Reloading ammo for long-term storage

[Drail]

Just find someplace to store it besides your basement or your garage. Store it in an environment where the temperature and humidity are controlled. All of mine is stored in a spare bedroom closet. How you manufacture the ammo is not going to have much effect of shelf life. How you store it will. Steel GI ammo cans work very well as long as the rubber gasket in the lid is not torn or distorted. I have used the GI cans for twenty years or more and never had any problems with them. Humidity is not going to get past the primer or bullet even if left in the open. Submerging it in water might. Consider all of the tons of ammo used in the Pacific theatre in WWII. It suffered from corrosion but still fired just fine (if it chambered and extracted.)

 

[Cherokee]

GI Ammo Can, controlled enviroment. large amount of 223 ammo loaded back in 1978 is still being shot by me and still performing like it did back then. Similar results with batch of 38 Special loaded back then and still good today.

 

[HOWARD J]

I Store for long term in plastic food containers from grocery or dollar store---buy good ones that are air tight.
I have ammo in some about 30 years--looks & shoots good

 

[223man]

1995 I crono'd some 1945 vintage GI ammo that had been properly stored (in a suitably cool and dry basement). The ammo was fired through a similar vintage Garand that was in good condition.

The result was 2750 fps, IIRC. Considering all the variables and the years, I thought that spoke volumes.