gone

toddt36 · Jan 2, 2011

gone delete

deadeye · Jan 3, 2011

Shoot it, I've shot ammo a whole lot older without issues.

Neil · Jan 3, 2011

2nd that, shoot it...

simpleguy · Jan 3, 2011

I have lots of ammo older than that and it goes downrange.

RVTECH · Jan 3, 2011

Just shoot it. Ammo from 1997 could hardly be considered 'old'. A friend of mine has several boxes of 60's era Sears 12 ga # 8 low base shells and other than being hotter than anything new they shoot just fine.

Velzey · Jan 3, 2011

I'm still shooting stuff from my grandfathers stash. 22lr stuff from the 50's and 30-06 that is dated 1918-1930...it all shoots great!!!

toddt36 · Jan 3, 2011

dang allright I always thought with rimfire, being an unsealed cartridge that they have limited shelf life. I got a little bunch of ammo from a relative that they didn't want.

MarkAd · Jan 3, 2011

They do have a limited shelf life of around 40 years. A couple of years ago I was at dad and when shooting with the 22 Short revolver. 90% of the rounds failed to fire even though they were keep clean and dry. The boxes had a waxy feel to them though.
I think the stuff was the original cartridges that dad got from my uncle when he bouth he gun back in 65 or 66.

rich said so · Jan 6, 2011

One warning about old ammo, if it doesn't go BANG right away give it a minute. Keep your rifle shouldered and down range. I use to shoot war surplus back in the 80's for 6.5 carcarno that had slow/ bad primers. You would drop the hammer and could count to 3 before you got the bang.

coop44 · Jan 6, 2011

I shot some 22lr from the 1930s, worked fine. Shot alot of 303brit from pre ww2, and 8x56r from the 30s too, never had any problems with old ammo.

Whitehorse · Jan 6, 2011

dang allright I always thought with rimfire, being an unsealed cartridge that they have limited shelf life.

As long as it is stored under proper conditions it will last for many decades. I store mine inside my house. Still have a couple bricks of CCI Mini Mags from a case I bought in the 80s that shoot really well.

On the other hand I have a buddy that stores his 22 ammo year around outside in a shed. I lost count of how many times that guy has had ammo issues with under 10 year ammo.