Thread: Old powder wrecked reloading gear.

Originally Posted by Gamehunter

Thanks for that ubique.

I spent quite a few hours today removing rust from 3 sets of dies as well as verdigris from alloy bits. All seem still in workable order, but the 100 odd 7mm mag cases need the tarnish removed.
The cardboard primer loader box just crumbled.
There must have been some real bad gas in there.
The blasting powder and fuse seems ok but the suspect 1/2 container of N160 is being dumped.
The 1/2 container of IMR4895 with screw on steel lid that was rusted (for .308) seems and smells OK but will check a few loads before I do a batch.

Seems odd to me that powder goes off in a container but not in a cartridge.

Greetings @Gamehunter,
I have has some CAC and handloads that were probably both loaded with AR2201 in which the powder had clumped where there was no sign of problems on the outside of the case. Some of the primers were dead as well. I think the fact that the cap on the IMR 4895 container was rusted but the powder looked fine makes me reasonably sure that moisture was the problem. When you sealed the container as you say on a sunny day say 25 degrees C the relative humidity was likely around 35% at best. By winter with the temperature at 5 degrees C the same amount of moisture will drive the relative humidity over 100% and everything will be wringing wet. I really believe that this was the lions share of the problem.
Regards Grandpamac.