Quote:
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Originally Posted by valleyforge.1777
Slamfire said: "Gunpowder lifetime is the limiting factor for ammunition lifetime. Lifetime expectancy for single based powders is 45 years and 20 years for double. High heat and bad storage conditions can reduce this life time to months."
My reply:
You, sir, are the only one I ever see posting that. Either you are right and a few hundred thousand of us are totally wrong, or your information is not really applicable.
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I believe he's right, but I don't think the rest are totally wrong. Many of us store our ammunition in the same air conditioned and heated house that we live in. That should extend powder life quite a bit.
The military stores their ammunition and such in non-climate controlled bunkers with much larger swings in temperature and humidity. They also move the stuff around the world exposing it to even greater overall swings. I've bought surplus ammo that I couldn't even pull the bullets from without the necks cracking and I've bought a lot that shot fine.
Powder does degrade and what Slamfire says makes sense to me. It would be irresponsible to tell anyone that powder and loaded ammunition has an unlimited shelf life.