can was the 1st design for the powder it means it would be before 1965

It's younger than me

Is it still good to use? What's the possible downside of using old powder like this? I've got some.

Pour it out on paper towels, after you smell the powder. If the powder smells like amonia, it is ruined. If it has collected a lot of moisture, it will be clumpy or if it is in the process of breaking down the powder will not be uniform in color going from black to brownish in color.

It's never been opened and I just have it as a conversation piece in my loading room.
The main conversation always leads to the $3.15 price tag on it versus what we have today.
Thanks

The first one I bought was $2.35, and a box of Norma 6 Rem brass was $4.95, which was a shockingly high price for brass around 1968, powder had been on the shelf for a while.

Can you smell any odors thru the side of the container....if not and you have worries..gotta open it to test it...
I'd light a spoonful off..see how it does....
Make a video of lighting it off and share...

cbk57 said:

It's never been opened and I just have it as a conversation piece in my loading room.
The main conversation always leads to the $3.15 price tag on it versus what we have today.
Thanks

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Do not Open, leave it as a conversation collection. That's what I would do.
If it's been sealed all these years, it's probably still good.

fruitnut said:

Is it still good to use? What's the possible downside of using old powder like this? I've got some.

Click to expand...

I have a few pounds left from a 15 or 20 lb keg from world war II. H4831 still works great.