does ammo go bad?

[harlequin]

sorry if this is a stupid question, does ammunition go bad?

specifically shotgun shells, 7.62, and 32 short. if i buy a bunch of boxes of ammo, and they sit around, are they still gonna be good 10 years later?

[FrightenedWolfe]

If the ammo is kept in a dry place, it can have a life span of fifty or more years.

If it is corrosive military surplus ammo, it will last over one hundred years.

[NHCraigT]

As stated, it all depends on how (where/conditions) - it is stored.

Store that ammo you have properly and YES - it will be good in 10 years, and should even be good for your lifetime.

________________________________________________
”All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” – Sir Winston Churchill

[pixelphotographer]

i have some ammo my grandfather had in hawaii when the japanese attacked pearl harbor.
Its an old 32 cal pistol with ammo I fired one round and it worked flawlessly.

That said I had found some shotgun shells in an old shed and only got one to fire out of 12.
Its possible they soaked up moisture being in a cardboard box laying on the ground.

Depends on how you store it I would say.
but stored properly it should last much longer than 10 years with no problem.

[kahn]

stored correctly it will outlast you

[Wolfe]

Originally Posted by kahn

stored correctly it will outlast you

'nuff said right there.

[Silentpoet]

I have heard of ammo being brought up from sunken ships still working many years later. Ammo is about the most durable item you can stock aside from blocks of granite.

[harlequin]

cool, thanks everyone

[Ritepath]

When I was a kid in the 80's I shot up fouro cases of paper 28ga shells from the 50's....
I've hunted with and have ammo that dates back to the 70's and 80's in my storage boxes right now. It's amazing how reliable ammo is...

On another note a Friend of mine come in with some Egyptian 9mm 1000 rounds back in the early 90's I don't know what date it was, but it was crap. Sometimes dropping the hammer 2, 3, 4 or 6 times would get it to fire. sometimes it just ended up tossed...We still had fun shooting the stuff

[Canyon Cat]

I hate to tell you this . . but some types of ammo go bad very quickly. This would be 7.62x39, .45ACP, and .22LR especially. They all expire on April 1st.

As a Certified Recalled/Expired Ammunition Processor (C.R.A.P.), I will accept all your expired or pre-expiration ammo at no cost to you. Don't wait!!

Just send me an email to get my shipping address:
[email protected]










Sorry . . . it's cabin fever, I think.

[Silentpoet]

Originally Posted by Ritepath

When I was a kid in the 80's I shot up fouro cases of paper 28ga shells from the 50's....
I've hunted with and have ammo that dates back to the 70's and 80's in my storage boxes right now. It's amazing how reliable ammo is...

On another note a Friend of mine come in with some Egyptian 9mm 1000 rounds back in the early 90's I don't know what date it was, but it was crap. Sometimes dropping the hammer 2, 3, 4 or 6 times would get it to fire. sometimes it just ended up tossed...We still had fun shooting the stuff

That could have been SMG ammo, alot of times they have harder primers to prevent magazines from cooking off. Pistols won't hit the primer with enough force. On a similar note a local gunshop had some belted .30-06 and I was there when the guy returned it or the owner approved the return over the phone for basically the same reason.

[Oh Shoot]

Apparently, one exception: WinClean and any others with similar heavy metal free primers may go dud in just a few years.

- OS

[wind]

Incomming ammo = Bad.

Outgoing ammo = Good.

Any questions?

[sailinghudson25]

Properly stored?

-put ammunition in a sealed bag and then put it in a sealed box. I use 50 cal ammo cans from the suplus store. Use a dollar bill to check the tightness of the seal. If the closed box tighly hold a dollar bill on the middle of the sides when closed, it's good.

-Put a moisture absorbent in there. Poor man's dessicant is recently purchased rice. For the price of stuff, just buy dessicant. Gun catalogs like midway have them. Some gun shops have them too.

-Keep it in a temperature controlled area. Like a upstairs room. Attics, unheated garages, and other places where it can cook ro freeze make it go bad quicker.

-Keep handling and vibration to a minimum. The more it moves, rattles, or shakes the more the gun powder breaks into finer particles and the better chance of fractures in the primer material.

-Rotate ammunition. Keeping ammo dormant for ten years is bad. IF you think you need 10,000 rounds, you're wrong. You really need to shoot that much for the time you only need a full magazine. Make your practice count. Shoulder the gun for every shot, do minimal bench shooting, and dry fire practice if you can't get to the range often.

[whirlibird]

The old saw, "Store it in a cool, dry, place", really does apply.

Kept cool and dry and free of contaminants (oil), ammo loaded prior to the turn of the 20th century is still viable. Not recommended as it's going to be corrosive and collectible.

I've fired original Sharps ammo that was paper patched and over a hundred years old, (not much but still) and plenty of ammo from WWI and WWII and had good luck with them. At the same time, I've had bad lots of ammo also, some were stored improperly over their lives, make several ocean crossings in ships where the ammo was subjected to the rocking motion repeatedly and the powder broke down. Both looked great but one was unbelievably clumped (heat) and the other it turned to a fine powder and would be completely unsafe to fire, causing horrifically high pressures.

Modern ammo (non-clean fire) that still used Lead-Styphnate for the priming compound is about as sure-fire as you're going to get.

Daily carry ammo should be rotated every year because of powder breakdown issues, vehicle stored ammo definitely this often, every 6 months is preferred depending on heat/vibration amounts. YMMV

[Nutjob Transplant]

Originally Posted by harlequin

sorry if this is a stupid question, does ammunition go bad?

specifically shotgun shells, 7.62, and 32 short. if i buy a bunch of boxes of ammo, and they sit around, are they still gonna be good 10 years later?

I'm using 30 year old 7.62x54r ammo in my m44 still kicks like a mule and does the job.