Some old .22lr my gdad had in a box not sure how old it said Woolworth $.14 on the box of 50.

I shot a box of Peters 28ga that was in storage for 50+ years. They all shot, but 2-3 sounded kinda dull. The hulls were brittle after firing. Neat art on the box though.

11x60R Mauser ammo mfg 1883. 1000 rds all fired with one hang fire. Beware of WW2 German ammo that has steel cases. Sometimes the case rusts from the inside out and catastrophic case failure can occur.

Corrosive priming has an unlimited shelf life. Non-Corrosive priming about 40 years. Our club has LC .30 M2 Ball that was made in 1966. It all fires.

Doug

When I was a youngster I used to shoot WW I 303 British ammo that was loaded with cordite powder. Opened at few up as kids and it was all long strands. Apparently they loaded it as they were making the brass and necking it down. A couple of years ago I read somewhere it can break down over time (nitro) and people have been killed by it detonating and blowing their gun apart. Not sure if that is true. I sure fired a lot of it as a kid some 35 years ago.

I've seen 8mm Mauser rounds at a local gun store with the Bulgarian royal lion stamped near the primer. That government was replaced with a Communist one in the 1940s---and the primers still looked great.

Not sure of the exact age, but I've fired a lot of military surplus and all of was at least 40 years old. No problems at all.


The surplus that I've heard that can give problems is Iranian 30-06 (back when the Shah of Iran was our ally and we were giving them guns), and then that Paki ammo someone mentioned.


Yugo 8x57 can be a problem because of hard primers. A weak firing spring won't always detonate it. I've got Yugo sniper ammo in that caliber, but that doesn't have the problems.

Over 20 years old. 2 years ago I killed a huge bull elk with one.

As long as ammo is stored properly, it should last forever.

Some 22LR's from back in late 1880's-1890's. Box was open when I got them. I have 6bxs. 1 open. I shoot 1 or 2 every now and again just to see.