ammo storage and longevity

Longevity... probably longer than I will be alive. I store my rounds in 8mil plastic bags ... about 200 rounds of 9mm per bag all stored in a locked cabinet. Pull a bag or two for each range trip. New loads get put in small ammo boxes with recipes.
 
This comes up regularly the consensus is a REALLY long time.
Ammo needs no special storage.. it'll probably last forever in a box in your closet.

But some things you can do to ensure good ammo storage is a cool low humidity place.
Don't store it in the attic or basement and it should be good to go till you're old and have great grand kids.

The oldest stuff I ever personally shot was early 80's nato 9mm.. I only know the years because they stamp it on that stuff.

It all went bang without issue.

7.62x54r (Mosin ammo) some of that stuff was older then WWII and never hard any complaints.

People have found WWII 1911 mags loaded in crates, *bang bang*


So I would not worry about ammo going bad.

I will however say that rim fire seems to not hold up as well as center fire, find more duds then usual in old rim fire ammo.. but still we're talking 10-15+ years and if stored properly probably a non issue.
 
I recently found a box of handloaded 9mm in the back of a file cabinet drawer from the late 1970s. It fired just fine, I didn't run it through a velocity check, but it was target ammo and hit where I was aiming. Cases already reloaded with new powder and bullet and back in line.

In another thread, I read where a guy was called to a relative's house to check out a 1911 pistol, wrapped up in a cloth and put in a box back around 1930 or so. He said he shot the magazine full of hardball it had and it all went off and cycled the pistol just fine.
 
If it's stored like most us do in fairly climate controlled circumstances I would say for damn ever.

I have shot some 8mm that surely was not stored as well as it would be in my house and it ran fine and was damn near 80-90 years old. The worst I have ever seen was a very short hangfire.....like click 1 Mississippi BANG.

All that being said if you get a Click count to 25 Mississippi or so to be safe as that should be ample ample time for any hangfire on old ammo.
 
I did drag out some 12ga that had been stored long before I was born.
It shot ok but the smoldering pieces of paper worried me. Didn't expect that, probably would have been ok.
I've shot really old surplus ammo no problem.
I ran out of room to store ammunition in one space so it resides in corners of bookshelves around the house too.
 
The two items that can cause gunpowder to degrade is humidity and heat. Control these two things and ammo will function forever.

I store what I don't regularly shoot in the metal military ammo cans (don't use the cheap plastic ones) with a desiccant inside in a cool place.

This doesn't mean that ammo that hasn't been properly stored won't function, it just eliminates the potential degradation.
 
I store all my ammo in GI 50cal or 20cal can's. I have it all in the house. I shoot Gew98 & k98 mausers in 8mm.(7.92x57) I have lots of mil-surplus 8mm ammo. The bottom of that is the old turk milsurp ammo from 1942-44. Never a hang fire or anything bad. GI ammo cans(steel) is the way to go. Air & water sealed. It's also a great way to carry your ammo to the range for a day of shooting. The day's of 50cal cans 3 for $10 bucks at gun shows are over but you can still get them at gun stores but for like $19.00-$21.00 per can.OMG. But that's what I would do.
P.S. You can also get the plastic ammo can's. I don't know how good they are or there cost.
 
On a practical note there is a lot of 1960's / 1970's .50 cal available from dozens of countries. Seems to go BOOM well, with few complaints.
 
When my grandfather gifted me his SW 659 he had a box of CCI 9mm ammo that I still have. I'm sure it's safe to shoot but I can't bring myself to do it, I think it's a cool thing to keep from the old guy.
 
The oldest ammo I've fired was WCC 41 M2 ball. Yeah that's 1941 ammo, I wish I hadn't because it may have been worth more to a collector. I still have 20 rounds.
I also have 50 year old Lake City (LC) and HXP from the CMP. Nice and shiny and it goes BANG! every trigger pull.
 
A few years back I bought a new Savage .243 rifle. I had some ammo sitting on the bench that I had loaded thirty-one years prior and I was in a hurry to try the gun out. I took it to the range and proceeded to shoot half a dozen five shot groups that measured from .35" to .53". I don't think it deteriorated too much during that time sitting there.
 
I have shot WWII surplus. I worked great. Mine is stored in a concrete room on a book self. It is low humidity where I live and the temp is consent in the room. I my kids will end up shooting the ammo.
 
As long as it's kept dry longevity is not an issue.

I keep mine in a steel gun cabinet that I modified with only shelves. Keep it locked out in a locked garage. Humidity is not an issue in Arizona.
 
I have ammo that has been in garages, in the house, hot/cold, dry/humid. Some of my reloads are 25 years old; some of the factory is older. All go bang - every time.
 
I reload and store mine in reusable plastic ammo boxes stacked on wire shelves. Never a problem with longevity, but the shelves are in a closet indoors where the temperature and humidity stay pretty well controlled.
 
I reload and store mine in reusable plastic ammo boxes stacked on wire shelves. Never a problem with longevity, but the shelves are in a closet indoors where the temperature and humidity stay pretty well controlled.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I do except for loads that I shoot lots of, which sometimes get tossed into whatever container is available, usually 1/2 gallon plastic paint tubs. No problems whatsoever - I'm still shooting some ammo that I loaded up 40 years ago.
 
In a sealed .50 cal can in a cool dry closet.

I have some junky surplus I don't care about unsealed in the hot dry garage. That's clearly suboptimal, but I don't think I'll ever shoot it.

I'd say that 50 years is a good low end estimate for the shelf life of ammo. In the 2000's, I was shooting a lot of 1950's surplus that ended up with cracked necks.
 
Mine is kept in military surplus ammo cans. The cans are stored in my home which is an environmentally controlled storage facility. It will last as long as it take me or my great - great - great grand kids to shoot it. Dependent upon whether they can still find firearms in that caliber. I am still shooting shotguns shells, some paper, from the early 1970's I reloaded for quail, dove, duck and pheasant hunting. Pesky squirrels and snakes from around here catch a load of it from time to time.

This very same question is asked on every gun forum I visit at least a dozen times every year. Lazy people would rather ask a question than make the effort to perform a search. The rest of us dummies continue to answer the very same question time after time.
 
I had a WWII M1 Carbine many years ago. I shot WWII or Korean War ammo that I found at gun auctions, etc. That was all that was available at that time. Never had a problem with any ammo. Now there is commercial ammo available.
 
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