ammo age

Well, last I checked people are shooting ammo from World War 1. Quite a bit of the surplus ammo being sold is more than twenty years old.

Properly stored, the lifespan of ammo seems to be measured in decades rather than years.
 
I have personally shot some ammo from the Boer war. Works fine, but I can't speak to performance issues: no chrony data available for the stuff when it was new ;-). I suspect that, stored dry, ammo is good for a LONG time. Has anyone seen mention of blackpowder finds from Napoleonic era or earlier?
 
I just picked up a crate of 762x25 for my Tok. It was produced in Czech in 1953. That means its 60 years old. Sealed spam can, opened to find shiny brass! Shoots just fine.
 
A more accurate measurement for properly stored ammo would be a century. Much before that time is pre-modern ammunition and the black powder days.
 
I just shot some ammo a week ago that was from 1947. A friend of mine had some 7.62x39 spam cans on stripper clips dated 47 and they shot flawlessly. I also have a few cases of 53 Tok ammo that works without a problem.
 
I have shot very old centerfire Milsurp rounds for years without a problem. Vintage shotgun shells can be problematic depending on action type. Never had issues with break barrel. Very little with pump, but semi auto's can be downright interesting. I think the shotshell powder may deteriorate with age or is slower burning. The semi's, specially with shorter barrels' have open flames out both the barrels and the action during cycling. Not a pretty sight. Rimfire rounds have been my downfall. Bought a whack of Remington 22lr sealed in tins with pretty pictures on them when they first came out many, many, years ago. The ammo became more valuable than the tins so I started shooting the stuff. Not the best of results. 30% or higher FTF and what did go bang' would not cycle in most semi-auto's. With lots of it to shoot, sounded like a good reason to buy another gun!! Got a vintage Cooey 600 repeater, problem solved. Based on the point of impact change (on those that do fire) compared to modern rounds, the velocity must be way lower than originally listed. My layman theory is that the primer material in the rim is in contact with the powder and maybe some air. It must deteriorate causing FTF's. Vintage shotshell's the primers are sealed, but the powder may become contaminated do to paper hulls and unknown wadding types. Centerfire rounds stored properly seem not to have these issues. So join the hoard(er)s any buy centerfire. Maybe not so much rimfire, unless you have a good rotation policy
 
If properly made, POWDER will not deteriorate in storage.

What goes wonky on you is the PRIMER.

Proper storage is necessary.

The old Fulminate Primers would start go show up for work dead in as little as 2 years. This improved a bit with Chlorate Primers.... but they ate your gun.

Modern primers are NON-corrosive and NON-mercuric and are MUCH more stable. Problem is that they didn't show up all the same day. The Germans had SINOXID primers in War I, Canada began converting in War II, the US took from 1940 to 1954 to switch over completely, USSR and the East Bloc took even longer.

Chlorate primers are MUCH cheaper and easier to make and you can do it with a much lower state of technology. That is why they hung on for so long.

Modern NCNM primers have an almost-indefinite shelf-life.

KNOW your ammo! And if there is ANY chance it could be corrosive, keep your guns CLEAN.

Hope this helps.
 
Wait a sec!!!!
FreedomIsn'tFree, you have 7.62x39 ammo that is dated 1947??? Could you please confirm that. The earliest known headstamp for x39 is 1949. Either you're mistaken on the date or you are shooting something too rare to shoot.
 
I just un-earthed an old DA 303round last week with a metal detector. It's stamped 1922. It was laying who knows how long under about 4 inches of sand/shale pebbles.

I bet it woould fire.
 
Shot some improperly stored 30-06 from about 30 years ago. Parents left it in the bottom of a toolbox for 3 decades, corroded and nasty, I cleaned it up and it all went bang with no split cases. I also shot some 30-30 that was in the same place, and half of the cases split at the shoulder, was old imperial stuff, all went bang :)
 
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