I've been given a very old tin of

[Sausagefingers]

I've just been given a very old tin of GM3 powder.
Must be 30 years old. It's a round canwith a kilo of unopened powder in it. Black with yellow writing. Seems to be made by SNIA BPD in Italy. The English writing says it's a single base smokless powder for shotgun cartridges.
It's got a bit of surface rust, but is unopened.
Does anyone have any information about it?
Ideally if I can out what it is I'd like open it and load some pigeon cartridges.
. I'll try and upload a photo.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7bj182axt...97930.jpg?dl=0

[DedIdick]

Open it and use on your garden. At that age, it's possibly degraded and dangerous to use for its intended purpose.
On the other hand, if you like living on the edge and don't mind the possible consequences and need to save a few quid. Do your own thing & please video the outcome for the rest of us.

[duomatic410]

I have some from pre ww1. Schulz powder.
It still performs, perhaps not as it did, but then I wasn't around.
I, personally would use it, there are still loading data around for it.👍😊🇬🇧

[waterford103]

Sealed can should be ok , I'm still using powder that old and older with no problem . Problems arise when using double base powders when the nitro glycerine begins to migrate out , GM3 is single base and should be fine.

[amc577]

My chemo brain seems to recall a report about tins of powder being stored under water for years without any deterioration....

amc577

[acmsarh]

Not tins of powder Hercules/alliant have some very old original batches of powder stored in water , When they want to test some they dry it out for testing.