Do you insist on nickel plated cases to stave off erosion?
I am talking about ammo in magazines, in guns, in pocket holsters, in belt carriers, in speed loaders, etc.

It seems to me that brass cased cartridges in magazines or directly in leather carriers develop corrosion that makes them, well, *sticky*.

If you shoot off your SD ammo at least once a year, the brass cartridges shouldn't be a problem, unless your ammo gets wet, is exposed to high humudity, or is subject to large temperature swings. Leather carriers tend to retain moisture, hence the "stickyness"!

I have ammo stored in polymer mags that are great after a year or so. My hunting ammo, stored in a leather belt or buttstock harness need to be shot after the season. I call it "sighting in" for the next season!

The only time I've seen ammo develop the "Green Stuff" is brass revolver cartridges that were left in a leather gun belt for years. I haven't seen ammo in a mag corrode, but I use nylon or kydex pouches for long term storage and no longer own a leather revolver belt. Thats in the NY,KY, GA. Your milage will vary.
If you are worried about it, i'd recommend inspecting your rounds monthly or so. In general I keep my carry ammo for a year or so. I do try and rotate the chambered round.

"wet, is exposed to high humudity, or is subject to large temperature swings. Leather carriers."

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:
The only time I've seen ammo develop the "Green Stuff"

The word for the day is: verdigris.

And … wait for it ….

wait ….
Wait …



FLORIDA!

Just curious but has anyone who didn't change out their ammo for a year or so ever had it to fail when you finally shot it up?

quote:

Originally posted by fiasconva:
Just curious but has anyone who didn't change out their ammo for a year or so ever had it to fail when you finally shot it up?

I worried about that several years back when it occurred to me that I've had the same HST's and Gold Dots loaded for several years that got carried regularly.
I decided to freshen them up since that ammo was carried, rechambered, and sweated on quite a bit. It all performed 100%.
Since then I only rotate rounds that get chambered more than once and leave the rest alone.

quote:

Originally posted by fiasconva:
Just curious but has anyone who didn't change out their ammo for a year or so ever had it to fail when you finally shot it up?

Thanks to a forum thread many years ago (and karma) I learned about case gages and their use. I first inspect and then gage every single defensive round before loaded into a magazine or cylinder. If a round has been previously chambered it is re-inspected and re-gaged before being relied upon.

My typical practice is to shoot my carry ammo once a year, but in the instances when I haven't been able to, but fired the rounds at a later date, I haven't had a single failure to fire or any stoppages, even with defensive rounds carried for several years.

I carried the same J frame for over 5 years, with the gun in a leather holster, but the speed loaders pocket carried. I also have some speed strips in the suade leather ammo pouches. I've had the same 9mm loaded in my G26 for about three years. I rotate my ammo every two years or so, and I've never seen any corrosian on either the brass or nickle plated rounds.

Yesterday I shot some L C 45 acp ammo stamped 45, WWII stuff and it all shot very well.

Then some black powder 45-70 rounds that came out of a wood box, packed in sawdust. It went bang also!

It may be that Colo and Wyo have ammo friendly environments?

There are a lot of anecdotal stories about folks inheriting a pistol from father and the pistol still being loaded after decades of storage - never heard anyone complain about the rounds not firing (or the magazine having issues from staying compressed).

Unless I know I've subjected my ammo or mags to some harsh conditions - I don't worry too much about how long they stay before getting used.

In real life, they probably get shot up at least every 2 years and more likely every year. Every 3 months - Nope. I don't want to spend that much money on the more expensive ammo when I can just shoot the cheap FMJ stuff...

American commercially manufactured ammo lasts just about forever. Because I haven't lived that long...yet, I'm not sure I'm right. But I'll pretty much stake my life on it. I'm not sure about military ammo, but it might even be better, or not. I have very little military stuff older than WWI, but so far, so good.

Back in my sordid past, I would run across commercial pre WWII stuff at barn sales, or the occasional yard sale. I think that stuff has pretty much dried up because other jerks have bought it out from under me. As a gun nut we get great amusement from newbies who want to ask if their commercial ammo that is a year old is still OK, and if it will even fire at that point. We always tell them no, its now dangerous and to get rid of it. Or just lie and tell them I belong to a club that has an old ammo bucket they use to collect the dangerous stuff and they bury it...yeah, sure.

Back in my youth or early years, we would spend Saturdays touring all the gun shops within easy distance. Old men seem to enjoy bullshitting us young guys. One shop, over in Norwood, OH, even had a barrel full of 8mm Mauser ammo. I kind of remember it being 8 cents a round. But the owner got tired of that barrel being in the way and one time offered us a bunch for just a few dollars. It was all we could carry for about $5. With a warning that it was corrosive primed too. OK, even at 15 or 16 I was familiar with the drill of a bucket of hot water and the back porch. In retrospect, it was just a ploy on his part to sell us milsurp bore cleaning stuff. Guess he needed to get rid of that, too.

I don't recall any rust ever on my old 98 mausers. Elmer Joyce had a couple of store fronts over here in Covington. He had tons of surplus ammo. If it had ever been a military caliber, he had it. Better still, he took mercy on us young boys. I still have no idea of what the arabic letters mean. Didn't matter to me, it always went bang when asked. Even stupid arabs didn't want to lose wars with defective ammo.

The original NYPD 9mm duty round was q4172. 115gr funk 9mm brass cased.
Never saw corrosion in 5 years of use

We typically shoot up our duty ammo annually at our summer qualification. Never had an issue with it not going bang. Also never had an issue with corrosion, but all of the duty loads I've used have always had nickel-plated cases (first Remington Golden Sabers, and then Federal HST). I carry Federal HST in my off duty guns too.

There were even some times that we carried it for 2 years straight due to ammo shortages. (2008 or 2009 for sure, during the Great Ammo Drought.)

But a year or two is nothing. Modern commercial ammo is designed to last a long time. I wouldn't be concerned about it.

Besides, I've had personally-owned guns with ammo loaded for over a decade that shot just fine. And I routinely shoot 50-100 year old military surplus rifle cartridges.

When I was policing we used gold dots and they are plated. We shot up or duty ammo once a year and were issued new.

Some guys would unload their guns each night and that did cause problems with “setback” where the projectile was pushed further into the case therefore increasing pressure. We had gun inspections once a quarter by the Sgt. And he would have us placed all our ammo on the table projectile up and lay a ruler across them. If one was short it got tossed and a new round was issued.

I’m still using 7.35 Carcano ammo that is 70+ years old...that being said my daily carry ammo in .40 is loaded by me and gets changed out within less than 6 months or there about

Our SOP is yearly change to new ammo. I just bought a bunch of 2032s as well so we can change our RMR battery and ammo at yearly quals.

But my home stuff, I'll change it whenever? I haven't shot my P228/P229/P2000/USPC in years and they're all loaded with JHPs. Pretty sure they'll function if I have to grab it. I still have two 33 round Glock 9mm mags loaded from 1998. I plan on shooting one in 2023 and then the last one maybe 5-8 years later. Pretty sure the ammo in it and the mag spring will be fine.

I use quality American made ammunition and shoot my carry rounds every 6 months and never had an issue. Many LEA's shoot their duty rounds once a year and I witnessed 1 chambered round of Golden Saber 180 gr. in a Glock G35 not fire on the range after being carried for a year.

When I was a cop I took a snub nose revolver off a guy that had WW marked brass cases (or maybe is was RP) with a date code of 1971. This was in 2010ish. FMJ ammo. He said he loaded the gun "years and years and years" ago and just carried it, "well since forever". I pointed out the date code on the ammo, and he said, "yep, sounds about right to when I loaded it"

IMO, as long as military or commercialy loaded ammo is kept clean and dry, it will last a lifetime.

I think the whole idea of changing out your ammo every few months, years or decades is planted by the manufacturers to sustain their markets.

Strange that the same folks that advocate disposing of perfectly good ammo every several months will also brag about never cleaning their firearms.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
with a date code of 1971. This was in 2010ish. FMJ ammo. He said he load

So where on the loaded ammo would I find that kind of code?