• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Anybody ever had a Powder Explosion?

My son in law had what appeared to be a spontaneous combustion type powder "eruption" in his gunsafe. The safe was in a storage facility in Virginia. Nothing got out of the safe but the carpeted sides and shelves were burnt, residue was throughout the safe, rifles and pistols were covered but luckily cleaned up with no apparent long term damage. There was ammo in the safe also that did not go off. I don't remember what the powder was, but probably 4064 and H4831.
 
It’s probably been close for a while based on the film of whatever that’s on the things around where the can was. Or it was just decomposing and the gas has a low ignition point, based on what happened to the original poster
My opening of the whole crate did the same gas let off. Did you see that pic above where the one bottle had oozed that black sticky stuff all the way to the bottom of the Crate.
I had that one partial bottle with the red tin lid from 15 that was bad and have ammo loaded from it and another used up bottle just like it. The other bottles from 20 were definitely bad with the oozed substance and gold dust fumes coming off plus the horrific smell others have mentioned.The 21 year bottles seemed ok but I wasn’t going to chance them because of storing this at home. I dumped all of it and put a big knife split in the empty bottles, and put them in an old secluded storage shed in case someone need that label info.
Thanks again to DLT for bringing this to my attention, and to @KMart for really being the one to not just let me blow this off and be stupid about it.
 
Last edited:
I went and checked every single bottle of my powders for temperature and looked at the seals, or the powder inside if the seal had been broken already. Everything looks A-OK.
I'll move the 4166 and the 7977 to the front of the "next powder to use" line in my reloading. I was keeping them as backup powders, but don't want to loose the equivalent of @Kracken McGraw's in each variety. It just means my pushing back the reloading and testing with surplus powder and lead bullets.
Either way, I get to shoot. :cool:
@DLT , thanks for starting this thread.
 
DLT, l went back and reread your first post. When you first found the bottle with the sticky lid that was stored normally, do you think it had excessive heat?
Just curious because someone else had mentioned one of the temperature detectors, and I think they can be purchased fairly cheap at someplace like harbor freight.
I do not know the cause of the sticky residue on the outside of the lid other than a torn seal. The one that’s inside the cap was fine I don’t know about excessive heat other than being on my truck bed as it wasn’t exposed to any prior
 
Many Many Thanks @DLT, I’m a believer!
Get rid of it guys. This was shut up in a mtm utility box. Puff of green smoke came out when I opened it up and look at the discolored label on the other powders. Got to go to work now, but will talk about it later.I think you owe me that R16 lol

Man are you lucky. It’s not far from getting wild. Although I’m sure the heat from sun caused the bang in my instance but it still shouldn’t have started going bad in the first place !!!! You owe me some of that R16 stash lol. JK !!!!!!!!!!
 
Man are you lucky. It’s not far from getting wild. Although I’m sure the heat from sun caused the bang in my instance but it still shouldn’t have started going bad in the first place !!!! You owe me some of that R16 stash lol. JK !!!!!!!!!!
If you were close I would most gladly give you that 4 1/2 pounds. Man today was an eye opener.
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
165,886
Messages
2,205,366
Members
79,185
Latest member
Kydama1337
Back
Top