Old powder leaves rusty dust residue... Should I pitch it?

[gemihur]

Have any of you ever experienced a rusty residue in your powder funnel while charging cases?
It's an old can of IMR 4895. I didn't feel good about it, so I pulled 'em all and repacked 'em with contents from a new can.
Should I trust this stuff or ditch it?
Thanks,
Jimmy

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[Stevenav]

Is the can showing signs of corrosion? Is it an actual can vs a plastic jug? If so you could have iron oxide from the inner walls of the can mixed in with the powder... if so... you could just put in a magnet and swish it around a while, take it out, clean it, swish and repeat.

Or put the powder in a fine mesh sieve and do the same thing with a magnet. sift the powder over the magnet and extract the iron oxide from the powder like that. Might take a couple passes though to get it out.

But powder is still fairly cheap by the pound (if you can get it) so I'd just say pitch it.

 

[gemihur]

The red dust is NOT from the can, the inside is still shiny.
It's comin' off the extruded sticks of the powder.
It is clearly seen inside the silver funnel after dropping a few charges.
I'm just earmarking it for the trash unless I hear otherwise.
Better safe than blown all to hell!

Thanx

 

[Stevenav]

Old powder - Shooters Forum

Found this thread about it. Red dust is supposed to be a sign that it's gone very bad. So there ya go.

 

[cookie]

Sprinkle it in the yard.

 

[AMProducts]

All powders contain compounds like diphenylamine, which when exposed to excess nitrogen, or nitrates turns red in color. It's typically added to soak up any unstable nitrogen compounds that come off powder. If there's enough of it that you can detect the red, it's time to go bye-bye. However, you can still take it out in the yard and set it on fire

 

[gemihur]

Thanks, guys!
That's why I come here, to learn something from your sage advice!
I 'spose that 4895 just turned to 10-10-10!
I feel much better having pulled those bullets and charging them with fresh stuff.
Thanks again.