Old Ammo, is it good?

[edwardware]

I'm with @Sistema1927 30 years isn't old. 70 is getting there.

 

[Riomouse911]

I found a few veterans on my ammo shelf. The .300 H&H is easily from the 1970’s or before, the Federal .30-30 is tagged $5.99, the Speer .30-30 in the hard plastic case probably hasn’t ever been opened because the ammo inside looks brand new, Frontier hasn’t been made by Hornady in ages and their Light magnum .257 Roberts is from the 1990’s.



Take care of the stuff and it’ll last for ages.

Stay safe.

 

[P5 Guy]

I shot one box of these to verify POA/POI and put the rest away for collecting.
I have .30'06 from the CMP that is the same age, give or take a couple of years.

 

[AK103K]

Unless youre a collector of ammo, the fact some of you boys still have factory ammo that old and its not reloads in those boxes, simply means youre not shooting enough.

Youre not one of those boys who buys one box of 20 to hunt with, and it lasts you 5 years are you?

From the looks of it, for some, it might be a lot longer than that!

Its up to us and our duty to shoot up as much as we can, as often as we can, so we keep the the ammo companies on thier toes, and we are always guaranteed a fresh supply, and they dont slack off on production, and put us in the situation we are now in.

 

[stonebuster]

I recently shot 100 rounds of old 38 ball ammo from the 60's and it all fired ok.

 

[Skylerbone]

Unless youre a collector of ammo, the fact some of you boys still have factory ammo that old and its not reloads in those boxes, simply means youre not shooting enough.

Youre not one of those boys who buys one box of 20 to hunt with, and it lasts you 5 years are you?

From the looks of it, for some, it might be a lot longer than that!

Its up to us and our duty to shoot up as much as we can, as often as we can, so we keep the the ammo companies on thier toes, and we are always guaranteed a fresh supply, and they dont slack off on production, and put us in the situation we are now in.

I’m down to about 1,000 rounds a month of shooting. I don’t care to expend more than that before the election. As for my old stuff, most of it was given to me and I’ve not taken the time to dispose of it yet.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I have a bunch of 1952 Lake City 30 Carbine that shoots fine. I usually shoot commercial stuff just to keep these intact.

When we were hunting geese in the 80s, my dad cornered the market on lead goose loads. I must have at least 40 five-packs of 4 buck, they shoot just fine.

 

[792mauser]

In the mid 90s and onwards.
Fired some factory blackpowder 45 govt ammo from 1888 (dud primer city).

Some 38lc from 1913 (still have 4 rds floating around).

Some factory 43 Spanish from 1890.

7mm Mexican mauser ammo from 1910 (still have the rolling block the ammo came with).

German 7.92 mauser ammo from '38-'45, 1913 & 1891.

Pull the projos and check the powder first.
Theres a very good chance it's still safe but I've pulled some and it wasn't safe for anything but the garden.
The primers meh. You'll get duds and .5-40 second hang fires from ancient ammunition.
Just be forewarned.

 

[Master Blaster]

Reading this thread made me think about the surplus ammo I still have. So I pulled out the oldest dated boxes, I think this is .308 radway green which is British. Made in 1978. I had some Argentine ammo also, in the same type of boxes. 2.99 for 20 back in 2000. Pulled around to inspect and it looks and smells fine no sign of deterioration.

 

[Ignition Override]

If the ammo is "Old"...it can remember being in the first year of college when the record albums "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Brain Salad Surgery" by ELP came out.

I shot some 1943 .303 Brit. ammo and it worked fine.
No idea how or where it was originally stored etc, but bought it from the former business Samco, near Miami.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I am considering using my 30-30 this year and realized the ammo is probably 30 years old. Also I found a box of 243 to use in my new rifle from a rifle I had in the 80's. I even have a few rounds I reloaded that's at least 30 years old. In view of ammo shortages do you think it is still good?

Good question.

Provided you've pretty much kept the ammo inside (no extreme temperature/humidity issues), it's probably perfectly OK.

If your consideration means hunting, then you ought to shoot a few to check your zero, right? Problem solved, as this will test it out.

If your consideration means range time, again, problem solved.

Shoot 'em. If it makes you feel better, open a couple and check them out first.

 

[Riomouse911]

If the ammo is "Old"...it can remember being in the first year of college when the record albums "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Brain Salad Surgery" by ELP came out.

I shot some 1943 .303 Brit. ammo and it worked fine.
No idea how or where it was originally stored etc, but bought it from the former business Samco, near Miami.

I bought a couple of guns from Samco Global Arms a while back myself.

I have some .303 from the Sportsman's Guide; Mk VII 1942 headstamp, cordite powder, they’re a real flinch-finder due to the regular hang fires. “click....pause.... bang!”

Stay safe.

 

[wiscoaster]

If the ammo is "Old"...it can remember being in the first year of college when the record albums ...

The "White" album.

(any members that makes no sense please just disregard)

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I have ammo that’s older then me that shoots just fine.

 

[Ignition Override]

Riomouse911:
If the often near-pristine Czech Mausers at Samco, known as "Persian Mausers", had been labeled "Czech", I would have called them ASAP.
Found out way too late, after reading a review in a milsurp magazine at Barnes & Noble. The rifle in the article looked unused.

I ordered my first .303 (1943 etc) ammo Before buying my first Enfield. Less than a week later, Samco .303 was sold out.

Buying ammo >> before buying a gun<< seems to be an even better idea nowadays.

 

[Riomouse911]

I found a few old shotgun shell boxes while moving some stuff around....The Monkey Wards is a full box with $3.20 printed on it... the Remington Express 16 GA has a tag from “Currier’s Appliance” for $3.50.



Stay safe.

 

[wesmonster]

Older mil surplus ammo usually has a much longer shelf life than commercial ammo but as mentioned, if it wasn’t stored improperly, should be fine. Rimfire usually doesn’t last as long as centerfire and I’ve shot ‘60’s prod. rimfire that fired.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

My wife bought some old paper hull 12 ga rounds at a garage sale. They looked great and with zero swelling. I tried shooting them and not a single round would go off.

 

[lightman]

The only ammo that I have had that was bad was a box of Norma 6.5 Jap. A friend that had a wrecking yard used to give me odd ammo that he found in junk cars. On the floor, behind the seats, ect. Usually odd rounds, partial boxes, ect because he knew I collected ammo. But anyway, this stuff just fell apart, corroded from the inside. Someone, maybe WalkaLong, posted some pics once that looked like this stuff.

A friend recently gave me a bunch of ammo that was stored in a rented storage building that showed signs of being damp. I scrapped the worst of it but the stuff that looked ok shot fine. It was in plastic storage boxes and it looks like the boxes sweated from the temperature changes. Come of the reloading tools were rusty also.

Sorry for rambling so much. But if your ammo was stored in a controlled or semi-controlled environment it should be fine.

 

[DM~]

I'm hunting with ammo I loaded in the 90's... It's still putting meat in the freezer just fine.

DM