old school powder

[used up]

hello all. first post here thank you for the interesting reading. i recently bought a rifle from the ol timer next door and he threw in his old reloading supplies to sweetin up the deal. dupont 4064 and dupont 4320 along with a stack of early 60s load data. im 8n the process of figuring a 7mm rem mag load. folks have mentioned that 4320 is tto fast. but i found this old manual that says different. the powder is clean and looks fine to me. im no pro, just an average guy with 3 years of loading experience. .308 huntinv rounds mostly. lots of em. guess you can say i am newb. also got a jar of 4895 labeled 1949! it also seems ok from what folks have been saying to watch out for. the load data (photo attached) has recipe for 150 gr and 175 gr. i ordered me some from midway today. hornady ballastic tip. i have good luck with them in my .308 so ill start there. anyhoo. what is your thoughts on this. it burns nice. got the era load data. should be good to go, is there any big safety risks associated with making up some loads 7mm mag? figured might as well shoot it up before i display the cans. thanks folks.

 

[FLIGHT762]

I still have a pound or so of the WWII surplus 20MM Canon powder that Hodgdon sold after the war. My can was packaged in the late 1960's. It still works fine in 300 Win. Mag. loads. I had 3-4 #'s of it. I believe Hodgdon finally ran out of that powder around the late 70' or early 80's. He the sourced it from Scotland and then Australia. I have a partial can of the Scotland sourced powder.

As long as your powder doesn't show any signs of decay, they should work fine, but just one # of each probably isn't enough to bother with. If the powders show any rusty dust, toss them out.

I've shot a lot of the old, Dupont IMR metal tins from the 1970's and finished them up a couple of years ago. I do remember having a tin of 4350 and 4064 that did go bad and had to be discarded. They can go bad. It's important to check the powder and be sure they're useable.

I have a can similar to your 4064 that is 4320 still sealed and has the original, clear cellophane wrapper on it.

There is old data in my 1971 Speer Manual for the 7MM Remington Magnum using IMR 4320 with bullets up to 160 grains. There are many, much better powders today for the 7MM Mag.

The 4064 and 4320 can be used in your 308 if you really want to use these up.

I would use new powder for your hunting loads.

 

[used up]

great info thank you

 

[Ledzep]

Start low and work up. I've pulled apart ammo from the 1910's with perfect powder that fired to spec velocity and I've seen properly stored powder from 2011 that was turning yellow and smelled funny.

If it looks/smells good and you work your way up to pressure/velocity you shouldn't have any problems.