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Q:Is ammo ever too old?
- Thread starter k9cougar
- Start date
Kreyzhorse
New member
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.
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.
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.
I've shot WWI era .45 ACP ammo.
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.
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.