Old powder cans: How old are they?

M

MightyMO1911

New member
I found a couple of older cans of powder yesterday. A Bullseye and 1 of 2400. These are from the era of Hercules and are pretty cool. Since there is no copywrite date I am just wondering of anyone here may have a general idea of their manufacturer date.

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Just wondering as I wander. Why the 2400 is a pound while the Bullseye is eleven ounces?
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Cuz you can't fit a pound of Bullseye in that particular can...

I have a can of Red Dot same size, of the same vintage that holds only 8oz...
 
No photo available, but I have a half full [1lb] metal can of Win 296 that is cylindrical with a metal screw lid… any help with likely age [powder looks good and no bad smells].
 
I get old powder cans when old reloaders die.
I buy them for the powder, but the containers are interesting.
 

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michaelcj said,No photo available, but I have a half full [1lb] metal can of Win 296 that is cylindrical with a metal screw lid… any help with likely age [powder looks good and no bad smells].
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Bought some of that in the eightys, I believe.

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I have a couple vintage cans (not nearly as vintage as the OP). I found these snooping around my Dad's house about 3 years ago. They were from my old stash (along with some 1800 or so primers - which all worked, btw) from when I used to live with him. They were purchased no later than 1987. The lot # nomenclature gives no indication of dates. The W231 is probably a little newer - by maybe a year.

They were both nearly full when I found them. I have long since used all the W231 - finished it off just before the shortages hit. The W296 is still about 1/3 full. I have next to no need for such a slow powder these days. The price tag on the W296 reads $13.97 - and that was probably high retail at the time.

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that's pricier than I thought it would be, even the really old can up top with 9$ on it. I guess I can't complain paying 21-25$ these days if it was nearly 15$ twenty years ago.

I think powder manufactures know that they can't go too high on the price, powder for rifles already gets pretty expensive, so I guess they know if the price of the powder makes factory ammo close in price, a lot of folks aren't going to be getting into reloading at all. I think most of us started reloading for economics, that may have changed now that we have been doing it awhile though, but if powder was 40$ a pound I probably would have never started in the first place
 
"Push Pop" cans like the two shown in the original post were in production from the early 1960s to the very early 1970s.

The cans in use in the 1950s were similar in shape, but had a screw top lid with an integral fold out pour spout.

The Winchester all-metal conetop cans were in use in the late 1970s through the early 1990s, when they were replaced with first generation plastic "cans."


The pasteboard rectangular "can" of Hodgdon H110 with the sloped metal top is from the 1970s, IIRC.
 
Vintage Powder Containers-Click for Larger photos.

These were brought to the club one morning. The black powder is still good.
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I have a large fiber drum of Hodgdon, the earliest date on the drum is 1966 from Railway express. I also have large metal kegs painted red filled with pistol powder. The oldest cans with powder are oval from Dupont and contain black powder.

F. Guffey
 
Du Pont used the oval flasks through the 1920s, and the mini-drums for black powder and some smokeless powders through the 1930s, I believe.
 
Pretty sure this one is early 60's (1961 dated label)...

I am still shooting the powder, and it is statistically the same velocity-wise as my fiber canister from the 70's, and a plastic jug from a few years ago:

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