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Old January 29, 2012, 02:58 PM   #2
dmazur
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 5, 2007
Location: Pacific NW
Posts: 1,310
The general answer to the question of ammo shelf life is "indefinite".

From reading several threads on this, they all seem to agree that
  • Moisture is detrimental to long-term storage - case corrosion
  • Extremely high temperatures (120F+) can degrade the powder

IMO, indoor storage in original packaging is sufficient, without worrying about it further.

However, for really long-term storage, you might worry about things like cardboard boxes and dividers can have a slight acid content and attract moisture. Milsurp ammo cans are just about air-tight, so some repack ammo in ammo cans, with a dessicant.

I've read about a somewhat extreme practice of using a vacuum food sealer to repack ammo, and then store the results in ammo cans.

I guess it depends on whether you're looking at a 5 year horizon with life being somewhat normal, or a 50 year horizon with hurricanes and tornadoes thrown in...
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