OLD POWDERS FROM THE 1970'S.....

[offhand35]

I've aquired  some powder, 7#,   from a retired friend cleaning out his supplies.....!
All unopened.

1# of Austin 3f black powder. painted can  (Austin Explosives no longer manufactures black powder, as per their website, used to be Austin Powder Co., Cleveland, OH)

1# of Austin pistol (?3f) paper label

1# of Austin shotgun/ musket (?1f) paper label

1# of  GOI [GEARHART-OWEN INDUSTRIES, MOOSIC, PA]  3f

3# of 3f Meteor Sporting Black Powder, dist. by C-I-L Ammunition, Inc. Plattsburgh, NY, made in Great Britain.

Any of you long-in-the-tooth shooters remember any of these, and how they shot? I'm wondering that since the Meteor is marked as Sporting Powder, if it might be stronger, like Swiss......

[filmokentucky]

There's no reason why these powders wouldn't still be usable. Black powder doesn't lose potency like smokeless powders can. If well sealed and dry, B.P. holds up indefinitely. A friend and I once used up some powder from a can that was rusty and barely readable, but the powder was fine. He thought that his father had bought the powder forty years earlier. So he said, and I had no reason to doubt him.

[offhand35]

These cans all look like brand new, out of the case.......I have also heard that BP does not deteriorate......I think I heard it here somewheere......this is understandable as there is no nitro to evaporate off.

It WILL be interesting, to say the least. My opened cans of GOEX are almost used up.....

[TrapperZach]

my dad had a powder horn that his frind left him when he passed and it had powder that his frinds gran dad had used in it he never used any or refiled it. that would make it about 80 years old. we shot one load in my dads little cap n ball .31 and it shot just fine and smoked good to.

[Will Bison]

I recall using all of those and others. Black powder if stored properly won't go bad. When I was a kid in the 50's, I used to buy .577 Snider ammo and pull the bullets so I could recover the powder for my homemade muzzle loaders. That ammo was close to 80 years old at that time and the powder worked great.

I can't comment on the difference in performance as compared to G-O. I do recall that Curtis&Harvey produced less velocity when compared to an equal amount of DuPont.

[XCOP]

I recently found a couple of pounds of Gerhardt Owens that I bought back in the early 80's.  I had it stored in and old ammo box that had been put away and forgotten about.  Both cans had been opened years ago and recapped before being put away.  I fired a few rounds and they fired just like the new stuff.  My groups were the same as the Goex that I just bought.