30 Year Old Black Powder

Black powder remains potent for at least 150 years. In about 1961, another member of the Fort Bragg, NC EOD unit and myself answered a call to Washington, NC. A local fisherman was brazing a lug on a 10" cannon ball for use as an anchor, when it exploded, killing him instantly. The explosion broke windows in nearby homes.

The fisherman had a large collection of Civil War explosive ordnance that we hauled back to Fort Bragg for disposal.

An acquaintence is the last USMC casualty of the US Civil War. In the late 1980s the EOD Marine was inerting a Parrot round when it exploded, badly injuring him.

"More than 140 years after the end of the war the pitted the North against the South over slavery, the cannonball was still powerful enough to send a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house a quarter-mile from White's home in the leafy Richmond suburb of Chester, Virginia."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/140-yr-old-cannonball-kills-civil-war-fan/

Black powder I have used and still use is fine. Some smokeless, on the other hand, has not fared well at all - rusted through from the inside and reduced non-factory plastic container to crumbly, paper thin status. Shelf in garage since 2004 - don't know where it was before that. Some of the early pyrodex I set aside from when it first came out has been disappointing (not useless, but I have no faith in it). People gave me lots of various powders years ago, if unopened, I used it. Opened containers - nope.

shootistjack said:

Friends,

In my closet I have found some Goex FFg in its original can, and an additional amount in a brass flask.
It looks normal. I'd say that I bought it around 1990. Is it usable in a flintlock or should it be discarded
for safety reasons?
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The stuff is not a chemical, it is made of natural stuff and will last way longer than any of us. Your great grand kids will still be using it. Just keep your powder dry and go have a good time.

Shoot it. It is fine as long as it was sealed. Better than paying 30 bucks for a pound.
Ohio Rusty ><>

springfield art said:

It's as good as new. Whenever they find black powder-loaded cannon shells from the Civil War, they still handle them as though they're still explosive. It's as safe as the day it was made. I'm sure many will agree with my post. (As long as it was stored OK, as you appear to have been. )

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25 years ago I came across excerpts from an accident report about an accident that resulted in some deaths and injuries during the early years of WW II.
An Infantry squad out on some kind of training exercise in the Fredericksburg, VA area got caught in a raging snowstorm, found an old abandoned log cabin in the woods, and decided to hole up there for a few hours and try to dry out and warm up a little. They scrounged up some dry wood and had a good blaze going in the old fireplace in a few minutes.
After an hour or so they realized they had put too much wood on the fire and a couple of burning short logs kept rolling out onto the hearth. Looking around for something heavy to bank up against the logs so they would stay put, one of the guys found in a corner of the room a couple of what looked like old Civil War cannon balls about 4 inches in diameter that were dirty and very heavily rusted, and placed them a couple of feet apart in the front of the firebox.
For whatever reasons, they thought the balls were were solid shot. Turned out they were spherical shell with a powder charge inside. Sometime later one of them cooked off as the men were crowded around the fire. Killed two outright and seriously injured all 5 or 6 of the others.
Don’t know for sure if it is a true story, but there it is.

Ohio Rusty said:

Shoot it. It is fine as long as it was sealed. Better than paying 30 bucks for a pound.
Ohio Rusty ><>

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There's a price sticker on my tin can of Goex FFg. I'm going to start another thread asking you all to guess the amount!

Got powder older than my oldest kid and he will be 36 next month

shootistjack said:

There's a price sticker on my tin can of Goex FFg. I'm going to start another thread asking you all to guess the amount!

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Have a can of DuPont with the price tag still on it. $2.10.

At the end of December 1999, we fired a P53 rifled musket that had been loaded in 1897 for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. We found the date on a few unburnt pieces of wadding, after discovering that the gun was loaded. It had been on a wall in a local pub since nobody knew when, but it was certainly there back in 1902 when the new King Edward was crowned - the old photograph clearly show it in the very same position.

It went as KA-boom as fresh stuff.

shootistjack said:

Friends,

In my closet I have found some Goex FFg in its original can, and an additional amount in a brass flask.
It looks normal. I'd say that I bought it around 1990. Is it usable in a flintlock or should it be discarded
for safety reasons?
View attachment 143243

Click to expand...

send it to me and I will shoot it for you to make sure it's still good. lol That;s a neat find

Absolutely smokeless is a chemical substance and is prone to eventually go bad even if stored safely. Black is just a physical mixture of 3 basic ingredients and is super stable.

30 year old powder?!!?
Son, you'll put your eye out!
or
Seeing as how I just saw a guy at a gun show pay $55 for a pound of GOEX that weren't no more then two or three years old; surely yours must be worth at least $155/lb., and if you have any authentic rust on the can - add another 10%! "They don't make it no more.."
You what they say; there's a sucker born every minute.

I

david w said:

It is very dangerous! I will come and pick it up for proper disposal. All kidding aside, black powder does not decompose. Use it, and hang the can on the wall for display. Everything is in plastic cans these days. I still have a few cans of Goex that was made in the 70's. I have no qualms of shooting 50 year old powder. The only reason the Goex was set aside is, I switched to Swiss.

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I still save all my old metal cans of Goex when empty . I like to fill em up from the plastic ones we get powder in now days plus I have a pouring spout made from a metal can screw lid I use to fill powder measures.

The thing about black powder is that it isn't a compound which is one chemical that can change composition. It's simply a mixture of charcoal, sulpher, and kno3 or saltpeter as it used to be known. Those 3 things are all stable.

Mad L said:

30 year old powder?!!?
Son, you'll put your eye out!
or
Seeing as how I just saw a guy at a gun show pay $55 for a pound of GOEX that weren't no more then two or three years old; surely yours must be worth at least $155/lb., and if you have any authentic rust on the can - add another 10%! "They don't make it no more.."
You what they say; there's a sucker born every minute.

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I paid 35.00 per pound for old Goex full cans and 15.00 for half cans two months ago and 15.00 per hundred for 700 caps. Thought I'd been held up at gun point but now doesn't seem so bad.

M. De Land said:

I paid 35.00 per pound for old Goex full cans and 15.00 for half cans two months ago and 15.00 per hundred for 700 caps. Thought I'd been held up at gun point but now doesn't seem so bad.

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You were held up at gunpoint; for at the same gun show I saw a guy shell out $55 for one pound of GOEX, i had just paid $25 for a pound of the very same stuff only moments earlier from a different guy on the other side - and i didn't even have to threaten or haggle.

The last time I bought powder was in 2001, Soon after, I quit shooting BP until just recently, so I have a good stock on hand. The price for Swiss in 2001 was $7.50/lb.

gvandersluis said:

A friend gave me 2 tins of goex 3fg powder in identical tins to yours the tins were marked 1958 on the bottom. It shot beautifully in my TC Patriot and Seneca. I wish I had more

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Those tins are not from 1958.

david w said:

The last time I bought powder was in 2001, Soon after, I quit shooting BP until just recently, so I have a good stock on hand. The price for Swiss in 2001 was $7.50/lb.

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I have a round Dupont can with a label showing the explosion of the battleship Maine. Era early 1900's. The can is 3/4 full every year I shoot a few shots with it . Shoots great maybe even a little more powerful than goex today . More like swiss.