Went to the range today to, among other things, function test the GP100 I picked up the other week. I brought along some of my usual .357 ammo, but I also had a dog’s lunch of .38 Special that had been cluttering up my shelf for a while. It was a mix of factory ammo, including tracers, going back quite a ways. None of it was newer than the 1990’s and some of it, like the tracers, were well past 50 years old. (Peters went defunct just after WW2)
How’d they shoot? Well, I’d like to say it all shot fine but that’s not true. I had two failures due to light primer strikes. Both on the same brand/headstamp. I think what happened there was that the primers were seated a bit high. Both fired on the second strike. Everything else shot fine. And, yes, the tracers lit up…not 100%, but most of them. The ammo, however, did function and the bullets went downrange which is the important part.
I bring this up because there is often the question of ‘how long is ammo good for’ or ‘how long will ammo last’. In addition to today’s episode, I’ve shot stuff a hundred years old that fired no problem. Heck, I had a buncha 1950’s vintage FN .30-06 ammo a few years back that fired perfectly. The answer to the question of how long ammo will last (and by ‘last’ we mean how long will ammo perform properly) is, basicaly, forever IF stored properly…in an airtight, moisture proof container, like an ammo can.
Now, having said that, do you know where the not-optimum storage place for ammo is? Your gun. The ammo you carry around in your gun on a day-to-day basis is exposed to elements, moisture from your body, and a few other environmental factors. And it will still work just fine years down the road. However…there is no point in taking chances so I personally fire off my carry ammo every so often and replace it. Usually annually, but Im kind of a paranoid that way. You can probably swap it out every other year and be just fine. For me, though, I swap it out every year.
So there you have it…stored properly ammo, in this case some .38 Special, will last a lifetime…easily. Class dismissed.
we had some bean bags at work that wouldn’t work after 2 years in the tx heat/humidity…so if you live in the south, you may want to swap out every year…
i often have to leave a gun in my truck. i change out the ammo every six months or so after i had a misfire. thank goodness it was just a target session.
When my uncle passed I got 6 ammo boxes with untouched, steel cased 45 ACP rounds from 1942. I have never had one not fire . I haven’t gone through the 30-06 yet but the lable says 1945.
One has to wonder about the variables. Is the chemical makeup of today’s gunpowder and primers the same as what they used in the 50’s? Modern priming compound is a mixture of lead styphnate, antimony sulfide, barium nitrate, and other chemicals. Who is to say that modern factories, based all over the world, are all using the same compounds in the same amounts? I’ve shot US rifle ammo with a 1944 headstamp and it shot fine. Given all the questionable stuff going on in the world today it’s hard to trust any company to not take short cuts.
Had some fun with some pre-WWI British Kynoch-cordite loaded ammo through the Enfield once upon a time Occasionally, it was like shooting a flintlock; click, brief interval, bang.
I have ammo I purchased in the 1980s that still shoots just fine. I have surplus ammo from before that; it also works.
After some ammo got waterlogged in a few inches of water in the basement, I started keeping all my ammo in…wait for it… ammo cans! While the cardboard boxes all melded together, the flooded 5.56 still fired and most of the 22LR did, too.