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Powder storage question
5mmgunguy
Member Posts: 3,092 ✭✭
Is it ok to store powder in a plastic bottle? What kind of plastic bottles are safe for powder storage?
Comments
And, never keep your powder containers inside a sealed box or cabinet.
Neal
EDIT: Yep, that's what I'm talking about. Flammables & explosives lockers will have a * hole (yes, that's what it's called) to permit venting, rather than an explosion, due to heat & pressure. This is also why you don't want to store your powder inside of ammo cans.
Powders should be stored in the original containers they came in.
This is partly because the containers powders come in are specifically designed to reduce static electricity and to fail gracefully (ie NOT explode) should the powder ignite.
Transporting gunpowders in containers not approved for that purpose is against Federal law.
Having powders in their original containers leaves no question about the nature of the contents, the manufacturer, and the date/lot of manufacture, even to individuals generally unfamiliar with gunpowders. This is a GOOD thing.
For obvious reasons, you do NOT want to accidentally mix up which type of powder is in which container! You don't need your home-made labels to fade, wash off, or otherwise become detached from the container.
Also, you can imagine all sorts of hypothetical scenarios where having gunpowder lying around in a differently-labelled, or even unlabelled container could cause problems.
HDPE, by the way, is 'high density polyethylene'. Some powders do now come in plastic jars/bottles, though these particular containers should be specifically designed to handle powders.
No, it is not OK. Powder should only be stored in the container in which it was sold.
And, never keep your powder containers inside a sealed box or cabinet.
Neal
Actually, once you pass a certain weight of powder, it is only legal to store it IN a cabinet, one that is not restrictive (not sealed up tight that is).
11-3.7 Smokeless propellants intended for personal use in quantities
not exceeding 20 lb. (9.1 kg) shall be permitted to be stored in original
containers in residences. Quantities exceeding 20 lb. (9.1 kg), but not
exceeding 50 lb. (22.7 kg), shall be permitted to be stored in residences
where kept in a wooden box or cabinet having walls of at least
1 in. (25.4 mm) nominal thickness.
-From the explosive material code.
As to the question: if it came in a plastic bottle, it is ok to store in same. I wouldn't use just any old milk jug though.
The idea of static electricity setting off powder, including black, is a myth. http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html
I wouldn't worry about static, but I would worry about powder deterioration in an improper container.
If I had to use a non-standard one, I would use a bleach bottle that had been thoroughly cleaned, made of hard, opaque plastic with a smooth interior.
Flash forward about three years after he built the thing. He was up in the U.P. for deer season, and (thank God) his wife and kids were visiting relatives over the weekend out of town when the fully expected electrical fire sparked up, the Fire Chief thought, in the furnace room. My parents and I returned home from wherever we were to see thier house fully involved and the local Fire Dept and Auxiliary frantically trying to pump a few hundred thousand gallons of water into the conflagration, and beginning to open the place up to better direct water into the main floor. My Dad took us to the house (heavily wooded area...houses seperated by about 3/8ths of a mile) and tore back over to the neighbors to warn the Firefighters of the basement contents . It did not take much convincing to get the Firefighters away from the place...especially when Dad told them he assumed there was about 60 pounds of powder in a strong box.
About 10 minutes after backing off of the property, there was a calamatous explosion that broke several windows in our fairly distant house and sent smallish debris flying in every direction for at least a quarter mile. Every vehicle in the county firefighting stable was damaged and three of the firemen spent time in the hospital.
When the fire in the basement reached the flashpoint of the lowest of the powders stored in there, it deflagrated and took every other powder along with it. Now, if you have a container that is designed to fail above a certain pressure, you have a nasty fire that is hard to put out. If you put that same amount of powder in a Fort Knox style steel chest full of smokeless powder in the general vicinity of a fuel oil furnace with a 200 gallon tank, it makes a hell of a good hyperbaric bomb. Think about it...pour a 30-06 case full of 4895 on the ground and light it with a match. Makes a pretty and semi violent sparkly display, and burns out quick. Now hit the primer (and noooo.I am not reccomending you do this, just trying to make a point) on a loaded 30-06 round and what happens? It goes BOOM, sends a projectile in God knows what direction and likely your off to the hospital, if you are lucky! Smokeless powder, unlike black powder, has to be pressure constricted to build appropriate levels of pressure to work the way it's supposed to, i.e., go BANG, instead of PFFFFT.
The outcome of this, after said neighbor returned 2 days later from deer camp (pre cell phone days here), was an arrest and short term incarceration after the court case was concluded, and a whopping fine from the feds. Add to this his insurance would cover NOTHING of his loss (can't blame them!) and you see the folly of storing volume powders in a "blast proof" chest.
FOOTNOTE: Names ommited to protect the terminally ignorant.
From the prior account. Keeping only what you need for short futures sounds like good advise as well.