I won't tell you what you should do, because I don't care to have that liability, however my brother in law shoots a Pre-64 featherweight Winchester M-70, his granddad gave him the gun and enough ammo that should "last him a lifetime". The old man loaded the ammo back in the late 60's and early 70's claimed he spent two weekends loading just under 2,000rnds of his hunting ammo because he only wanted to do it once more once he found his load and be done with it, he used it until 5yrs ago when he gave the gun and the rest of the ammo to my brother in law, the kid's shot it for that time, probably nearly 500rnds of it, no problems other than one or two fail to fires, which is expected with any ammo (less than 1% failure). I've ran about 200rnds of match .45acp ammo through my ruger p-97 that my own granddad loaded back in the early 60's.

Pretty much, as long as the brass is still pretty (no spotting/corrosion) I'll still shoot it. Normal and even oxidation is expected-that dull brown color, but it should buff off nicely...as long as I'm certain it's loaded with smokeless powder that is, Black powder loads are a different story.

Like I said, I won't recommend that you shoot it, but I won't say DON'T shoot it either, just what I have experienced.

If you're not even considering shooting it, pull all the bullets, dump the powder, and soak them in motor oil or pop the primer in the gun, you can reload the bullet if you like.