Does Ammunition Go Bad?
Is it possible for ammunition to degrade over time, and if so, is it dangerous?
A Facebook follower recently asked us the above question, and interestingly, there’s not much straightforward information out there about that. (Part of the reason why is no doubt that no reputable ammunition manufacturer wants to promise that their product could never, ever go bad, because of course the first time they did that they would be sued by some walnut who’s been storing his in a seawater fish tank for the last five decades.) So, we turned to a retired U.S. Army colonel whose MOS used to include munitions inspection for some definitive answers. Here’s what he had to say.
“No, not really. But there are definitely some things your readers should know. To start with, the military uses the same ammunition suppliers that civilians do, and although we did codify the specifications for the ammo, ours wasn’t any better than what civilians can buy.
“For the most part, modern smokeless powder is quite stable, so it doesn’t ‘get old’ in the same sense that TNT can. Smokeless powder can lose its effectiveness over temperature extremes and high humidity, but modern ammunition is overwhelmingly so well-sealed that weather conditions aren’t going to get to that powder. The brass can become tarnished in high humidity, but that’s not a worry.
“So the short answer is ‘no’…with a ‘but.’ Want to hear about that ‘but’?” (Yes, yes we do.)
“It was the Reagan era, and I was in Honduras in an advisory capacity. It’s important to start this story by telling you that this is in no way meant as derogatory towards the Hondurans or their military. What you have to understand is that Honduras at the time was basically what would have happened if the Great Depression of the 1930s never ended. The poverty was overwhelming, but it was a proud sort of poverty; people would emerge from tarpaper shacks with dirt floors and no running water wearing clean, pressed clothing to go to work and school. And in any poverty-stricken society, wasting things is a cardinal sin.
“My warrant officer and I were inspecting a Honduran army munitions bunker. It was built into the side of a hill, so it was actually quite cool inside. I was struck by how much sheer stuff they had there…decades’ worth of military assistance from a wide array of countries, accreted in layers like an archaeology expedition. And then I heard it, my warrant officer’s voice.
“My warrant officer, like most of his breed, was a stolid and no-nonsense man. So when I heard him say, ‘Colonel. Colonel. Colonel, come here right now,” that thread of panic had me double-timing over there. He was standing over a 55-gallon drum, looking down. Even from my angle, I could see that his eyes were wide as pie plates and beads of sweat were forming at his hairline, despite the coolness of the room. He was breathing in only the top 10 percent of his lungs, pant-pant-pant, like that.
“So I looked down into the drum.
“I think there was some cased ammo at the bottom. Sitting on top of it were several Tupperware-like containers full of old DuPont gelignite. There were also a number of sticks of dynamite. Old dynamite. Sweaty dynamite. And sitting on top of all that, like the lethal cherry on top of an exploding sundae, was a grenade. The grenade’s pin was out. Securing the firing mechanism was a rubber band. An old, disintegrating rubber band.”
“We tiptoed out, and a few hours later, everything was undergoing a controlled destruction by our EOD guys. All the ammo did, of course, was go ‘pop’ when the fire hit it. It was the nitroglycerine, gelignite and anti-personnel grenades that were the problem.”
This isn’t to say that there are no possible problems that can be caused by ammunition. For starters, it’s important to never use modern smokeless powder in firearms made with Damascus barrels. It’s also possible that manufacturing mistakes can cause squib loads, hangfires, or just plain duds. (Here’s an article about how to inspect your ammo for such possible blems.) But if you stocked up on ammo about 10 years ago and now you’re worried about whether you might have to toss it…don’t be.
When I carried all the time I left the same cartridges in the cylinder or magazine depending on which handgun I was carrying. Unless you shoot a lot of target practice you will accumulate ammo. The way I used my ammo for target practice was shoot what I had in my gun first. Now, like you said, I had some expensive ammo also. I would shoot a cylinder or magazine of it just to see how accurate it was and the rest was kept in my house. I didn’t even use an ammo can to store it in. It just sat on the shelf in it’s box. I never had any issues with any of it over the years. If you keep it in a climate controlled environment you won’t have any problems with it. When it sits in a place where the temperature fluctuates it stands a very good chance of corrosion. Heat expands and cold contracts. Where I live the humidity is in the high nineties in the summer so if it’s in a hot place there’s a possibility that the brass could expand at the primer pocket and the neck of the case. I’ve never saw ammo do it, but I’ve saw auto parts that were sealed and stored in extreme conditions and eventually the seal was broken due to the fluctuating temperature. My rule of thumb on guns and ammo was, if i’m going to depend on it saving my life i’m going to take care of it like my life depended on it. The key is controlled climate like someone mentioned in a post above. I’ve shot different ammo that had always been kept in a house for 50+ years and experienced no problems, so I doubt if I will outlive any ammo I have now or buy in the future if I keep it in my house. But my advice would be: If you’re staking your life on it, keep it fresh. By fresh I mean, shoot one every now and then to keep your mind at ease.
To all of the above: If the gun goes poof instead of bang, check the barrel for obstructions before you fire the next shot. I have some 22 Lr. that I bought from Montgomery Wards back in 1971, A lot of them did go poof instead of bang but the bullets exited the barrel.. They were properly stored in a dry and room temperature location. I also have old paper shells 12 ga. shells that I purchased in 1967, They were manufactured in the mid 1950’s and they shot real good in 1967. I wish I could get some more of them because they still shoot great today!
I have been collecting Surplus firearms and its ammunition for 50 years, the ammo has dates on it that go back to 1900’s for the 06, , 45, 8mm, 762R, 8x55R and so on, I keep / store it in a cool dry place ALWAYS in Air tight Ammo cans still looks great and still shoots very well in the rifle it was intended for, that said when I find or buy old stuff I look for the main indicator of ammo spoiling of leakage around the primer / greenish stuff it is junk and needs to tossed. I have ammo that was vacuum sealed from the turn of the 1900’s and when opened looks great and still shoots well. Berdan primed ammo has just about dried up, which is a acid non water base primer and the brass is not re-loadable. While serving in the Military worked in Ammo bunker (cant say where) we would load up a truck load a few tons of canned ammo and drive it around for a few miles to keep the powder from sticking to itself, I am no scientist but we did this for the year I was their..
Keeping it canned (ammo can) and in a cool dry place is what I recommend for storage, it will last a life time.
Sgt. RC
Your define/describe “dingleberry farmer” ????? Some years ago I shot 8/10 rounds of 41 cal. rimfire through a Colt derringer….. The lead was nasty but they all fired . The rounds were at that time 70/80 years old…… John O
Paper absorbs moisture and moisture is the greatest enemy of ammunition.
I place mine in ziploc bags of 100 rounds, put in a silica pack to absorb moisture, force out excess air and seal it. I place the bag in an ammo can along with other bags and an additional silica pack.
I have ammo that I saved 25-years ago and they fire as good as new,.
Harbor Freight has ammo cans that they put on sale and I have used many with no problem. I have a range behind my house and shoot often. I use the oldest first and when I started using the range, I had a bunch of .22, .357 Magnum, .35 Special, 410 Ga and 12 Ga and ALL fired like new.,
While on orders at Ft Hunter Liggett California I found a .30-06 blank (several of them actually) that was live. I proceeded to open it up to expose the powder. It flashed as I would expect new powder to when ignited with a lighter. Who knows how many decades those rounds had been exposed to the weather.
I have some 7.62x54r that was made in Russia, and is in steel cans, from 1972. I did get some from earlier dates, in galvanized steel cans with lead soldered seams, too. When I have opened a couple of the cans, so far, everything is great, hundreds of shots without one problem! I do have some steel surplus ammo cans, in which I store that ammo, which we haven’t had an opportunity to fire.
Yeah. Any solvent, especially those intended to penetrate, would make the ammo suspect. If you suspect it, do what previous commenters have done: try it and discard it if it doesn’t perform to your standards.
I’ve got 22 rimfire ammunition I purchased in the early 70s. I gave 2 bricks of it to my nephew a little less than 2 years ago. He told me it worked just fine. I still have 6 bricks left & so far it still works well in my Browning BL22 lever action, my Military Citation target pistol & my Remington single shot TargetMaster. It’s all CCI, Remington or Winchester ammo. For long term storage, keep it away from high humidity, high temperatures or low temperatures when stored for long periods of time. I keep it in my home where the temperature never fluctuates more than plus or minus 5 degrees..
I have inherited old firearms and ammunition from three grandparents and a parent. Some of it had obviously not been properly stored. Anything corroded (for cartridges) or obviously contaminated (for paper shotshells) was tossed. Everything else which I tried fired properly. Some of the paper shotshells gave off brown smoke with an unusual odor. I wonder if those were cordite.
I still have some .45 Auto ammo from one grandfather. Age unknown, provenance unknown. I fired some of it with no problems and kept a few for nostalgia sake. Likewise some .32 ACP ammo from one grandmother.
I also acquired some .38 Special military cartridges several years ago. The brown cardstock box had stains from something likely petroleum based. I wiped the cartridges off and they all fired fine. In fact, they were some of the most accurate .38 Special or .357 Magnum ammunition I have ever fired.
I probably should have tossed more of these old examples of ammo than I did. I was curious as to how they would perform. The answer was interesting.
Great story, but I am still looking for the answer to the question about aged ammo, +/- storage container, atmospheric conditions (i.e. temp range, humidity, associated stored items) and other factors.
The problem is that there just isn’t much data out there that isn’t anecdotal (you can see plenty of examples in this comment thread). The main enemy of ammunition seems to be humidity, and since heat allows for more humidity in the air, that means high temps can contribute to the problem. The best advice I’ve been able to glean from the sources I checked with is to store it under the same conditions you would store an old but still functional electronic device. That’s probably far more care and attention than you’d really need, but if you’re in the “better safe than sorry” camp, keeping it out of the wet and within temperature extremes that most electronics can tolerate is a great rule of thumb.
How about old shotgun shells from the 1950″s?
Good answers to lots of questions. Storage conditions are the best answer to ammunition condition over time- enjoyed the article.
About 2 years ago I purchased some surplus .303 ammo from Greek army source for my 1945 Lee Enfield jungle carbine. Stuff has to be at least 50 years old, in original wrappers. Still goes Bang just fine.
I agree. In the 1990’s I found some old 30-06 ammo of my dads and decided to chronograph it. All of the ammo fired without fail. The only thing noted was that it was about 200 fps slower than current 30-06 data for fps. whether this was due to age or just the loading at the time I don’t know.
Question/Comment:
A very long time ago I worked for a private police force in Southern California on the waterfront.
Our ammunition was supplied to us and we were told to change it out of our weapons quarterly.
We all took this as an excuse to go to the range to get rid of the old stuff.
I cant ever remember any problems we had with the old stuff other than the tarnish acquired on the brass. I never questioned this as that is what our Chief wanted, and since he way paying we did as directed.
My question:
I now live in the Central Valley, away from most humidity.
I buy some pretty pricey ammo for my EDC.
Are you saying I never have to rotate this out?
If I should have to, on what time table?
Thanks and regards
Your Chief more than likely just wanted you to shoot a magazine’s worth of ammo out of the gun, so you could check to make sure your magazines were still functioning properly. Magazine springs will go “bad” far more quickly than ammo will.
I have 40 & 50 year old military surplus ammo that as long as I have had it, has been stored in a low humidity condition. This is not so much my attention but the attention of the Arizona desert. That ammo when ever I open a case to use has looked and fired off great & agreed; tarnish and blemish not really and issue.
The real problems I have had are the mistakes of buying recently manufatured ammo (names not mentioned) that are just garbage, mostly cases swell after firing making extraction difficult. Commercial ammo not surplus and less than 10 years old. Live and learn. This is brass, not steel cases I feel it is just the manufacturer who cuts corners somewhere.
Militaries the world over are not going to accept crap whether they are from Asia or Eastern Europe so if I see a good deal on surplus in bulk I go for it.
I have 25yo handloaded and factory ammo that have been stored loose in mil cans. At some point a helpful though ignorant friend sprayed WD-40 into the cans “to prevent rust on the metals” about 10 years ago. So while I will shoot WW2 age .303 Brit from sealed cartons (carefully), I am concerned about WD-40 destabilizing primers, etc.
The worst you can get is a “hang fire” which is pretty simple to clear. Try it and see if any will ignite!