OT sorta - Ammo shelf life?

[pharmseller]

I have A LOT of Remington green box .30-06 180 grain PSP Core-Lokts. I bought most of it in 1991 when I shot 3x per week. I switched to a Big Boomer (a young man's mistake, all too common) and the ammo has been in the closet ever since.
I'm going on a deer hunt where the average shot approaches 250 yards, very open terrain, so I'm bringing out the old workhorse. The question: if stored under dry and fairly cool conditions is this ammo still dependable?

Quinn

[J Miller]

Factory ammo bought new in 91 and properly stored is all but new. Go forth and hunt to your hearts content. It will serve you well.

I'm still shooting up WWII and older mil surp that works great. Not to mention 30+ yo hand loads from when I was shooting up a lot of 38 specials.

Joe

[Hobie]

Kept cool and dry most ammo is just fine MANY years later. I might try a couplde of rounds but that Remington ammo is likely just the same as new (just as Joe said).

[AJMD429]

My son and I shot up some early WW-II era .45 ACP and .30-06 this spring - only had a couple dozen of each - found cleaning out someone's garage who owned no guns, so she let us have them. None misfired, but we didn't really pay attention to accuracy (we were using open sights on a 1911 and 1903 at a 12" gong from 300 yards!)

I have noticed though that not just reloads, but commercial and military loads kept in ammo cans all can give you a real "whiff" of something when you open the box, so there must be something volatile which escapes. Still, they seem to go "bang" when you use them.

I've had the worst 'success' with .22LR - maybe 100 'duds' in over 40 years (probably well over 100,000 rounds) of shooting them. Next worse would be 7.62x39 but some guns don't apparently have the 'oomph' of firing pin for the heavy military primers. Other rounds mostly seem rare and random to not fire.

I agree with checking zero though, if it is old ammunition and you're not just 'plinking.'

[Ben_Rumson]

I've fired ammo that was a hundred years old.. Military BP ammo .. bought a 1000 rounds of the stuff @ 2.2 cents a pop back in the mid 70s... I'm sure it wasn't stored under ideal conditions either....wooden case had water stains on it... some of the boxes had a little mold on them.. on itLast fired some in the mid 90s only had maybe a couple of dozen duds over the years..Finally the cases corroded out where the lube cookie was... Deep sixed the remaining couple of hundred rounds...

[morgan in nm]

I have too fired rounds that are WWI and WWII and have had no problems with their function and even accuracy. Reloading cases that are 50+ years old, that is where you might have problems. They become brittle and have to be annealed before you start. Like everybody else said, take a couple of rounds and see if your rifle still shoots where it should but don't worry about that ammo.

[pharmseller]

I did an inventory this evening and discovered 21 full boxes of 180 grain Remington round nose Core-Lokts as well as 12 boxes of the PSP Core-Lokts. The boxes are uncreased and the bullets are shiny! They look like I just got them off the shelf. The round nose Core-Lokts are all the same lot number.
I also found nearly 10 boxes of Federal Premium High Energy Nosler Partitions. That stuff is like gold these days! What was I thinking?
Of course, the 2 CASES of Winchester 200 grain Silvertips in .348 Winchester was no surprise. I knew what I was thinking then.

Range report to follow...

Quinn

[C. Cash]

Looks like you've gotten good advice here. Stored dry, your ammo should be as good as when it was made. In a damp basement over a course of years....that is when you get into problems. I just fired up some 356 Win. ammo bought new in 1992 and it had unfortunatedly been in damp conditions since living back here in PA. Still went off without a hitch, thankfully. Many of my shotshells did not make it through and have been discarded.

[Gun Smith]

The odor you smell is the ethers evaporating from the gun powder. You shouldn't smell any odor as this could be a sign of a leak from the cartridge. I would say the limiting factor to shelf life of ammo would be the primer and bullet seal to the case. Mil spec ammo used to have a sealer on both the bullet and primer. That is one of the reasons old 30/06 full patch was so hard to break down for the brass we salvaged for reloading years ago. I would guess it could last a hundred years if no corrosion occured.

[Griff]

I have 200 rnds of JW .32-40 ammo; as soon as I get an 1885 so chambered it'll get fired. I have no qualms about it's useability! I've fired much older stuff! Only bad, old stuff was some primers in .30-06 '43 LC milsurp; it was in original cans, clipped for the M-l, some w/cardboard covers, most in bandoliers. (Sorry guys, only kept a coupla bandoliers, and the clips are designated for MY M-1)!

Edit: I was told once, in asking a question of Hodgdon rep, "how long is powder good for?", that modern gunpowder will probably still be viable for two or three human lifetimes. W/the the caveat that it must remain dry. I think the exact question was, "how long is my loaded ammo good for?"; and the EXACT answer was, "How long do you expect to live?"!

[Old Ironsights]

If you consider that hundred+ year-old muzzleloaders found in attics have a startling propensity to be loaded and go BOOM whe capped/primed I don't think ammunition has a realistcly exhautible lifetime.

[Bluehawk]

Just last year I shot up some 38/56 Winchester ammo Both WW and Rem Peters some BP some smokeless some lead bullets and some jacketed It all shot well the BP actualy was more accurate than the smokeless 38/56 ammo has not been manufactured since 1937 so it was that old or older .

[C. Cash]

If you consider that hundred+ year-old muzzleloaders found in attics have a startling propensity to be loaded and go BOOM whe capped/primed I don't think ammunition has a realistcly exhautible lifetime.

As I understand it, BP is a different animal in that seems to be almost indefinite in it's shelf life. Also, from what I understand, smokeless seems to degrade over the decades. Perhaps this is after being opened to air and humidity as the user pulls from the can. Wonder what a can of unopened/sealed smokless would do after say 100+ years?

[don Tomás]

Ammo shelf life?

Now that's a good question. While by no means long term, I have about 150 rounds of .45-70 which I loaded at the beginning of the year but because it's been so dern dry, I haven't been shooting since Mother's Day. These are BP rounds and I load one of Junior's lubed felt wads between bullet and Goex. The lube is a 50/50 mix of hog lard and beeswax and I don't use waxpaper, etc, between lube and powder. Kinda curious to find out if the lube might work its way into the Goex and cause problems. Hopefully I'll find out next month, if it ever starts raining again...
Tom

[AJMD429]

I think the exact question was, "how long is my loaded ammo good for?"; and the EXACT answer was, "How long do you expect to live?"![/i]

Maybe he assumed you were only using it for self defense . . .

[RKrodle]

Of course, the 2 CASES of Winchester 200 grain Silvertips in .348 Winchester was no surprise. I knew what I was thinking then.

Quinn

I have the the perfect gun ...er..... place to store that .348 Winchester. You know special care must be taken in storing it, and I just happen to be qualified to do it .