In my vault I notice a couple of guns with bad rust all of a sudden. But, its only on a few of them, and it is very light. The floorplate on a model 70 was orange but wiped clean. On an old model 71 Winchester that was also in a case but on the floor, it was more like rust and I could feel the roughness of the rust before I took it out of the sock. It is very unusual, hit or miss on whether a gun has it or not.
I was storing all my powder in there. Most of it is relatively new, as in less than 10 years. I have one paper can of unique and the steel bottom has the same orange dust on it as the guns. But, the power looks and smells normal. I have one old 8lb jug of surplus imr4895, it was down to about 1/3 pound. It was new to me in 1998, last year when I opened it one day, a reddish fog came out of the jug. Today there was no fog, but the powder was all clumpy. It was sitting on a new wire rack unit, steel rack with bright cad plating, under the jug the rack is dark brown almost rusty looking and emanating away from the dark parts the cad looks oxidized until a few inches from the jug it was normal and bright. The jug does not have any cracks, or holes and the plastic feels normal. Last spring I had that jug sitting in a milk crate with several other newer jugs of powder, a mysterious orange dust like substance was on the other jugs under the surplus jug. It was like someone dumped a spoonful of super fine orange powder.
Needless to say, I dumped the remainder of the powder. But I am now a little concerned about the shells that I have loaded with it. I was shooting some 308 the other day and they were fine. But I looked at some 7mm bench rest and a few of the necks were green with thick corrosion. Could this powder now be unstable?
The powder has never been stored outdoors, never in a hot environment, never left open.
Ideas?
I was storing all my powder in there. Most of it is relatively new, as in less than 10 years. I have one paper can of unique and the steel bottom has the same orange dust on it as the guns. But, the power looks and smells normal. I have one old 8lb jug of surplus imr4895, it was down to about 1/3 pound. It was new to me in 1998, last year when I opened it one day, a reddish fog came out of the jug. Today there was no fog, but the powder was all clumpy. It was sitting on a new wire rack unit, steel rack with bright cad plating, under the jug the rack is dark brown almost rusty looking and emanating away from the dark parts the cad looks oxidized until a few inches from the jug it was normal and bright. The jug does not have any cracks, or holes and the plastic feels normal. Last spring I had that jug sitting in a milk crate with several other newer jugs of powder, a mysterious orange dust like substance was on the other jugs under the surplus jug. It was like someone dumped a spoonful of super fine orange powder.
Needless to say, I dumped the remainder of the powder. But I am now a little concerned about the shells that I have loaded with it. I was shooting some 308 the other day and they were fine. But I looked at some 7mm bench rest and a few of the necks were green with thick corrosion. Could this powder now be unstable?
The powder has never been stored outdoors, never in a hot environment, never left open.
Ideas?
