Storage Life of Factory Ammo

[Walkathon]

I don't reload and use factory ammo in all my guns. How long does standard factory ammo last on the shelf when stored in my house, assuming dry conditions (30%-50% rel humidity) at room temp? I have some ammo that is pushing 15 years old, and I'm not sure if it loses velocity, or if primers start to go bad, etc... Also I'm talking about hunting ammo loaded by Remington, Federal and Hornday. Not military surplus ammo from over seas. Any insights would be appreciated by those of you who have knowledge of this topic. When I google the topic I get a wide range of answers and would like the HT crew to weigh in on the subject. Thanks !

 

[VikingsGuy]

Everything I have read says ammo stored in moderate temps and low-med humidity will live longer than the owner with minimal loss of functionality, but I have never tested personally.

 

[WyoDoug]

As long as they are kept in a cool dry room they should last longer than you do.

 

[rwc101]

A friend gave me an old (1916?) 32-20 Colt Army Special with a box of ammo that looked nearly as ancient. 1940s at the latest. I only shot 6 rounds of that ammo, but all went off without a hitch.

 

[brnsvllyjohn]

My dad had some Remington Core Lokt ammo that was in a detached garage for maybe 20 + years in open tool boxes. We found approximately 1 in 10 did not fire or did not perform correctly. Never had an issue with anything stored inside his house even though some of it might be older. I have never had an issue with ammo that was possibly 10-15 years old stored in my house.

 

[std7mag]

Factory ammo?
What's that??

Bear in mind that you don't know how long it was in the manufacturers warehouse, transport, distributors warehouse, shiping again, and storage at the store.

 

[ZBB]

From 2011-2014 I shot 50 cal api ammo that was packaged during the Korean War. They came in sardine looking cans that had to be cut open. Every once in a while we’d find some that were bad, but for the most part they preformed fine.

 

[nrpate05]

When my grandfather passed away a few years ago, he had ammo in every crevice of the house. We found some .22 rounds that had to be 20+ years old. I've shot some and everything worked properly.

 

[LuketheDog]

I just dug 1,000 rounds of 50+yr-old .22 Short ammo out of my folks' basement, it's been working great!

 

[Walkathon]

Thanks for the comments !

 

[GlockZ]

For what it's worth, a friend of mine has an M-1 Garand, and anyways he somehow came across a deal where this other individual had a few cases of Korean War era military spec 30-06 he wanted to get rid of. This individual had the ammo stored outdoors in a shed, for at least 20+ plus that he could remember. My friend got a 1,000+ plus rounds for $50, and it shot great, no issues whatsoever.

 

[antelopedundee]

A gent on another forum had this experience.

"So for Father’s Day I decided to hook my dad up with giving his rifle a makeover. He has a Tikka T3 in 308 I bought for him for Father’s Day back in 2007. I bought a new Leupold scope, new rings, bedded the rifle, modified the bolt stop to make it a long action and bought a new LA magazine.
Because we live in the great state of CA I also told him I would load him up some non lead rounds. Well, today I went to the range to start load testing.

Before I started I needed to zero the new scope so I had a box of old old Federal 308 rounds my dad gave me when I took his gun (not sure of the date but I’d guess they were bought in the late 80s early 90s). First round I touched off left me with a face full of hot gases and burning oil. Tried to eject the round and nothing. So after cycling the action a few times the spent round came out. I decided not to use those rounds anymore and sighted it in with a box from the range store then started load development with 175 grn LRXs. No issues with those at all, think I’m going to settle on 44 grns of IMR 4895 pushing them at 2613 FPS.

Well my last 3 shots I had 3 Berger 180 grn I reloaded 2 grns below book max with a jump of .010. Just wanted to see how the gun liked Berger’s. Well, first shot I got a face full of smoke again. I know it was stupid, but I figured it was a fluke and shot another. Same thing?

What would cause this? Is the headspace on the gun off or would you think something’s off with the brass? I was using RP brass with the LRXs and I was using Federal brass (same make of brass that separated with the factory round) with the Berger’s. The Fed brass with the Berger’s was on it’s 3rd firing, once from a SCAR and once from this gun. I just received new 308 brass in the mail today so I’m going to chuck all the brass I used and start new. Just hoping nothings wrong with he gun! "

 

[Gr8bawana]

A few years ago we shot a box of Winchester 30-30 ammo that was my dads. It had to be over 50 years old and every round went of without a problem.