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Old 01-16-2022, 04:55 PM
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Last week I was cleaning out all my hunting stuff that had been stored for several years, and found a box of 50 45acp handloads that I loaded in December of 1995. Why they were in the hunting stuff is anybody's guess, but they all looked good. These have been stored in a dry storage shed, unheated / uncooled. Too the backyard range they went. Every one of them fired as new, accuracy was excellent; I was surprised to say the least. I feel very safe shooting any of my other older reloads now.
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Old 01-16-2022, 05:04 PM
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Ammo loaded with smokeless powder is incredibly stable and has a long shelf life.
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Old 01-16-2022, 05:07 PM
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Early this century I loaded quite a bit more than I shot. In the last month or so I used .223 that was loaded about 15 years ago.

Last weekend I shot a box of .38 Super that has been riding in my truck toolbox for about 12 years. Both shot like they were fresh as a daisy.
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Old 01-16-2022, 05:28 PM
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I found a case of reloaded12G skeet loads from the 1970s 2 years ago, all worked well. Also found a bunch of .45ACP reloads from the 80s all was fine. They were stored in a dry basement off the floor. I would say that is decent shelf life.

Fired some WW1 ammo a few years back, most of that was fine. Of course it was corrosive.
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Old 01-16-2022, 05:57 PM
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I still have about 3000 rounds from the 20,000 I loaded in 1984 and they are still 1/4" at 100 yards. They shoot 1/2" @ 100 in my sons LH Stag M4 Clone.

Ivan
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Old 01-16-2022, 05:58 PM
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Most ammunition has a lot longer shelf life than anyone wants to believe. The new exception is ammunition that is loaded with the lead free primers made by CCI and factory lead free ammunition. Those lead free primers have a finite shelf life. CCI used to mention that. I believe the expected time was 15 years last I saw, but I might be mistaken. Non lead free primers have an infinite life with proper storage and ball powder has an unlimited storage life. As many of us have found out the hard way, granulated and flake powders that are non ball type sometimes go bad. You can recognize it by color change in the powder itself. Once loaded however, I doubt that it can go bad sealed in it's own cartridge case.
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Old 01-16-2022, 06:19 PM
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I have a very few .30-06 handloads from the mid-'60s and maybe some .25-06 from the same era, when it was a wildcat cartridge. I have no doubt these would work just fine today.
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Old 01-16-2022, 06:50 PM
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“Old ammo” reloaded from 1995? I’m old enough to regard that as “just the other day”. It should be fine.

Froggie
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Old 01-16-2022, 09:23 PM
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My only hang up with old ammo is when the lead bullets........
start to get a light gray film on them, or the brass starts to turn green.

I usually have to clean it up, before I shoot it in my guns.

I only have one old box of .357 left, now that is old and it has the old
Speer, 160 gr. SJSP lead tip bullet of old, in the 50 round box of ammo, that I used for deer hunting with my revolver.

I guess I will have to burn them up soon and load some new bullets?
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Old 01-16-2022, 09:51 PM
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My son killed his first deer with ammo I’d reloaded 30 years earlier.
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Old 01-16-2022, 10:53 PM
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I still shoot 38 wadcutters I loaded in the early 70s to shoot PPC. They go bang every time.
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Old 01-16-2022, 11:40 PM
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I've shot up some reloads on the target range that were up to 40 years old. All had been consistently stored indoors, in a temp controlled environment. All have functioned as they should. I did shoot up some old paper hulled shotgun reloads that contained paper wads. They did shoot, providing considerable entertainment effect from the paper confetti.
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Old 01-17-2022, 02:11 AM
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I actually shot some 45 ACP ammo from WWI. It was still loads in the original magazines that were issued to the troops. Not only did every round shoot the mags performed flawlessly. That's right, loaded mags that were over 100 years old still worked well. The ammo was actually accurate too. My shooting buddy had at least a dozen or more loaded mags. We shot one mag each and he put the rest away for safe keeping.

As a side, I'm guessing the question if leaving your SD mags loaded for a year or more is not harmful to the mag springs lol. As I knew leaving this springs compressed doesn't ruin them but loading and unloading them will wear the springs.
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Old 01-23-2022, 06:32 PM
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I loaded over 15,000 45 ACPs in the winter of 1995-6 and have been shooting them ever since. In fact, I just shot a box of 50 last weekend and they went off and were just as accurate as they were 25 years ago. Like stated before, ammo will last a lifetime if stored properly. I only have a few boxes left so I suppose I should do my quarter century loading again!
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Old 01-23-2022, 09:42 PM
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I have NOS very early .45-70, .38 Colt, .45 ACP, .30-40 Krag, WW1 .30 cal, a bunch of various WW2 .30 Car and a couple thou 1943 production Remington .30-06. I have yet to have a FTF. Apparently, unless it was stored in VERY bad conditions, it's good for more than a lifetime.
I've also popped off a few 19th century BP rimfire rounds. .22, .32 and .41 Swiss. They all went bang and were accurate as expected.
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Old 01-23-2022, 10:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ArchAngelCD View Post
I actually shot some 45 ACP ammo from WWI. It was still loads in the original magazines that were issued to the troops. Not only did every round shoot the mags performed flawlessly. That's right, loaded mags that were over 100 years old still worked well. The ammo was actually accurate too. My shooting buddy had at least a dozen or more loaded mags. We shot one mag each and he put the rest away for safe keeping.
I assume you mean half-moon clips for use in the M1917 revolvers. I have never heard of packaged pre-loaded M1911 magazines.

Some 20 years ago I came into over 100 .45 ACP military rounds (Remington) in original 20-round sealed cardboard boxes which were headstamped 1918. They were far from sure-fire, maybe 20% or so fired on the first try. At that time lead styphnate (non-corrosive) primers had not yet been invented. One other interesting fact about those WWI rounds (brass cases) was the primer pocket had a diameter slightly less than cases used at present, and more modern primers could not be seated in them. Same is true for WWII steel-cased .45 ACP rounds. The pockets can be reamed out to accept today's LP primers but it is quite a job and frankly not worth the effort.
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Old 01-24-2022, 01:49 AM
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About 40 years ago a friend of mine bought a military surplus British Enfield 303 bolt action rifle. He got a wooden box containing 1000 rounds of WWI vintage .303 British ammo.

It was pretty exciting stuff. Some rounds were hang fires that would go bang after a second or two. Most didn’t work but it was scary business.
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Old 01-24-2022, 03:18 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DWalt View Post
I assume you mean half-moon clips for use in the M1917 revolvers. I have never heard of packaged pre-loaded M1911 magazines.

Some 20 years ago I came into over 100 .45 ACP military rounds (Remington) in original 20-round sealed cardboard boxes which were headstamped 1918. They were far from sure-fire, maybe 20% or so fired on the first try. At that time lead styphnate (non-corrosive) primers had not yet been invented. One other interesting fact about those WWI rounds (brass cases) was the primer pocket had a diameter slightly less than cases used at present, and more modern primers could not be seated in them. Same is true for WWII steel-cased .45 ACP rounds. The pockets can be reamed out to accept today's LP primers but it is quite a job and frankly not worth the effort.
No, they were not factory preloaded magazines, they were loaded by someone in or just after the war and found in storage in an old house. Sorry for the confusion, rereading what I posted did sound I said like they were issued loaded.
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Old 01-24-2022, 06:28 AM
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1995 isn't old .

If stored under not terrible conditions , the shelf life is not quite indefinite , but beyond anybody's lifetime . Smokeless ammo hasn't been around long enough to have yet established definitive limits . But I will make a couple observations not from personal experience :

From period sources , during transition from corrosive to non- corrosive priming , it took a while for the non- corrosive to be perfected .

Particularly around the early 2000's the younger widows of WWI Veterans were passing away / going into assisted living , and cleaning out the old family homes . Consequently , there were lots of print and early accounts Granddad's WW1 era guns being rediscovered , put away not fired since , along with period ammo either loaded , or in original boxes . A number of contemporary gun guys then tested said guns and ammunition in the interests of science , curiosity , and impressing their fellow gun and history buffs .

Going from cumulative memory , and oversimplifying :

Up thru +\- 2000 , aka about 80yo , most of the written accounts were to the effect of " Everything fired , seemingly normally .

As we progressed into 21st century , aka approaching 100 yo , we saw more accounts to the effect of " Most of the rounds fired " , and " They fired , but with noticeable variations in recoil , report , and slide cycling " .

My totally unscientific , wild guessing take :

Factory Ammo up to 75 yo is presumptively good , unless reason to suspect poor storage conditions .

Over 75yo needs to be tested , and preferably chronograph'ed .

Reality check - 100 yo ammo is more valuable as a collectible , or a refrence exemplar , than for shooting .
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Old 01-24-2022, 08:30 AM
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Old 01-24-2022, 09:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ArchAngelCD View Post
…I actually shot some 45 ACP ammo from WWI. It was still loads in the original magazines that were issued to the troops. Not only did every round shoot the mags performed flawlessly. That's right, loaded mags that were over 100 years old still worked well. The ammo was actually accurate too. My shooting buddy had at least a dozen or more loaded mags. We shot one mag each and he put the rest away for safe keeping…
Interesting about the loaded magazines.

Not sure which specific ammunition you shot but the odds are it was corrosively primed so clean your barrel well.

Kevin
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Old 01-24-2022, 09:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stansdds View Post
Ammo loaded with smokeless powder is incredibly stable and has a long shelf life.
So does ammunition loaded with black powder. I have fired Burnside and Spencer rounds dated from the American Civil War.

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Old 02-05-2022, 03:52 PM
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My friends father was a prepper of sorts and had thousands and I mean thousands of rounds of surplus 30-06 on Garand Clips, 45ACP that a lot of it was WWII era ammo, and 7.62 from Vietnam era. When he passed away in 2001-2002 I bought a bunch of the 45ACP and some of the 7.62X51(308). The 45 ACP all functioned fine in all of my 1911s and anyone else's who shot it. I bought something like 2,000 45 and a thousand 308 from him.
As long as it is stored in cool dry areas and free of moisture it will last a very very long time.
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Old 02-05-2022, 04:10 PM
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Gotta say I've shot tons of ammo that is actually "old". WW1 WW2 vintage stuff. Pretty much all of it fired as though it was new. Only issue ever was some WW2 Lake City 30 Carbine. It was shiny, clean, couple hundred rounds on 10 round strippers. It all fired like new, but about 50% of the cases split at the mouth. I for one will never worry about old ammo, as long as it's not horribly corroded, or other obvious damage.

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Old 02-05-2022, 04:19 PM
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I just last week shot some44 mag ammo I reloaded back in 1972. Performance was excellent as was expected. Elmer’s bullet and 10 grains of Unique which is still my midrange load!
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Old 02-06-2022, 05:12 AM
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I've NEVER had any re-loaded ammo fail for any reason - regardless of age.
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Old 02-06-2022, 10:51 AM
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I still have some stuff I loaded in the early 80's and it always goes bang.
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