Reeder Custom Guns - Misfit Paul Haaksma was gifted a sealed (!) container

of Hercules Unique. Perhaps my favorite powder. He speculated the date of the can. By MY best guess, with the rounded label, I say about 1962. This is based upon a Bullseye can, with a similar design, from that known period in an old add. I'm a 1963 model so that makes that 62 yrs. old, if I'm right. I also saw an EMPTY can valued at $35 as a curio.

So cool to have a full sealed container in pretty good looking shape! I'd not be too surprised if it was not 100% functional as well. Save it for a Red Dawn moment!

[image]

Post reply

I'd kinda like to know if it is still viable prior to the "I am down to my last line of defense". On the other hand,if it is that bad you're probably done anyway.
Maybe,you can trade it for something before it comes to the end. Just thinking out loud.
Do you still have a line on a441 Victor thumper?

Post reply

the rust dust off it. brush it with a cleaning brush to get as much rust off it as you can. When you have done this, hold the can up near your nose and pop open the top. If it is good it won't have any odor at all or very little. if it has a rotten egg smell it is bad and put it on your wife's garden as fertilizer.
We get quite a bit of old gunpowder in here in the estates we buy. Some ok and some bad.

A while back I got a 12 pound cannister of PB powder. I looked up in some old reloading manuals and found it listed for 45 ACP. That was a couple of years ago and I am still using it.

Post reply

like powdered drink came in. The flakes were little flat squares. I shot all of it. Good powder for .38 Special. I never thought the tins themselves would be wanted.

Post reply

of a Russian powder that weighed around 10 pounds. It was for 9mm only. It told how many grains of powder with a certain weight of bullet (in grams). I have no idea how the old gentleman came up with this powder but I ran a test load with it and it shot fine. When I opened the big black tin there was no rotten egg smell so I used it. I figured out what I could load for 45 ACP and have been using it for 45 and 9mm for the last 10 years or so.

Speaking of unusual powder, quite a few years ago Lee Jurras gave me a large container of Winchester 297. Not the normal 296 but it was 297. He still had many pounds of powder stashed away from his Super Vel days. He said to load it down one grain from the 296 data. I have used it sparingly as I am down to maybe 6 or 7 pounds left.

Post reply

dated back to the mid 1950s (I think). The names of the powder were something I had never heard of. I knew John Taffin had been trying to come up with an exact copy of Elmer Keith's old loads, so I sent it to him. He had some of the old original balloon head brass from that period too. He worked up some loads that were exactly what Keith was doing and apparently the loads chrono'd about the same as Keith's old loads. Neat to see something from many years ago come to life again.

Post reply

There was a can like that of 2400 also. Sealed

Post reply

Misfit Paul Haaksma was gifted a sealed (!) container

Red Dawn moment

If you decide to open it, first try to blow all

I had some PB powder once, in little tins

In another estate i found a big black container

I had several cans of powder, still unopened that

Thanks Scotty for posting that!