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How do you check he age of ammo.
- Thread starter mikes45
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Yes, give them the lot number and they can ID it for you.
I never worry about age of ammo. As long as it is stored under reasonable conditions it won't "go bad"!
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Shoot it, then count the rings on the brass.
Retired-LEO
NES Member
Same here. I have Garand ammo with headstamps in the 50's and 60's, though I may have used up all the stuff from the 50's finally.
Thanks Guys, I'll call the manufacturer. I purchased the box of ammo a couple of days ago and the box looks beat up. I was in a rush and didnt look over the boxes like I normal do. The reason I'm concerned is that it is defensive ammo. I heard the shelf life of defensive ammo should be no more than six years.
Mike
Mike
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I never heard about the shelf life of any ammo. Merely issues wrt how it stored, regardless of age.
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That would be my guess. Tons of ex-spurts at every gun counter.
Glockster30
NES Member
does this work if the brass is nickel plated?
A friend of mine said you shouldn't keep ammo for longer than a certain period of time. I think maybe its because of people unloading and reloading the same round, not sure what he meant by it.
This is total bullshit probably pushed by someone who wants to feel important or sell you ammo that's probably overpriced.
Whoever the guy was that told you that, make sure you forget everything else they said too, because it's probably crap.
-Mike
What he probably meant is that a round that is re-chambered a bunch of times in a semi-auto could get the bullet pushed back into the case a little which could cause an over-pressure problem. If it is crimped properly, there is very little risk of that and it is easy to check.
Plus why would you pull the ammo out and then re-chamber it a bunch unless swapping it out for range use?
I don't even do that. When I go to the range and want to shoot whatever I'm carrying, I just do an admin reload, and shoot the HP round that's in the chamber. Solves that problem at the cost of a box of ammo per year.
Whoever told you that is full of crap.
I've got surplus 30-06 military ammo from the 50s that I would bet my life on.
I was told that over time that the impurities in the gun powder settle to the bottom of the case resulting in poor ignition,
possible squib or an FTF.
To remedy that, you need to shake older ammo before you use it (or run it through it in a brass tumbler or dryer
if you have one), to redistribute the powder grains.
Another solution is re-stack any boxes of ammo (bullets pointing up, then bullets pointing down), every six months or so.
Seems to work as I have a shitload of older/ancient ammo and haven't had any problems so far.
possible squib or an FTF.
To remedy that, you need to shake older ammo before you use it (or run it through it in a brass tumbler or dryer
if you have one), to redistribute the powder grains.
Another solution is re-stack any boxes of ammo (bullets pointing up, then bullets pointing down), every six months or so.
Seems to work as I have a shitload of older/ancient ammo and haven't had any problems so far.
That Guy
Banned
I take my defensive ammo out of the chamber and re-chamber it every time I go to the range. I solve the problem of having the bullet push into the casing by A) putting a good crimp in my hand loads and B) putting the first round into the chamber manually, closing the slide and then inserting a magazine. Seems to work pretty well.
Kind of...
Old ammo can be dangerous. Anybody that says it will last forever doesn't know what he's talking about. There actually is an expiration date (of sorts) on ammo. The powder begins degrading on day one, and continues to degrade over time. The rate of degradation depends on the temperature at which the powder/ammo is stored, whether it's single or double-base, and the chemical additives used in the manufacture. It takes a fairly long time for powder to go bad enough so that it begins to affect performance (about 20 years for double base, and about double that for single base).
Do some research - you can find accounts of dozens of KABOOMS caused by old surplus ammo. There's a reason why the gov't makes ammo "surplus" to begin with - it's at or very near the end of its useful life, and the military doesn't trust it anymore.
Here's a post I found a while back that was so good, I bookmarked it. It's worth reading:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5860901
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