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Thread: length of time ammo can be legitimately stored

  1. #1
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    length of time ammo can be legitimately stored

    a not so query but hopefully collectively a viable consensus can be arrived at...

    Yes I am familiar with the ammo storage mantra ~ cool, dark, out of moisture & chemicals place, w/storage recommendations ranging from sealed in plastic bags to plastic ammo boxes, and don't store over 10 years in optimum conditions...oh unless it is your SD ammo then cycle this type of ammo every xyz period and buy new?

    Al Gore's WWW is absolutely a flutter with billy bob saying this gospel about the subject while tim-buc joe saying that per his papa's wisdom!

    I realized I have a significant on-hand non-SD ammo, 9, 22, 5.7, 7 in their original cardboard boxes in gym locked gym lockers from the early Oh-bama reign when the firearm world was screaming 'WOLF' about gun law changes and ammo was scarce...

    therefore, at this point I am curious should begin culling my ammo and purchase anew of hold or possibly look at enhancing storage approach...

    in advance...thanks for viable insight...

    ps: yes i quickly glanced through the 10 pages of archive on the subject matter but didn't see any definitive consensus...

  2. #2
    The Greek HXP 30-06 the CMP was selling not long ago was as old as the 1960's. It's still sought after and being bought and sold.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by curious View Post
    a not so query but hopefully collectively a viable consensus can be arrived at...

    Yes I am familiar with the ammo storage mantra ~ cool, dark, out of moisture & chemicals place, w/storage recommendations ranging from sealed in plastic bags to plastic ammo boxes, and don't store over 10 years in optimum conditions...oh unless it is your SD ammo then cycle this type of ammo every xyz period and buy new?

    Al Gore's WWW is absolutely a flutter with billy bob saying this gospel about the subject while tim-buc joe saying that per his papa's wisdom!

    I realized I have a significant on-hand non-SD ammo, 9, 22, 5.7, 7 in their original cardboard boxes in gym locked gym lockers from the early Oh-bama reign when the firearm world was screaming 'WOLF' about gun law changes and ammo was scarce...

    therefore, at this point I am curious should begin culling my ammo and purchase anew of hold or possibly look at enhancing storage approach...

    in advance...thanks for viable insight...

    ps: yes i quickly glanced through the 10 pages of archive on the subject matter but didn't see any definitive consensus...
    There is no one answer. Storage conditions and packaging make a significant difference. Heat is bad, moisture is bad. corrosion is bad.

    The only other thing to consider is that unlike conventional primers containing lead styphnate lead, lead free primers tend to have a limited shelf life (several years) even when stored optimally.

  4. #4
    Frequent DG Adventurer fatdog's Avatar
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    Early 90's a good friend inherited 2 full and one partially full box of USGI .45ACP from Frankford Arsenal, box box and headstamp indicate 1918, cupro nickel bullets. While this is collector stuff, we "had to know" and loaded up two mags worth from the partial box, 14 rounds, fired it and even chrono'ed it. No problems, average velocity was 750 'ish. It had been stored "indoors" which based on its age in AL means at least 4 decades of not being airconditioned and hot during half the year, lots of ambient humidity. I am not sure if those were lead or chlorate primers. There was some mild tarnishing, staining and very light corrosion on some of the cases

    I am sure all ammo loaded with normal components may not be that durable, but it certainly proved to me that a lot of the internet stuff about the short finite life of ammo is total BS.

    As cited, the lead free primers are bad news on this count, that is true even for their reliability coming out of the box new in my experience.

    I from time to time shoot ammo I personally reloaded before 1990 including a large batch of my old match .308 and .45 ACP ammo I found a couple of years ago. It still chrono's what it used to and has the same SD with no degradation.

  5. #5
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    Lead free primers

    @HCM
    @fatdog

    Wondering if you had any knowledge of Syntech lead free primers. They’re a different composition than old school leadless so hoping your experience wasn’t with that stuff.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by JCN View Post
    @HCM
    @fatdog

    Wondering if you had any knowledge of Syntech lead free primers. They’re a different composition than old school leadless so hoping your experience wasn’t with that stuff.
    Mine was with lead free frangible in quantity at work. No idea if the Syntech is different.

  7. #7
    Hillbilly Elitist Malamute's Avatar
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    I still shoot some stuff I reloaded in the 1980s, so far no problems at all. Years ago (80s-90s) I had a truck with work type tool boxes on the sides of the bed with a shell over them, I kept ammo in them all year, some for many years and never had any problems when time came to shoot it. That would be up to 100-ish deg in summer to around 20 below in winter.

    I have a few boxes of the Winchester winclean 9mm with flat point tc fmj bullets. I sort of liked the bullet type, but maybe i should shoot them up if the primers arent as long lived as other stuff. Im guessing its from the 1990s, I may have had it since the late 90s, not sure about its whereabouts prior to that.
    “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
    ― Theodore Roosevelt

  8. #8
    I'm shooting ammo from the 30s - 80s. All stored in cardboard boxes or brown paper wrappers inside steel containers, from second and third world countries, that have been stored who knows where for the last 50 years. They're all fine. Occasional cracked neck. Don't store it underwater and you'll be fine

    Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

  9. #9
    Frequent DG Adventurer fatdog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JCN View Post
    @HCM
    @fatdog

    Wondering if you had any knowledge of Syntech lead free primers. .
    nope, decided around the turn of the century never to buy anything with lead free primers again, maybe they have improved them significantly

  10. #10
    Stored cool and dry, indefinitely, as old CMP ammo shows.

    OTOH, I once had some that spent 5 to 10 years in an insulated detached garage, with swings from triple digits in summer to negative in winter. I tossed them after 20 or so rounds. Eighteen went bang!, one went click-phhht (but cleared the barrel) and the other went click-one potato-two potato-phhhht. I wised up then.

    Of course, in one of the ammo droughts I tried some ???USA??? brand reman ammo. It was bang...bang...phhht...BANG!...etc. I tossed that box.

    So it depends.

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