Q:Is ammo ever too old?

[k9cougar]

I run accross some bricks of Remington 22 LR at a local Radio Shack store while on vacation. (wouldn't it be great if all Radio Shack stores carried guns and ammo?). Anyway the brick is just $15. The downside is the ammo is probably 20 years ago that the franchisees picked up at a estate sale. They are "High Velocity" and are "exclusive golden bullet" along with "Kleanbore priming" that is supposed to help keep the gun barrel "bright and clean". Can ammo go bad? Looks OK to me. Would you take a chance or let it pass?

[publius]

If it's not corroded and you think you are getting a good deal, go for it. should be fine

[Daryl]

I'd shoot it without hesitation.

It'll either go bang, or it won't. *shrug*

[carguychris]

Ammo can go bad if it is stored in a wet environment, or someplace subject to wide temperature swings that can cause condensation.

OTOH ammo that has been stored in a reasonably cool and dry environment can last for many decades, even for over a century. Most climate-controlled homes are perfectly fine for long-term storage.

If the rounds look nice and shiny and there's no sign that they've gotten wet, they should be fine.

[surbat6]

I've got .22 ammo older than that, shot it to compare with recent stuff and the old stuff shot better!
The old ammo was Rem. "Golden Bullet" plated, and the new was Thunderbolt with that wax-coated bullet.
The only bad .22's've seen have been range pickups, exposed to the weather.
All such were duds.
I'd grab all the ammo in that Radio Shack, just to protect them from possible prosecution for selling ammo without a license! (If you scare them bad enough, you might get a discount for the lot!)

-Edited to correct a spelling error. I know, I'm too anal.

[30-30remchester]

I harvester a buffalo a few years back with a cartridge loaded in the 1870's. The round went off like it was built yesterday. So if not corroded go ahead and shoot the stuff.

[bobelk99]

The ammo is not 'too old'. if stored properly it should be fine.

I am still shooting Winchester lead bullet 22s left over from ROTC of the 50s.

[Lavid2002]

shot some .22 from the 60's the other day : )...went bang just fine

[jaughtman]

I found a couple of old 30/30 cartridges that were hidden in an old cigar box that came with my first deer rifle - I got it when I was 14 - I am 40 now. I shot them and I can attest that ammo will last at least 26 years.

Jamie

[Mike Irwin]

I've fired 100+-year-old ammunition, Spencer .56-56, with no problems other than about 30% failure rate.

[10-96]

Another opinion on that:
It might be worth while to determine if old ammunition would be more valuable as collector fodder than shootability. I'm still amazed at what vintage packaged ammunition will bring at times.

Your .22lr is probably far from vintage, but still, I thought I'd throw that out for everyones ponderance.

[surbat6]

"I've fired 100+-year-old ammunition, Spencer .56-56, with no problems other than about 30% failure rate."
Mike, not to be too nit-picky, but I think that a 30% failure rate qualifies as a problem! I'd also imagine you shot that old .56 RF ammo before you knew how much each round is worth to collectors!

[Mike Irwin]

For ammo that old, a 30% failure rate is actually far better than what we expected it to be.

As for how much it is worth to collectors, it was worth more to us to actually shoot a historical gun than it was to try to get rid of the rounds at a gun show. At the time it was bringing maybe 75 cents a round, and you could find .56-56 at gunshows in boxes of loose cartridges for less than that.

HUGE quantities of .56-56 were loaded in the United States right up through to about 1920 when it was finally dropped by American manufacturers.

I have a couple of the rounds in my personal collection. At this point it's 130+ years old.

[44 AMP]

However, its no guarantee. If you are talking about ammo from one of the major makers, 30-40 years is nothing. Hell, I have some of my own reloads that are getting nearly that old! And yes, they still work fine.

.22LR more than a few decades old might give you a bit more trouble than fresh stuff, or it might not. As long as the cases look clean, its probably fine. RF ammo (even from major makers) has a higher expected percentage of misfires than centerfire ammo, its the nature of the beast. Budget .22RF ammo is often less reliable than their premium stuff.

Remington Golden Bullets were their high end .22 round, back before the "hyper velocity" .22s came out. Stingers, Vipers, Yellowjackets, etc. are hyper velocity, and Golden Bullets are "high velocity". This is compared to the "standard velocity" rounds from generations before. Today most standard velocity ammo is target/match ammo, and "high velocity" is what is more or less standard (i.e. commonly found).

I have seen .22s so old their bullets had oxidized (turned white on the surface) that still shot fine. I have seen cheap stuff I bought last year have multiple duds. If your Rem ammo is in the old red and white (1960s eras) packaging, and is in pristine condition, it might be worth a little more than new ammo, to the right collector. Might. A Little. Maybe.

[riggins_83]

I fired a bunch of WW2 45ACP surplus ammo last summer.. never an issue.

[FairWarning]

20 years is nothing at all if stored properly.

I've shot plenty 1950s vintage 8mm Mauser rounds without problems. I suppose the oldest modern ammo I have is a box of original Win 9mm Black Talons, by now nearly 20 years old and as rare as hen's teeth, but many decades away from being too old to shoot.

[Locoweed]

This morning my son-in-law shot up a box of Western Cartridge Co .45 acp ammo from 1953. No problems.

[Chettt]

So where is this Radio Shack that sells guns and ammo?

[starbuck125]

i shot some 8 x 56r nazi stamped ammo stamped 1938 awhile back, worked great.

[k9cougar]

Thanks all! I bought and shot the some of the old ammo. Worked great! BTW, if you ever in Lincoln City, Oregon, swing by the local Radio Shack. Not a bad selections of guns and ammo considering they are, after all, a Radio Shack. Prices for guns and ammo seemed a bit more reasonable then their prices for electronics which I have always felt were a bit expensive.

[gb_in_ga]

A> It depends on how it is stored.

B> I'm not all that impressed with new Remington .22lr Golden Bullet reliability. I've had bad experiences with it.

But for target/plinking purposes, I'd scarf it up and shoot it with no qualms. It either shoots, or it doesn't.

[Kreyzhorse]

it was worth more to us to actually shoot a historical gun than it was to try to get rid of the rounds at a gun show.

That's awesome Mike. I wouldn't have passed up a chance to fire a historical gun either. The experience would be just too hard to pass up.

[Slamfire]

The storage life of cartridges is limited by the storage life of the gunpowder.

Black powder does not deteriorate. Water will ruin the stuff, but dry cartridges loaded with black powder, or cannon shells loaded with black powder have an extremely long shelf life. Every so often you will read of someone who died from a Civil War artillery shell going off.

Smokeless single based and double based powders start deteriorating the day they leave the factory. Nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose want to combine to form a lower energy compound. Nitric acid gas is released as a by product of this reaction.

The reaction rate is directly proportional to heat. The hotter things are, the faster the migration and reactions.

The Navy initially test for acid gas by the Methly Violet test, or Talliani test. If acid gas is detected than a chemical analysis is performed to determine the amount os stabilizer in the powder. (Stablilzer is either MNA or 2-NDPA)
When the concentration of stabilizer is LT or EQ to 15% of the original content, the Navy scrapes the lot.

The Army does things different. They scrap based on clock time. 20 years for double based powders, 45 years for single base.

The best storage conditions for powder is artic cold. That is cold and dry.

Water damages powder and water causes nitroglycerine to wick to the surface. A surface rich in NG will cause pressure spikes.

I would there fore advise storing powder and ammunition in as cool and dry conditions as possible.

If your cases has case neck cracks, it is highly likely the powder inside is outgassing nitric acid and damaging the brass. The stuff should not be shot as the burn rate of the powder is now unpredictable and the case may split in the case head.

I don't know the shelf life of primers. If they go dud then whatever is in the case is not going to go bang.

[Archie]

Frankfort Arsenal, February 1916 by the headstamp. All worked fine except for the few that had the powder removed by a young experimenter.

Old ammo should be examined. Sometimes one finds lengthwise cracks in the necks. This is a result of the neck tension over time - usually measured in decades.

I got a 'deal' on a cardboard box of 7x57 Mauser FMJ ammo, loaded for the Remington rolling block sold to Mexico. The ammo had been stored (at one time, anyway) in a duck pond or something similar. It was dark, corroded and had green I had to polish off. I took the rounds that looked intact and fired them from the rolling block I had purchased. Those nasty looking rounds fired just less than half the time. Considering it looked like someone had tried to sabotage them, not bad.

With modern storage techniques, well made ammo lasts a good long time.