I just found a bunch of old ammunition in various calibers. I was wondering what the time limit is on using this ammo on the range. I know I should keep new stuff for self defense, but are these older bullets OK to fire on the range? They're AT LEAST a year or two old, but with no visible signs of damage, rust, corrosion etc.

A year or two is nothing. Unless you're storing them in a damp exposed area they shouldn't have any corrosion which is why you didn't see any. Ammo is good for several years as long as it's stored dry.

Last week I shot 50 rounds of 30-06 that were made in 1954. Zero misfires.

A month ago I shot several boxes of .22 LR that were at least 10 years old. Zero misfires.

If your shells look okay and have been stored properly, you should have no problems.

Dan

Yup.

Properly stored ammunition should be good to go. However, if you find it under water, it's probably not a good idea to shoot it.

As long as it was stored properly, it will last a long, long time.
I still have WWII vintage .30-06 and .45 ACP that goes bang every time.

I have some military ball ammo from 1943 and it's still good enough to kill. It's all in the storage. Keep it cool and dry and keep the temp swings small.

I used to fire surplus WW I 9mm submachine gun ammo from Spain in my P-38. It was corrosive, so quick and thorough cleaning was mandated, but I had no problems. Also worked good in the Ruger.

The only limit on ammo life seems to be how it was stored. Like some other posts here, I've fired military ammo with headstamps from 1929. It was loaded a little hot but it all went bang. But, some of my reloads that were only a couple of years old had been stored in the garage. And South Carolina is humid even when we're not getting as much rainfall as we're accustomed to. None of has failed to fire at all but some of the loads became so seriously wimpy that all of that lot of ammo has been relegated to the practice shelves. Some of the cases also began to look a little discolored as if corrosion was beginning on them. So now all my ammo is stored in controlled environment with a dehumidifier running in the room.

One time at qualifications, another officer wanted to shoot my 229 in 9mm. The range officer couldn't give up any ammo for test firing, so we started scrounging the range for dropped rounds and found enough to fill a mag. Of course, we wiped off all the rounds. Almost off of them had varying amounts of oxidation on the cases. Some looked like they had been out on the range for a year or longer. We were expecting a few misfires/ squibs but had none.

Awesome. Sounds good! Thanks for all the info

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
As long as it was stored properly, it will last a long, long time.
I still have WWII vintage .30-06 and .45 ACP that goes bang every time.

What he said

I am still shooting deer with ammo I made in 1992