Can Ammo "Go Bad"?

[XxWINxX94]

I was just wondering whether any type of ammo can grow so old to the point it doesn't work. How old is too old to shoot?

I'm interested to know because I shoot/buy lots of surplus stuff like 7.62x54R, 8mm Mauser, 7x57 etc.

 

[riflenut]

how long will ammo store

as far as i know as long as you keep it in a normal temp and dry storage it should last indefinate. Ive got some ammo from 1953 corrosive bulgarian 7.62x54. I keep mine in a gun safe.some body told me once ,that you should keep away from sun light store in dark place.

 

[W.E.G.]

Good thing somebody finally asked about that.

http://thehighroad.org/search.php?searchid=7175329

 

[AzBuckfever]

I was wondering the same thing....and I believe that as said, as long as it's kept in the right environment, should be fine. I think avoidance of moving it around a lot as well, as I believe the power could detiorate/granualate and increase your pressures once fired (same effect if you put loaded ammo in a media cleaner). I think it would take A LOT of moving around though

 

[Art Eatman]

Maybe ten or so years back, I found that some 1918 .45ACP ammo wouldn't go Bang. I still have some steel-cased 1943 stuff which is quite reliable.

If stored below 90F, odds are that a half-century is no big deal. I still get sub-MOA groups from ammo I reloaded in the late 1960s and in the 1970s.

 

[Old Time Hunter]

Picked up a crate of 1938 8 X 56 Nazi ammo for my M95....looked all well and good from the outside, so I shot it. That little carbine kicked harder than anything I EVER shot, so I chrono'd a few shots. With the chrono sitting at 15' from muzzle, I registered over 3200fps average on five shots. Guys and gal, that is over 4500 lbs of energy! They should have only been around 2500-2600 fps...guess the powder gets more powerful with age When we broke down the cartridges, the powder was showing signs of nitro seperation making the powder highly unstable. I do not know how it was stored, but???? American Rifleman awhile back had an article addressing 'old' ammo, they said watch for discoloring around the mouth of the brass and the bullet itself as the dissimilar metals can cause a chemical reaction.

 

[rugerman]

Hey old time hunter maybe it was made by slave labor and they "fixed" it for their captors.

 

[dscottw88]

I had some 1947 8MM mauser that I just shot last year, everything seemed fine in my book.

 

[paintballdude902]

ive shot alot of 70's and 80's dated .308 some 40's and 50s dated x54R wwI dated .30-06 and wwII dated .303 all except the POF late dated .303 worked and even the POF worked jsut had a few hang fires and 1-2 Failure to fires but that could be because its POF

all comes down to storage

 

[CnRnut]

Some of my best shooting 8mm,is 1938 Turk ammo.

 

[taliv]

you know, i'm not really sure why ammo doesn't go bad. plenty of proof that it can last a long time, but it seems like there's also some indication that it can go bad.

when i asked vhitavouri why they only sold their double-base 'high energy' powders in 1lb cans, they said because it goes bad faster than regular powders and they figured reloaders might not use 5 or 8 lbs before it would go bad. also lots of threads in reloading about how to tell when powder has gone bad.

so presumably it's heat and oxygen that make it go bad, and there's potentially some of both when it's a loaded cartridge. showing i'm not a physicist here, but it's not clear to me why the military would need sealants around the bullet and primer to keep out water, but not to keep out air.

also, some countries seem to think it goes bad faster than others (e.g. UK vs US disposal rates)

 

[paintballdude902]

and just to add when i first got into reloading i was given about 2k of assorted primers and about 3-4 lbs of powder. 2 lbs was win 748 in the old metal cans 1 of which had been opened in the 80s, it all still worked fine. some of the primers were bad but all of it was stored in my brother in laws attic

 

[tactikel]

I've shot a bunch of WWII milsurp .30-06 that shot great.

 

[cleardiddion]

The oldest thing I've shot is some Turkish 8mm that dated around 1920 something or another.

I regularly shoot 1950's Bulgarian and Hungarian 7.62x54R with no ill effects.

A while ago I also shot some 1948 Israeli 8mm. Kept 10rds out of 25 on stripper clips for fun.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

I've shot some 50's and 60's 7.62x54R with no ill effects.

However, I have heard of some of the older surplus having hangfires, especially in cold weather. Old primers weren't always as reliable as what we have now. Remember that if it doesn't go bang right away, keep the rifle pointed at the target for several seconds in case it is working up to it!

 

[kernelkrink]

DOD did a study a while back, seems they were worried that small arms ammo sitting out in the hot desert sun for months on end might degrade some. Gist of it was 130 degrees F was enough to cause velocity changes in the ammo after just a few months. Cool and dry is the way to go.

BTW, ammo made during and after WWII seems to have the longest shelf life. The pre-WWII stuff is still gonna go bang in most cases, but the varied climates of the multiple battlefield theatres in WWII (arctic to desert) caused everybody to make advances in small arms ammo that would enhance it's longevity under adverse conditions.

Movement was mentioned earlier. Rimfires, especially, are prone to misfire from repeated vibration. The priming compound is exposed directly to the abrasive powder grains, moving them against the compound can wear it away. Lubricated ammo such as lead bullet loads should also be stored bullet down. If the lube gets hot enough to melt it can run down into the powder and contaminate it if stored bullet up.