How long is Ammo good for?

[Bill in Utah]

We have found ammo stored in the trunks of Cruisers (white ones at that) do end up having a more frequent missfires ratio (esp shotgun shells) over the same lot kept in the armory. The only thing different was the trunk storage. While those shells ALSO saw well below freezing temps its thought that the high temps mess with the primers.

But I doubt no one will store their ammo anywhere in their house that could reach temps that a closed vehicle could.

Take care, Bill

 

[Durango]

Chris142,

If you keep it in a cool dry place your amo usually will last longer than you believe. I'm still have and shoot amo that goes back to the mid 80's and have no duds at all.

You have to think that manufacturers make thousands of rounds per day in mass production so getting a few duds can be fairly common. Just like 22LR you can always expect one or two mis-fires per 500 round bricks. UIf you don't then your pretty lucky.

Durango

 

[Robenstein]

Im currently shooting 7.62 NATO made in 1980 in my FAL. Only had one dud out of the 1k rounds I have shot.

 

[Count]

I bought Federal Nyclad in 1988. I stored in in a dresser with some clothes I seldom wore - like some long underwear and odd T-shirts, Christmas socks etc...

Over the last month I've fired 3 boxes of it without any problems.

 

[jcwit]

I've shot 8mm ammo in the last couple of years that had a Nazi head stamp. Still shot good but had to clean the bore with hot soapy water as the primers are corrosive.

They had to be over 50 years old.

 

[Robenstein]

Yeah most of the Turkish 8mm that hit the market about 6 years ago was of ww2 vintage and worked fine for me. Only issue I had on a bulk order was a few split cases. The brass used in em seemed to be very brittle, but they all lit off and worked well.

 

[Count]

Last week I fired 100 rounds of Speer Gold Dot that was at least 15 years old - maybe older, I can't remember.

The sealant had made green rings on the inside of the cardboard box.

I didn't see any sealant on the primers.

i probably shouldn't have fired them. I really couldn't even concentrate on shooting well because I was concentrating on listening for a squib load.

So most people would say "if you're you're really that worried about a squib load, why risk blowing up an expensive handgun to save 12 bucks on ammo?"

Ya, that's true. And my groups were total [censored] - all over the place because of my lack of concentration.

But anyway, they all fired off just fine.

 

[Tempest]

I still shoot stuff I hand loaded 20 years ago and it works just fine. No worries of a squib.

 

[hal2626]

I bought 400 rounds of 30-06 Korean War,1950 ammo in bandoliers of 8 shot en bloc clips for my old 1942 Springfield M-1 Garand and it burns right thru 'em. 60 year old ammo in a 70 year old gun!