storing ammo for 20 years

[chillbilly9]

I think 50 cal ammo cans are hard to beat! They have a good rubber seal, a tight clamp-down, latched lid, hold a lot of ammo, if loose, not in boxes, and they're easy to carry. Unless you fill one to the top with 2,000 rounds of 9mm, they get pretty heavy, around 60 lbs!

Ammo cans have been the way to go for me for more than 30 years. I have friends that vacuum seal their ammo. I have a closet full of different size ammo cans. I also have ammo as old as 35 years stored in my ammo cans that I shoot and have never had a problem.

 

[serger]

I'm still shooting the 8mm turkish mauser we were buying for 7 cents a round shipped from J&G sales. Most of it has headstamps from the early 40's, there was a bandoleer full dated 1939 that ran fine.

Having said that, I store all my ammunition in GI cans. That provides a stable environment. Now that I'm where water actually falls from the sky, I thought that would be a good thing.

 

[SWMP15Pks]

I remember my dad had a leather gun belt in the bottom of the gun cabinet that he used when he carried his Super Blackhawk 44M to the woods. I remember asking him why he never removed the cartriges from the loops, which over time had made them all green and stained the belt.

"Why would I do that? Then the loops will shrink and the bullets would stay that ugly grey!". I never understood his humor, but I'm beginning to get wise. Last fall, we went to the range, and he brought "Ol Blue" out, complete with said belt holster, full of the pretty green monsters. He handed me the gun, then six rounds one at a time. He pulled one, wiped it down, and said "there see? perfectly grey." Not a single misfire, and surprisingly, those rounds smelled like "real" ammo, and smelling it took me back 30 years to the first few range visits I can remember.

 

[Fishslayer]

Yes, for the man that likes his ammo fresh and crisp!

I use the smaller Tupperware for taking ammo to the range. Works great!

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Back in the mid-70's I picked up a deal on a bunch of FA-1918 GI .45ACP, World War 1 issue stuff. Worked just fine. I have fired hundreds and hundreds of GI .30-06 with WW2 headstamps, no problems. While moving last year I found a 500-round lot of .357 that my labels showed I loaded in 1985; still in perfect condition.

Excessive heat and moisture are the primary concerns. GI ammo cans are great, as are vacuum sealers, but high temps or wide variations in temperatures are to be avoided.

 

[Steely85]

The only problem I've found with storage is the space. 4 dozen ammo cans is a lot of weight.

I have a friend that keeps his ammo in an old freezer (non-working) in his shed. It does keep it cooler and dry.

 

[model70hunter]

I have ammo from the 1970's, 22 lr and shot shells I found when moving, they shot fine, I have primers from then too, I use them for just shooting and not hunting as a few out of a box fail to fire.

Keep in mind some folks are shooting very old military ammo all the time. I've shot WW2 stuff when I could find it but not in my good guns.

I too use army ammo boxes.

 

[Frank46]

I lucked into 500 rounds of M-72 match ammo for my springfield. Dated 1967 shoots just fine and my sako 75 in 30-06 just loves it. The worst stuff I ever had was a batch of WWII 303 British. Must have had a hard storage life. Cases looked ok but kept getting split necks all the time. Pulled the bullets, dumped the cordite and scrapped the brass. Frank

 

[Engineer1911]

Be careful storing ammo loaded with cast lead bullets. If the ammo gets "hot" in the summertime, the bullet lube may migrate into the powder and cause a misfire. I had a box of 357 mag ammo loaded with cast semi-wadcutters that accidently spent the summer in the trunk of my Chevy. From the box of 50, I got 2 stuck bullets in the barrel out of 18 rounds. Took the ammo home, pulled the bullets, dumped the powder, and found that the primers were ok -- 6 for 6. The bullets were reloaded with fresh powder without any problems.