Promotional Ammo....

[eap]

dave, how old is too old for 12ga loads? i ask, cause about 8yrs ago my dad an i got a good deal on 2.5 cases of federal field loads(1.25oz). we're still shotting them and have a few boxes left. we just use them for dove these days.

when i was quail hunting, when i bought the case, i seemed to do bettter with federal and have been partial to them since. but haven't had to buy any for obvious reasons.

 

[Dave McC]

If kept dry and away from temperature extremes, shelf life of shotgun ammo is measured in decades.

I've shot 40 year old paper case stuff w/o glitches, and the old Military all brass 00 were famous for lasting well nigh forever.

A word here.....

Some of us like to keep a "Truck" gun, and the ammo is often kept in a car trunk, tool box, etc. I'd rotate this yearly since it does have exposure to the heat of summer and cold of winter. Mel Tappan, an early writer and survivalist, was emphatic about changing it more often.IIRC, he suggested every 6 months in most places, more often where it gets really hot or cold. He did say single base powders were more susceptible than double base ones, but I've nothing to back this up with.

I recall an old American Rifleman article about 22 ammo. They kept some in a car trunk for 3 months, and compared its accuracy with that of a control boz that had been stored cool and dry. The trunk stuff had slightly larger groups out of a Model 52 target rifle. The article suggested longer would see more degrading...

HTH...