I have been endorsing American Pioneer for a long time... At cabelas it only runs 14 bucks a pound... Why use black Mag? AP is just as clean if not cleaner...

As for shelf life of AP, I have had it's predecessor (Clean Shot) in my basement for two years and took it out this year and it shot just fine...

There are a lot of nay-sayers out there, but don't beleive the hype, AP is as good as anything else and shoots cleaner!