How long can you trust ammo stored in military ammo boxes ?

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GhosT

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Bill Clinton convinced me decades ago. ....... To STOCK UP!

USA military ammo boxes,-----some decades old......sealed tight,no extreme temps ....

I got a fair amount of ammo for each gun if things go sideways......in USA military ammo boxes,decades old.
Those....old style ammo boxes -------------can ya trust the ammo in them ,sealed tight. .....
"Cause I 'am !


GhosT
 

Biggfoot44

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Stored under decent conditions of temperature , we can't really say .

We can say that WWl era ammunition so stored started showing inconsistencies after between 75 and 100 years . This may or may not be the same for todays ammo going forward .

If you're doing this on purpose , there is potential advantage to actual MilSpec or LE grade ammunition , with primer and case mouth sealing . But of course this is balanced against buying inexpensive bulk , to get largest number of rounds for your $ .
 
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A long time. Most of my long term stored ammo is in metal cans with desiccant packs. I opened every can for inspection in 2021 and none of the moisture indicators had changed color. Same with the big plastic 40mm containers(you can get a LOT of 22lr in one of those).
As long as you don't let the temps change drastically in a short period or let it get overheated, modern ammo has a long shelf life even stored in factory boxes on a shelf. I gave Dad a case of 22lr ammo which he stored in a closet with his guns. Ten years or so later when he died in 1990, Mom gave the ammo back. I brought it home and placed it in ammo cans. I'm beginning to notice some variance in velocity of this ammo.
 
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Military ammo, my dad had a metal can of 3006 AP, can't remember the exact date but it was 1940s something. He passed in 2011. I let my son use the key to open it up like a can of spam. I fired a 8 round clip and no hang fires, all shot normally. The rifle was cleaned asap while still at the range. In the 80s we were unboxing match ammo in both 3006 and 308 with dates from the early 60s. That ammo is not primer or bullet sealed. Can't remember anyone having problems. I shot some of that too.
Non GI, clearing out dads stuff, I also found a Winchester 20 rd box of 33 Winchester. Unknown when that was even last made. The paper/cardboard box was falling apart. I fired them off in a 1886 win. All worked. He had several box's of 358 Norma mag, I am guessing from the 60's. Since all I remember is him handloading that caliber in the mid 70s. Paper box's again were failing apart. I am still shoot them as fouling rounds when going to the range. They all work so far. I did have a 358 brass from those old cases split after the 2 firing about a month ago. All that old brass went into the garbage. Can't chance that happening again when elk hunting.
Reloading powder, I will not take a chance with that. Dad had old cans of stuff not made in years, all opened. I destroyed the powder and sold the empty cans. One was a large glass pickle jar like you might see in a store to buy a single pickle. He once told me his dad used that to store IMR 4831 powder in it when he purchased gun powder in paper bags. (Remember Hodgdon powder early sales). Granddad passed in 1963, the powder got dumped across the lawn.
 

gunzo

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Lots of re-used cans fail due to moister being present in the can at re-packaging. The dess packs should fix this. Start with a very dry can & inspect the seal.

But FWIW, I recently tried some Rem. golden bullet 22 that's been in a 50 cal. can for over 35 years. Judging from a couple hundred of it, it's more dependable than the 550 pack stuff they sold 10 years ago.
 

Longcarbine

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Lots of re-used cans fail due to moister being present in the can at re-packaging. The dess packs should fix this. Start with a very dry can & inspect the seal.

But FWIW, I recently tried some Rem. golden bullet 22 that's been in a 50 cal. can for over 35 years. Judging from a couple hundred of it, it's more dependable than the 550 pack stuff they sold 10 years ago.
Remington and Winchester used to make great .22lr ammo, now days not so much.
 

57springer

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I am using up rem 22s from the early 80s that were not stored in ammo cans . Just stored in a metal cabinet indoors,no ftfs .
 

NikA

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We can say that WWl era ammunition so stored started showing inconsistencies after between 75 and 100 years . This may or may not be the same for todays ammo going forward .
A lot of WWI ammo used mercuric priming compounds that damaged the brass and destabilized over time. More recent priming compounds are supposed to be much better in terms of stability (at least until you get to the lead free stuff, maybe). Consistency of brass and powder manufacturing also improved significantly from WWI to WWII. I'd say any reasonable quality ammunition from 1940 onwards, stored properly, is likely to have a shelf life of at least 1 lifetime. The only possible exception I can come up with off the top of my head is lead bullets with soft lubricant that could contaminate the powder.
 

Enigma

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When I was working at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ (2012-2016), we used .50 ammo every day that was from WWII - mostly LC 43, it seemed. It was still consistent enough to be used in testing, at least. And FWIW, mercuric primers have not been used by the US military since shortly after WWI, IIRC. The great surplus of WWI ammo had pretty much been used up by 1936, or so. Almost all military ammo except for .30 Carbine used corrosive primers until the early 1950s, but they were not mercuric. Dominion, in Canada, produced a lot of 100,000,000 rounds of .30 M2 with noncorrosive primers in 1945, according to General Hatcher.
 
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Ka6otm

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I've got ammo, powder and primers that I bought in the early 1970s. It's seen 40 degrees below zero in Alaska and 140 degree heat in Arizona on an annual basis as I store my stuff in the garage and in storage sheds.

Everyone I know here in the greater Phoenix area stores their primers, powder and ammo either in garages or storage sheds and always has.

It always works, always goes bang. Temperature isn't the enemy of your powder, primers and ammo, but moisture is.
 

Biggfoot44

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All depends upon your context of how long is long .

You'd almost have to deliberately abuse it to have problems in * your* lifetime . Whether it lasts 2 or 3 additional generations could be effected by being fussy about climate controlled .
 

moparclan

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Have some steel case EC 1943 .45acp that shoots great, but corrosive. Have many rounds of 7.62x25 1953 dated with some hang fires and missfires, also corrosive. Have some of my dads old paper hull 12ga from the 40's and 50's that still shoot, I remember the smell of that older powder when we went duck hunting in Oregon.
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"It always works, always goes bang. Temperature isn't the enemy of your powder, primers and ammo, but moisture is."
I won't disagree that moisture is a serious threat BUT if you haven't found an issue with powder deterioration related to high temp storage, you're in the minority.
Several years ago a friend brought me 4-5 brand new sealed one pound cans of IMR powder he'd 'found' in an attic storage closet. He remembered leaving them there a decade earlier so these cans had endured 10 years of cooking and freezing in the attic of an unoccupied house. Each and every can had the indicators of deterioration so I traded him a fresh can of 4064 and took his trash powder for destruction.
I store powder and primers remotely to meet insurance requirements but use non-working refrigerators and freezers and use 'GoldenRod' units in the bottom during winter. This tempers heat/cold cycles and moisture intrusion.
 

protoolman

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I dumped out fresh looking good 4831 WWII surplus powder this year when I moved. I still have some bullets I loaded with it. They shoot good.
 
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