Disposing of old powder

[Dangermouse]

Once more I realise that I will need to pull some rounds which were put together for my old chamber.
I am reasonably sure that I know what powder was used in their construction - I did not load them - but can not be 100%, so I am unwilling to re use the powder.

I read somewhere about throwing powder on the garden as it acts as the nitrates work as fertiliser,
But I can not remember if I read that it was a bad idea, or
If it was black powder that they were talking about.

So before I do my "Great Escape" impression and start discretely disposing of the powder in the garden, does anyone have any thoughts?
I am assuming that it will quickly become degraded and mowing the grass later on will not be fraught with dangers...

DM

[Robin128]

No-one smokes in your garden I presume?

Don't try this without a responsible adult supervising you DM.

[Dangermouse]

No one smokes in my garden, but it has crossed my mind to have some fun with it somewhere...

DM

[ovenpaa]

I scatter mine on the garden, not sure it does it any good or harm, either way it is an easy and safe way to dispose of it.

[bobbob]

Many years ago I took part in a battle re-enactment in Gravelines, France. At the end of the weekend we had loads of black powder left and it couldn't be brought home for some reason. It was decided it would all be collected and a controlled destruction would be carried out.
Well, it destroyed a few tents, took out some windscreens and set off an alarm at the local nuclear power station. (Not sure about the last one, word of mouth ). The crater could have swallowed a couple of cars. I have a picture somewhere taken just as the blast knocked me off my knees Some idiot ignored the advice about pouring it out of the 1/4 pound tubs it was issued in.
Thing was the French thought it was funny and didn't care about the damage.
Go careful.

[rox]

I faced the same dilemma last week. In the end I just made a hole in the ground about 8 inches deep with a stick, filled it with powder, then ignited with a blow torch taped to a pole. The result was a fairly controlled burn that actually wasn't that easy to get started (this was with smokeless powder - I suppose black powder would be a different story). Obviously, undertaking home pyrotechnics like this is very silly, and no one should attempt anything like this.

..

[ovenpaa]

Black powder is a very very different story, I speak from experience

[Sim G]

Any house plants? A great fertilizer. Or you can easily burn it. But do so in small amounts. I once knocked a whole tub over which spilt on the garage floor. Swept it up and decided to burn it on the patio at the bottom of the garden.....

Went for the "cowboy" theme. A long winding trail of powder to a relatively sizeable mound of powder, fag ashe and grage floor dust...... A pefect burning "fuse" towards the main charge.......Nearly set the apple tree on fire! A huge plume of smoke as well!

Gone back to putting in the Yukka pot....

[ovenpaa]

I am waiting for the shed Dyson to explode (The one I fixed with some Duct tape after inadvertently throwing part of it away when I emptied the bin out one day) Anyway given the amount of powder and dropped primers it sucks up, all I need to do is add some brass and it would be an S5 :lol:

[Alpha1]

I have all ways chucked it on the borders in the garden.