Old ammo still good?

[bg226]

Lets say one has a box of 9mm ammo that is 8 years old. What effect does age have on ammo? Do the old cartridges have less velocity?

 

[KM]

I've shot ammo that was 25 years old. Some have shot ammo that was 60+ years old.

I believe you're in the good.

 

[Schofield3]

It's just one box - if it doesn't look corroded or have any water damage go shoot it. 8 years isn't that much.

 

[Slamfire]

I was told by an Navy Energics expert that the Army scraps single based propellants at 45 years, double based 20 years.

The Navy does not scrap by clock time, they test their powders. But 45/20 years is a good conservative average lifetime of gunpowder.

Gunpowder is deteriorating the day it leaves the factory. It is a high energy compound and it wants to become a low energy compound. As gunpowder breaks down it produces nitric acid gas. There is stuff in the gunpowder to sop this up, but eventually the inhibitors get used up.

Heat is the worst enemy of gunpowder. The breakdown rate is directly related to temperature. I was told it follows the Arrhenius equation. Look that up if you want to.

Water is bad for gunpowder. Water wicks nitroglycerine to the surface.

Lead styphnate has an indefinite storage life. Assuming you don't spray penetrating oil on them, bake them in an oven, or store them in a corrosive environment, primers should last a very long time.

I was told the best storage conditions were “Artic”. Cold and dry.

If you have case cracking, pin hole corrosion in your cases, if the powder comes out red, the ammo has been bad for years.

 

[rcmodel]

8 year old ammo is not old. It is new.

Old ammo comes from WWII or WWI.

As long as it was properly stored in a cool dry location and not the trunk of your hot car, it should still be good 30 years from now.

rc

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Ammo can last for decades if stored in reasonable conditions. Unless it has been soaked in water or something really extreme and unlikely, eight-year-old ammo is as good as new. (I am only speaking to reliability, not newer, more effective bullet designs that may have come along since then.)

 

[tincanhunter]

My pop has 8mm Mauser ammo that was produces by the Germans in WW2. It's in good physical shape, accurate and goes bang when you pull the trigger. 8 years ain't nothing....shoot the ammo if it's in good physical shape!

 

[Jim K]

8 years isn't old. Old ammo is Martin primed.

Jim

 

[gwnorth]

Back in the 1980's I shot several hundred rounds of .22l and .22lr that dated back to at least the 1920's and into the 1930's (we'd cleaned out a passed relatives things and found boxes of the stuff). It all shot just fine, and had been stored, sitting on a shelf in a hallway closet for most of those 50-60+ years.

 

[Jim K]

Around ten years ago, I shot some .45-70 dated in the 1880's. All went off. But last year I found nothing but duds in some Canadian 8mm ammo made in 1941. It used some early non-corrosive primers.

Jim

 

[possum]

as long as it has been stored properly you will be fine, i have shot alot of old surplus ammo without issue.

 

[Snowdog]

Some of the 7.92x57 I have for my 8mm rifles are FN loaded in '49. They are just as sure-fire and accurate as stuff loaded within a few years.

8 years is nothing. It's like asking if the gas in your mower is still good after 2 months. It's absolutely fine unless you've left it soaking in WD-40 for the past few years.

 

[WCSO]

When I was in boot camp (1960) we trained and qualified on the range with ammo dated from WWI. We never had any miss fires or problems that I can remember. The range master said the key to keeping ammo for so long was that it was stored in a dry cool location. With that ammo being 40+ years old I would say your 8 year old stuff would be like new, assuming it hasn't been been subjected to water, oil, or extreme heat I wouldn't be afraid to shoot it.

 

[hemiram]

We just found some really old, as in like about 80+ years old .44 Russian ammo in a friend's grandfather's stuff that had been put away in my friend's basement (COLD AC) for about 20 years. I shot half of it out my DW 44 magnum. I was like shooting a .22. He shot the rest from his 629. I had the one single dud out of the 50, it did clear the muzzle, but I could see it drop and hit the ground about 25 feet out. The stuff looked very good, just a little speckling of green on the cases, and even the box was in nice shape. He's keeping the box as a momento. I can't remember the name on it, but neither of us had ever heard of it before.

 

[wally]

I wouldn't worry about it, I shot 280 rounds of 1952 Polish 7.62x25 today. No issues.

Eight year old ammo is still a young whippersnapper

 

[kenno]

8 YO? what a scam! I fired steel cased US mfg 45 acp from WW2 no drama!