On another thread, someone spoke of having 30 year old ammo that they still used for target practice. I know that how ammo is stored is as important as length of time, but are there any rule of thumbs on how old ammo should be? For defense, for practice?

How do you dispose of ammo considered too old to use?

How long is a short string?

Quality ammunition stored under optimum conditions will last 100 years. Improperly stored ammunition can be ruined in short order.

SAAMI has authoritative information on ammunition storage:
http://www.saami.org/Publications.cfm

My personal experience is that ammunition stored in my house lasts decades with no noticeable change. Ammunition loaded and unloaded in carry guns starts getting battered and winds up in the practice box.

For ammunition that has the bullet pushed in or is otherwise unfit to shoot, there is a device called a bullet puller, which also does duty for loading mistakes.

You will find many members here who have fired ammo 50 years old and older. If properly stored, it will last almost forever.

I found some of my reloaded .357s in the back of my old van years ago.
They had definitely been stored "improperly" but fired with no problem.

I also had a box of Remington Thunderbolt .22 ammo spill in the glove box of that van. It stayed there through several summers and winters so was exposed to 20 below and 100 degree temps. It all fired and was accurate.

I've shot a bunch of .308 ammo from the '70s and '80s with just a few failures to fire. I think that was more that my son's Remington 788 didn't appreciate them. The same lot of ammo fired without problems in my M1A and Ruger 77VT.

Wow, I'm amazed at some of the length of time described. I always felt that the way ammo is stored is very important. Thanks.

I'm curious to know what is the oldest ammo members have fired that still went bang.

Steel cased 45 ACP headstamped EC 43 (WW2) worked fine. I was worried about it being corrosive so I cleaned with hot water then old timey GI Bore cleaner, just in case.

I've shot a fair amount of WWII dated .303 and some WWII dated .45 ACP. It all went bang and hit the target.

I've shot alot of older handgun ammo, probably a few hundred rounds, and it all went bang except one box of .45acp, which was the subject of a thread on this forum a couple years ago. I bought two identical boxes, one box all 50 fired, and the other box all 50 were duds. All these dented primers you see in the pic are on "live" rounds. They all failed to fire in a Sig P245, then failed to fire in a 625. Go figure...

Regarding length of storage time. We always heard that if you kept your ammo,reloading supplies weapons in the same enviorment that a human lives in, all should last indefinately.

For carry ammo If it is in an automatic I replace the bullet in the chamber,and the first one in the mag. every week. I do this to prevent bullet set back. I replace all ammo. in whatever I'm carrying auto or revolver every 4 months. This includes what ever is in my spare mags or speed loaders. As for storing it I wouldn't know because I practice and reload to much.

Sir, the oldest ammo I've shot that I know of for sure is 1,000 rounds of .30 M2 ball made at the Twin Cities Arsenal in 1952. Every round fired just fine, and it was surprisingly accurate in my M1. I still have the brass.

Twenty or so years ago, I shot some old skanky .303 British, but unfortunately I don't remember the date on it. That stuff wasn't so good--it had had been stored poorly, and some even had corrosion on the cases. I had a few rounds fail to fire. In retrospect, I shouldn't have shot any of it. [shrug]

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

So far I've heard of 65+ y/o ammo working just fine. Anyone shoot anything older with success? Just curious.

When my grandfather, a physician Lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps, left the service in 1919 he purchased his S&W Model 1917 revolver, 50 halfmoon clips, and 500 rounds of .45 ACP ball ammo. (Total cost $33.75 -- I still have the receipt.) When I inherited it about 10 years ago, there were still 350 rounds of ammo with it. I couldn't resist firing up 100 of them, and found that they all went off without a hitch -- although I'll confess that a couple of them felt a bit weak. Keep in mind, though -- these had been stored for 80 years or so in an uninsulated, unheated, uncooled attic through all those SC summers and winters, pretty close to the worst possible conditions.

Properly made ammo, kept in conditions comfortable for a human being, is virtually immortal.

I've got some 1926 dated .303 Brit ammo that goes bang,and the bullet goes where pointed. thats 82 years and still going strong. jwr