Ammo Shelf Life

[munir292004]

self life of ammunition

What is the self life of ammunition?

 

[FROGO207]

That will be - How long it stays on the shelf before it dies and falls off.

I have some that is 100+ years old and all has gone bang. I will not shoot anymore as it is now collectible. I will shoot newer stuff however.

 

[BCCL]

Oldest I've ever shot, was some 1903 32 S&W short, that was 95 years old at the time.

Shot all but 5 rounds of a 50 round box (kept 5 to keep in my 1898 S&W .32 revolver), and every round fired.

 

[wishin]

Wow. Another one that goes back to 2006! And it lost a "h" in the transition.

 

[Rock Island]

French military ammo was loaded with berdan non corrosive primers it's shelf life is 40 years, but other military surplus ammo should be good for at least 100 if stored in a cool dry place preferably in air tight steel containers. I have shot some 1907 Krag 30-40 with no trouble, and thousands of rounds of British .303, and Turk 8mm from the late 1930's with no trouble either. If you open a container of very old smokeless ammo and you get a strong acid smell this will indicate the powder is turning bad, with a smaller batch pull a bullet, if you see brown crud were there should be powder, or anything that does not look like gunpowder it's bad. This will not detect dead primers of course, you will have to fire it for that. Black powder is good forever, you can even dry it out if it gets wet and use it, BP cartridges can last a long time and still fire.

 

[Average Joe]

If you leave it on a shelf in a cool dry place, your great grand kids will enjoy shooting it....

 

[SmokeyVol]

I have personally shot 12 ga shotguns shells over 25 years old. They were stored in a cool dry closet and had no apparent corrosion. They worked just fine.