Storing Ammo

[charlessummers]

Is there a life expectancy of ammo? Is there particular way that someone would need to store 1000's of rounds of ammo if they don't plan on using it all up within a year or so? I'd hate to buy a couple thousand rounds of .38, then find out they've gone bad before going through all of them.

[Guest nicemac]

Not really.

Keep them dry. They last looooong time.

Not months or years, but decades.

[roverboy]

Yeah, ammo should be good for a long time. Just keep it in a dry place and it should be good. I store in military ammo boxes.

[Just2Honor]

I am shooting some military .45 ball that my father-in-law stored in a GI ammo can since the late 60's/early 70's. He kept it in the house so the temp stayed pretty level. No fail to fire etc after about a 100 rounds through his 1911 that was delivered to the Army in April, 1918.

[Caster]

Before I phased out 7,92x57 Mauser, I was shooting Turkish surplus dated 1939. Zero issues and it was super hot.

[Jonnin]

The biggest killer of ammo is your self defense ammo, stored in your magazine in the gun, and residual oil (if you use a thin oil to lube your gun). Either avoid thin oils in your carry gun or seal your ammo well and buy fresh every year or so. Ammo kept out of the gun in dry storage will last for an untold amount of time; many shooters fire surpluse WW1 and older ammo and it mostly works too. No one knows how long ammo will last because modern ammo (say, 1980 and newer) has not been around long enough to go bad from age... heck, the 1900s ammo is not failing from age yet either!

[charlessummers]

Thanks!