Hodgdon replied back

Or use a press mounted bullet puller, pour the powder out, take a picure and then dissect the case. That way you dont contaminate the powder and can send quality pictures to the powder manufacturer.
 
Well, no love from Hodgdon. I called them this morning, and they refused to own their bad product. The guy fed me a line about it being tested to "the 10-year NATO standard" for shelf life, blah, blah, blah. No replacement offered. So I waited until this afternoon and submitted an email thru their website, thinking maybe I'd have better luck. Here's their answer:

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We appreciate that you are handling this powder in a safe manner. Hodgdon takes the stability of our powder seriously. For IMR 4166, we have tested it against the NATO standard for powder storage. This storage test verifies that the powder can be used within 10 years of manufacture. For this type of powder, the 10-year window was reached in 2024. Please note that there can be a lag between the manufactured powder date and the canning date. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Sorry, there will be no replacements for this powder

We can replace the corroded metal lids on the other jugs, how many do you have?

These powders can be sowed over grass for safe disposal

Thank You for using our powders and have a blessed day!

--------------

Disappointing, to say the least. I let them know that their answer was not acceptable:

Thank you for your reply.

I currently have 2-3 dozen pounds of powder sitting on my shelf, all but one of them are Hodgdon, IMR, Accurate, or Ramshot. In over 30 years of reloading and hundreds of pounds of powder, I have never had a single pound of powder degrade and become unusable, let alone 2 of the same lot within a handful of years since purchase.

You can hide behind that "10-year NATO standard" baloney if that's what you prefer, but I have never, ever heard of any such "standard" being applied to canister powders in the past. Perhaps you should have sold all that powder to NATO, then. For recreational reloaders such as myself, it is not uncommon to have powder sit on the shelf for 5, 10, even 20+ years before it is used up. I certainly have old powders in my inventory. When's the last time SR7625 or HS-7 was being made? There are 2.5 lbs of it on my shelf, along with a metal can of IMR 3031. All perfectly usable and unspoiled.

Rest assured that if I am going to spend my money to replace this powder, it will cost you more in lost sales than the cost of replacement. VV N140 appears to be a fine substitute for 4166, and I'm betting will last longer than 5 years on my shelf, "NATO standard" be damned. Since I'll need to work up new loads to replace the previous 4166 loads, someone else can earn the profit and my business.

Have a good day, sir.
 
you guys pull that old ammo apart , please post your findings on here for us to see . good or bad findings , please .
 
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