Old Ammo

Varmit

Varmit

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I have read on this forum that fairly old ammo works just fine but a buddy of mine who is kind of cheap broke down and bought a new box of 30-06 cartridges and I asked him if he wanted to go to the range. He started shooting and the rifle was not grouping good at all. We adjusted the scope and still could not get it to group. I happened to look at his ammo and saw he was using his old CIL ammo which was bought in the seventies. I cussed him and told him to use the new box. After I pried it out of his hands he shot a good group but of course we had the scope way off and had to make the necessary adjustments and then he was good to go. He pretty well had to go and buy another box which he was not happy about. I saw this happen at the range one time as well when a guy had a 30-30 that would not group and another guy gave him a few new cartridges and they grouped ok.

My question is when should we start to suspect that ammo is starting to get unreliable when it comes to accuracy? My CT store has some federal premium sierra game kings that have old prices on them and covered in dust because they have been there so long and I could buy the 4 boxes at a discount and wondered about how good they would be.
 
I shot 2 boxes of Dominion 30-30 a few weeks ago and it grouped better than any flat nosed modern ammo... That being said my 30-30 is an early model and it was likely designed to shoot that stuff and I think that might be more of the issue that the ammo is not built for modern guns. You also need to think about the storage of the ammo, jacket corrosion can effect ammo in a god awful way.

But to answer you question the ammo with the old price tag should be fine... I mean I don't think I've shot a military round this ear that was produced before 75 .. And I sure have shot a few (300 x54,500 x39,100x25,100 5.56, 150 308 and ~100 303) without any fall in accuracy
 
I don't think ammo becomes less accurate with age: When stored correctly, you can avoid such symptoms as unreliable ignition/failure to ignite. Factory ammo standards have varied throughout the years as well, so that comes into play in accuracy. But, just important an issue toward accuracy or lack thereof, is 'does this ammo work well in my rifle?" Barrel vibrations/harmonics, some ammo will shoot poor groups in one rifle, but brilliant in another. Factory ammo is reportedly more consistent these days, and there are many situations that bolster this claim.

If CT has ammo on the shelf, I doubt it is a year old: Dust can accumulate noticeably in days. If your buddy wants to save money buying ammo, he might like to hear that reloading your own results in ammo that is more cosistent and costs sometimes well below less than half. ;) PS, don't mention the outright cost of the equipment purchase required to realize these savings. :redface:
 
Well, the rifle is a remington 700 in 30-06 bought in 1974 and the shells are just as old. The ammo was stored in his house in a drawer. All I know is that they were showing groups 6-8 inches at 100 yds and it made me leery of old ammo. But maybe they grouped like that when they were new, after all that is over 38 yrs ago and the manufacturing methods were probably not what they are today.
 
Don't forget that his rifle may like a different brand or bullet weight better than the stuff he shot first. .22's can be very picky sometimes and I see no reason why a rifle wouldn't be as well.
 
Age has nothing to do with it.

Perhaps his gun just doesnt like it.

Possibly you're friend just isnt a good shot as well. I mean hes still got the box of ammo he got with his rifle 40 years ago. Doesnt sound like he shoots his rifle all that often.
 
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