will water quench lose hardness?

[corvette8n]

Will water quenched boolits lose hardness over time, like 3-5 years of storage?
I was thinking of putting away a .30 cal ammo full of RD .308 sized boolits.

[454PB]

Yes, and it doesn't take 5 years. The timing depends on storage temperature. In a test I did a while back, they begin to resoften in about 8 months.

[Pat I.]

Just put them away and when you need some oven treat them. I've had some weird things happen around the check shank when I tried oven treating bullets with the check installed though so I'd wait til after they were treated before sizing and installing it or just size the bullet now less the check and put it on and lube later.

[MtGun44]

Lead alloys anneal at room temp, but the rate of anneal is dependent on
alloy composition. Suffice it to say that in the very long run, all heat treat
goes away, the rate is hard to predict since our alloys are often highly
variable, too.

Bill