Old reloads

[StrawHat]

…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

 

[StrawHat]

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.

Kevin

 

[Warboar]

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.

 

[Rifleman200-10X]

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.

 

[Ruger 13]

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!

 

[chief38]

I've NEVER had any re-loaded ammo fail for any reason - regardless of age.

 

[H Richard]

I still have some stuff I loaded in the early 80's and it always goes bang.