Old relics

[krhuntin]

I have found a pile of old powders in my grandpas old reloading stache. Obviously I won’t be using them but will be having them on display for conversation pieces. Anyone know much about this one ?

 

[Ray123]

It's a Smith&Wesson 1970s Alcan 5 can...not as old as the old Alcan orginal cardboard containers imported from Sweden for Alcan distribution. The old cardboard cans had red identifier flakes (like red dot today) in the powder...S&W scrapped the powder selling business only after a short time ...profitable?
But this powder is good to shoot if it's not deteriorated because of its newer S&W container and logo on the can... good in pistols from 308 ACP to 45 Colt ...and a variety of 12 gauge shotgun loads...some data says Alcan wads you use to assemble those loads...and there is load data in my old books, for shotgun, & pistol...
And here's a 9mm Parabellum load for your Glock..Speer manual #8 AL-5 125 gr Speer soft point :
AL-5 SPEER 125 GR RD NOSE SP 9MM LUGER
Start 6.0 gr = 957 fps
6.5 gr = 1005 fps
7.0 gr = 1105 fps
A lot of pistol data it appears to have charge weights min and max close to HS-6, if your a reloader.

 

[Kurz]

If you use a good search engine, type in:

alcan al-5 smokeless powder

This should yield several topics having information you can use. Many suggest that the older reloading manuals will contain AL-5 reloading information for shotgun shells and pistol ammunition.

Enjoy the search!

 

[butchlambert]

I have several containers of old powder and it has shot well for me.

 

[dave@aDave]

I saw the title of this post and thought it was about me!
I must be getting more crotchety in my old age.
I need to get out more.

 

[Loudenboomer]

I started loading in the early 70's with Lee hand tools. AL-5 is the first powder I ever loaded. Raised a lot of heck on northern Minnesota Ducks with 12 ga. 1 1/4 oz of #5 Lead shot!

 

[JSH]

I was gifted some Hodgdon “relics” some years back. They had been in storage for a long time in a nice basement. I have some basically lunch sacks that had some load data and what powder was in it. The newer stuff I received from another source was in quart paint cans. Some was 4895. It looked good and smelled fine, poured some out on a piece of white paper and no dust or deterioration.
I actually shot a couple of the quart cans with no issue and funny stuff.
All of these cans were in round hat boxes. I opened them up a while back and all of them had gassed and rusted clear through the tins.

I would suggest if you want the containers to stay as nice as the look, to dump the powder.

Do as you wish. I had lost some IMR 4198 to similar situations prior to that.

 

[snert]

I have some 1951 vintage 3031. I use it.

Id load it up and blast away, save the can for posterity.

 

[krhuntin]

I was gifted some Hodgdon “relics” some years back. They had been in storage for a long time in a nice basement. I have some basically lunch sacks that had some load data and what powder was in it. The newer stuff I received from another source was in quart paint cans. Some was 4895. It looked good and smelled fine, poured some out on a piece of white paper and no dust or deterioration.
I actually shot a couple of the quart cans with no issue and funny stuff.
All of these cans were in round hat boxes. I opened them up a while back and all of them had gassed and rusted clear through the tins.

I would suggest if you want the containers to stay as nice as the look, to dump the powder.

Do as you wish. I had lost some IMR 4198 to similar situations prior to that.

Good advice. I will do just that. Thanks.

 

[krhuntin]

Thanks everyone. Yes using everyone’s advice I dumped it out into another container and there was no dust etc. I may just give it a try and keep the cab from deteriorating.

 

[butchlambert]

 

[Gabe22BR]

I’ll have to dig out my Alcan powder cans..
here is all at finger tip touching the cabinet..

 

[Gabe22BR]

I’d get rid of these for the space they take up…

 

[Dimner]

Woah.... that much 2400 would last two lifetimes!

 

[FNSafari]

Primarily a shotgun powder. I have a can the pre-dates S&W being on the can. Squarish flakes.