What's the average shelf life for currently produced ammo?

I have some I bought 30 years ago that works fine.

I suppose it depends on storage. Mine was locked in a cabinet in a dry garage (in California weather) all that time.

Stop beating a dead horse! Store it properly and the heirs of your heirs can shoot it a hundred years from now.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

a long long time.... under the right conditions. In the mid eighties I found my dads service 45 that had been locked in his trunk since 1944... fired all seven rounds without a hitch! (This was kept indoors in an AC environment). I have rounds from the 70's and 80's (reloads) and have found no significant degradation. Again, NEVER stored outside/garage/etc. I keep all my ammo in the house, dark and as cool as possible.

Thanks for the quick responses! Some guy (who was selling ammo) was telling me that the new stuff has some chemicals in it that will render it useless in less than a year......I rolled up my pants legs 'cause it was getting deep! But, I didn't know what was really right! I keep mine in a gun cabinet drawer, climate controlled and dark.......

Thanks again!

Where do people get this BS from?

Internet forums?

Last year I took a deer with ammo I'd reloaded when I was 14. I'm 64.

It's all the preservatives, steroids and hormone enhancers that are used today,...oh wait that's what we eat and feed our children.

Whew, was worried about my ammo for a second!

New ammo will last longer than the shelf.

that's the dream of those that hate the 2nd amendment

From people that have & want to sell ammo.

Trust your depth gauge. Some of them really do think we're stupid.

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Oh well, what the hell.

If you read it on the internet it has to be true.

I've heard this story going around and it did in the last shortage as well, though I heard two years in my version. lol.

I guess it starts as has been said with people who just want to sell ammo no matter what, and is perpetrated by people who think it must be true b/c they read it on the internets.

Utter nonsense of course, but you'd be surprised how many people who should know better have told me it's true. It's silly conspiracies like this one that unfairly discredit the conspiracies that I know are true.

I've shot 22 from the late 40s, I think that's the oldest for me. Don't think I'd rely on my grandfather's paper shell shotgun rounds for self defense, but other than that "indefinite" seems a fair description of ammo life. If properly stored of course.

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Chuck M

im still shooting 220 swift ammo my dad loaded in 1967,still takin hogs at 300 yds+

I still can shoot .30 carbine ammo made in '51, I have a box from '44 but I'm not using it because the year matches my M1 Carbine not because I don't think it will shoot.

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Minimize the variables

The oldest ammo I ever fired was 1911 dated 30.06. 2 of the 3 rounds I tried went off. I waited until 2011 when it was 100 years old to try it.

I recently fired some old beat up ammo that I would estimate to be at least 60 years old - - - NO PROBLEMO! A lot probably has to do with how and where the ammo was stored. The new stuff should be good for many years as long as it is stored in a cool & dry place.

Modern ammo no longer uses a lead based primer . This change in the chemistry of the primers is a fairly recent event , and as such, modern ammo has not yet proven itsself as having a long shelf life .
Many "experts' have estimated that the chemisty used in todays primers may in fact break down and fail in less than 10 years, and some say less than 5 .
The change was made for our health , the government said, as prolonged inhalation of lead particles was bad for us .
In much the same way that we were forced to give up analog TV ,
and incandecent light bulbs , we now gave up long lasting lead based primers in our ammo .
I don't know what standards and regulations they have overseas, but I think it is a good idea to stock up on ammo made outside the U.S.

Lewis

"Modern ammo no longer uses a lead based primer"

Wow, is that ever wrong. Virtually all priming compositions still use Lead Styphnate, in one of two forms, as the impact-sensitive component. That's been the case since the late 1920s, at least for commercial ammunition. Lead-free primers use something different called DDNP (diazodinitrophenol), and it contains no lead. That stuff was used to some extent during WWII, but the major problem with it is unreliability at very low temperatures.

In the 45+ years I have been shooting I only had TWO factory rounds fail (regardless of age) and they were from the same lot of Remington 38 Spl. Semi Wad Cutters. This was in the early 80's and upon receiving the two failed rounds back the Factory sent me 2 fresh boxes and a letter of apology. The failure was due to two bad primers and was not due to their breaking down, but due to a defect in manufacturing - so they said. Ahhhhh, the good ol' days when Company's had incredible customer service!

Infinity plus one.

I agree 100% that old ammo will fire , 50 years latter, as long as it was stored properly. The question that has came up on so many forums and at so many gun ranges and gun stores, gun shows etc. has to do with the "rumors' that the gov. mandated the chemical composition of the primers to be altered , and that the change has been made behind our backs . True or not , it is one of the most talked about topics in the gun world right now . If the rumor is true, it's a
"back door' anti-gun policy that was forced upon the ammo manufacturing industry without us knowing . "Enviornmentally friendly"Lead free primers have been out for a while in limited numbers, and their have been a few recalls due to failures, however,
the word on the street is EVERY manufacturer is or has switched to the
new composition of lead free primer , and this is a recent event .
Every time this subject comes up, people talk about having ammo they bought 20 years ago that fires just fine. And it will. NObody is questioning that . The big question is , will the ammo you bought last week , fire 2 years from now . THAT is the question that needs to be answered.

Lewis

Not sure I'm going to buy into this philosophy either!

Once the UN small ams treaty goes in to effect, we wont have to worry about ever seeing any ammo made overseas . The whole damn deal looks fishy to me , and I hope to hell I am wrong about what's going on. If you wanted to disarm a nation of millions , and do it without them knowing it, just make their ammo useless . A brilliant idea from these sh@t*****es behind the curtain.

Lewis

What does the "Use By" date on the box say? There's your answer.

It that were true, don't you think the powder manufacturers might have said something and been raising cane about it? Just maybe?

Infinity plus infinity...

There have absolutely, positively, 100% for sure, been no changes made in primer formulations based upon Lead Styphnate to reduce its lifespan. As I earlier said, lead-free ammunition does use a different priming material (based upon DDNP), but that is a limited market. Even so, I have a quantity of lead-free primed 5.56mm and 9mm ammunition, and though what I have is more than 10 years old, it is still sure-fire. The only other priming material I know of in current use is Eleyprime, and I think it is in no more than very limited use for rimfire ammunition made outside the US. I have no idea what is in it.

The old Mercury Fulminate priming compositions used in the late 19th Century did have a very short shelf life, but aside from some special applications, those have not been used for well over 100 years. For a long time, most military primers (except for .30 Carbine) were based upon chlorate priming compositions, but that ended by the early 1950s. They were good primers with a long shelf life, but were corrosive. And commercial ammunition used the same type of chlorate-based primers up until the late 1920s, when "Kleanbore," etc. was introduced.

There are many gun-grabbers who would love to mandate perishable ammunition, but it hasn't happened yet. Given anything close to reasonable storage conditions, ammunition will outlive those who bought it.

Interesting. Years ago I bought 25 boxes of this ammo from Cabelas, close-out on sale. In one box of 50 I had two hang fires. Never had one before, or since.

Two weekends ago I fired 20 rounds of 7-66 dated Lake City .30-06 ammo and 20 rounds of 5-68 dated Greek .30-06 out of my Remington CDL. The Lake City held nearly a inch at 100 yards, the Greek stuff around 1.5 inches. Not bad for 45 to 47 year old ammo!

I shot handloads of mine from the early 1980's that worked just as well as new.

It could make for more practiced shooters.

"Honey, I know I said I'd clean the gutters this Saturday but I have to go to the range, my ammo's due to expire."

Yeah, like that'll fly...

Sell on Rumors, buy on Facts. The internet is full of rumors.

Well I am seeing 22LR's at gun shows that I have NEVER seen in my life of 69 years-- guess it would still work. A guy gave me a brick missing one box that he bought when he returned from WWII and bought when he bought a place in the country. It worked fine. Couldn't get the Colt Woodsman he bought with it though.