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And yet, I'm told Alliant keeps a 100 year old sample of the first run of Unique stored under water and periodically dries it out and tests a bit of it and which has proved to be still good long after a double-base powder should have expired. I have often wondered about the cause of the apparent discrepancy between this and the standard recommendation to keep powder in low humidity.
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I agree, there is something I don't know.
http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/Gen...-Smokeless.pdf
page 13 there is the water can and powder. Underneath is the statement “do not store today’s powders under water”.
I wish I had a better explanation for this. I am aware that the Navy stored old cannon powder in pools of water, I assume to absorb the nitric acid gas and keep the powder cool. The powder was not to be used, it was being held for recycling. Now how they did that, I don't know.
I asked my friend the insensitive munitions expert, about this, and I got a quick “the lifetime of the powder will be short once it is dry”. I wish I had more detail.