Smokeless Powder and other supply costs

C

Cavalryjoe

Inactive
What is a reasonable price to pay for old smokeless powder such as:

Alcan 7
S&W AL-7

Hercules Herco smokeless Shotgun Powder

Dupont smokeless shotgun powder

Hercules Unique smokeless rifle, pistol, shotgun powder
 
I wouldn't even consider buying used powder unless it was in sealed factory containers. Even then if it wasn't kept cool it could be good for nothing but fertilizer for the flower garden. Old smokeless powder is only dangerous if it is mislabeled or degraded to the point where it sticks a bullet in the barrel.
 
If you are buying for the purpose of collecting cans with old powder labels for display, like you might find at gun shows, with luck you might find some priced at or below current price for similar new powders. On the other hand, for collector's value, the seller may have the price jacked up considerably, and the cost is anyone's guess.

However, if looking to buy older products for loading, perhaps someone is selling their leftover powder, heed the above post and buy new. It sounds to me like you may be collecting older powder cans and other items as a hobby for displaying.

Check your local gun store for current prices on new items as a guide to prices being asked for older items. For a one pound can of 4227 powder, I recently paid $28.
 
Last edited:
+1 more here for not using it as propellent.

I don't know your intentions with it, but unless it is factory sealed, I wouldn't even consider it. IMR4064, H1000, H4831, And many alliant extruded powders look nearly identical to the naked eye. (I'm sure many more look the same)
The other thing is, a powders burn characteristics will change depending on how it is stored, humidity, temperature, and just overall age in general. I was loading for one of my guns and I got an old brown label bottle of H1000 from back in the 90's I think....This was 2011. It took 2.8 more graines of powder to achieve similar velocity...And the grains were longer than the newer stuff I had. But it was factory sealed and I used it.

But as a collection piece, I have seen old cans go for $20 or so. I'm not personally a collector of powder cans but have seen displays at the gun shows in Philadelphia MS and Jackson.
 
Last edited:
I would not buy it at any price for use as a propellent either....or use it if it was free for that matter....

Value...whatever value you place on collecting the containers....and i see the containers selling for $10 to $20 ...depending on brand, colors, size & condition.../ ...but some of the real old cans can be more ....
 
Powder with an unknown history is as good as a day-old pile of dog poop.
It could be factory-fresh.
It could be marginal.
Or, it could be something totally different than what's on the label, and dangerous to mess with.

Value is $0.


If you're buying for the container, to use as a decoration, then you have to fight collectors.
The last half dozen pounds of old powder that I ended up with were bundled with some other reloading items at an auction. Had it not been for the additional tools, I would not have been bidding. No one wanted the actual powder. But, because I was fighting collectors that wanted pristine powder canisters, I had to pay a bit more for the tools than I felt I should have.
They figured about $10 per can was reasonable ($50).
I figured $30 for the tools was a good deal.
To get what I wanted, I had to pay more than what they wanted. Still a decent deal ... just not as good as I'd hoped (and none of the collectors hung around long enough for me to sell them the canisters and get some money back :().


Almost 10 years ago, I was given an old can of Unique that had been opened.
It looked right.
It smelled right.
The can looked right.
But I wasn't going to trust it. I like my hands and face the way they are.
The next time I went camping, that "Unique" (if it really was Unique) got sprinkled over the campfire.
 
I wouldn't even consider buying used powder unless it was in sealed factory containers.
Click to expand...

Yes, used powder is not something I'd buy. First it's very hard to meter and secondly it's difficult to develop loads. Besides, used powder is hard to collect and put into containers...:rolleyes:
 
Alcan has been gone since 1971 when it was bought out by Fiocchi and Smith & Wesson. 46 years ago. S&W AL-7 is just AL-7 made after 1971. Smith closed the plant a few years after buying it. Good for fertilizer and not much else.
Hercules powders were a DuPont brand name. DuPont has been out of the gun powder business since the 70's at least. Alliant owns the name now, but anything with 'DuPont' on the label is as old as the Alcan stuff.
Open cans of any powder are suspect at best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top