Ammunition shelf life?

[Broom_jm]

Great to hear. My research pointed towards a 1 year shelf life, but if it shoots it shoots. It seems like it would be near impossible to have a respectable stockpile if it went bad

What is this "research" of which you speak?

Unless forgotten about or specifically saved for posterity, ammo has an indefinite shelf life...shoot it up long before there is any chance of it going bad.

 

[BeDome]

Honestly, I am almost embarrassed to mention what I have seen by a friend using Korean era 45s and a really cool Webley 45.

But, as has been mentioned, not clean and shiny, then maybe not good. How about still ok looking, but you have a squib fire? Pretty easy to know what to do, right?

My friend just quickly, before I could even open my mouth tried to fire again and said "I guess that one was a dud." while firing his fathers weaponry for the first time in possibly forty or more years.

The unfortunate thing was that there was a round lodged in the barrel when he just pulled the hammer back and fired again. Of course the next round reacted normally, but there was an obstruction in the barrel at that point !! Yes a squib round had enough punch to push a round far enough into the barrel to destroy his father's war era gun after he just tried again and he then had a "big dog knot" in the barrel of that weapon forever ruining it.

Now, I do not think I need to talk about safety much for most of us, but in case someone is watching who is just staarting, ANY TIME you have a round not go off, SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN DO NOT FIRE AGAIN until you have determined what the heck just happened.
CERTAINLY, do not try to fire again until you have completely cleared the weapon.

Yup, he got lucky; he could have been gravely injured, and using "forgotten" left over ammo can be dangerous. I do not want to be a killjoy, here, but if you do not know the history of historical ammo, then watch more carefully than you might normally.
BTW, I have loads of old ammo still stored respectfully. I will not fear!

I know, everyone is saying that OLD as Dirt ammo is fine and I totally agree, but if you just want to shoot something old for the fun of it (kind of like my friend did) Just be more careful than ever before.

Never ignore a squib round!!



I would just say if you have no idea how it was stored then maybe just pull the bullets and reload the brass, instead of risking a valuable old weapon trying to just have some fun or worse, save a few bucks.







Sorry to edit, but this whole thing pissed me off even though it was thirty years ago and I can not seem to spell right or type now.

 

[Jet19912]

What is this "research" of which you speak?

Unless forgotten about or specifically saved for posterity, ammo has an indefinite shelf life...shoot it up long before there is any chance of it going bad.

Here's an online source Does Ammunition Have A Shelf Life? Let?s Take A Look ? Concealed Nation

Also it's just from info I'm picking up talking to other gun owners. Some say they rotate their self defense ammunition yearly.

 

[Jet19912]

Overall I'm willing to do minor environmental regulating (vacuum seal, dehumidifier, dark closet) to be able to keep ammunition reliable for self defense purposes for as long as I may need it. Especially with the future of firearms being extremely unclear.

 

[bbucking]

Anyone have and experience with steel cased ammo shelf life? Seems like they would corrode much faster.

 

[pudly]

I've used some laquer-covered AK surplus ammo that was decades old and it worked fine. If there is any form of non-coated steel cased ammo, then corrosion might be a problem, but I haven't seen it.

 

[halfmileharry]

I done figured out that ammo has a shelf life as long as the shelf it's sitting on.
Keep it dry

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

My practice .22 ammo is probably from the 60's, it has just been sitting in a cardboard box in a basement for probably 45 years before I started shooting it. Several hundred rounds fired and no FTFs yet.

 

[Wolfhound]

I bought a 500 round pack of steel case 223 a while back. No idea what conditions it had been stored in prior to my purchasing it. Anyhow, after about 5 years I opened it and looked at some of the cartridges and some were rusting. I think they were polymer coated cases and not lacquer coated. I took them out and shot them up in 2 range trips. No issues feeding or firing but I didn't want to give them a chance to get worse.

Had a similar issue with some Silver Bear zinc coated ammo. Developed a white corrosion of some sort on it after several years. I shot all of them and again they functioned fine. Just got ugly looking. YMMV

 

[Drail]

Properly constructed ammunition when stored correctly does not have a shelf life. Of course much of the ammo on the market today is not properly constructed. It is made to sell with no guarantees that it will actually work. I have ammunition I handloaded in the 80s that fires every time because it was not made to sell - it was made to work. If you must rely on factory ammunition...well, good luck. Even if you replace it frequently you have no assurance it will work. I took up handloading initially thinking it would simply save money. Much to my surprise I found that you can easily load MUCH higher quality ammunition than what the factories are willing to offer. And if it absolutely positively HAS to work in self defense - there is no comparison.