As you can see by the looks of this can of Pyrodex, it’s been around a while.
I can’t tell you for sure how long, but my Uncle Don passed this one down to me somewhere around 1980, just a few years after I started muzzleloading (around 1977). He said something like, “Try some of this new-fangled stuff. I don’t like it, I’m sticking with my black powder”.
Well he was one of my hunting Heroes and taught me everything I knew at the time, so the can is still pretty much full.
In my opinion, it’s too old for me to trust to a hunt today, but it will probably still go off.
I believe powders today can last several years if stored properly. But if just set on a shelf, moisture can become it’s worse enemy. Age itself can also take its toll on most any black powder substitute.
I use to use a screw driver or a pocket knife to break it up and go on to the range as usual, but not anymore because here’s what happens: the moisture (which is what causes it to stick together) causes the granules to swell, just like moisture does saw dust. So now that the granules are larger, you’re getting less powder in your loads.
Last year I compared some old T-7 against a fresh can and the old powder was consistently 20 +/- fps slower than the fresh stuff. Less powder, less speed.
This however does not seem to be the case with Blackhorn 209. BH209 is just different, you can tell by looking at it and loading it, it’s a very hard powder that I’ve found not to be as prone to becoming contaminated by moisture.
Here’s a few tips to help you with getting a little longer life out of your powder between seasons:
If you use one of the pour spouts that screws on top of the cans like I do, make sure you remove it and screw the factory lid back down tight between trips to the range or between seasons.
If you have a gun safe with a de-humidifier, store your powder there with the cap on tight.
As far as how to stop or slow the aging process, I can’t help you with that any more than I can help stop it for you or me. Black powder substitutes are in their own category; they will age faster than smokeless or even black powder itself. It’s a chemical compound and it will start breaking down at some point, I can’t tell you when, but it will happen.
Another housekeeping matter you may want to think about would be to keep track of when you buy your powder in order to know how old it is. When you get it home, take a sharpie and write the month and year on the can before putting it away.
My recommendations would be to shoot up last years powder before this years season, then practice the last few times before season opens and hunt with this year's fresh powder.
But if stored properly, shoot T-7 2 years and BH209 for 3 years. After that, burn it on the range during practice.
This may sound a little too conservative or maybe even over-kill to some, but as we all know, we can’t always buy ourselves out of problems on a big game hunt, but in this case we can.
And while we are talking about powders, I want to thank the owner of Western Powers (manufacturers of BH209) Doug Phair and Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powders for the support they've shown by providing fresh powder for all of MAX’s Load Data Books.
I wanted fresh, right-out-of-the-factory-door powder for that project and they both jumped on board in a very generous and helpful way. As best I can figure, over 2500 shots were fired to get that data over the past two and half years; both BlackHorn and Hodgdon supplied every last grain. Thanks to you both.
I do know now, from a lot of experience that fresh powder is accurate, reliable and deadly powder, I’m just saying...................
