Comment on 40 year old ammo.

[Cherokee]

Still shooting ammo I loaded back in the 60's. Still shoots fine.

[Grandpas50AE]

I recently fired some of the stuff I cast and loaded in the early 70's for my .44 Mag. Still shot accurately and just like I had just loaded it. All of my loaded stuff stays in the house just like the primers and powder, so temperature and humidity aren't wide-ranging. Years ago I had left a couple of rounds in a jeans pocket after a day in the field, and they went through the washing machine. I kept them separate until the next range trip a few weeks later, and they both went just like fresh reloads.

[famdoc2892]

For both Cherokee and Grandpa, do you remember your lube for those loads? How were/are they stored? Some pretty tough loads mentioned here already, but we all can learn!

[Shiloh]

Fired some 1942 LC .30 carbine. Worked fine. No issues and cycled the action.
68 year old ammo when I fired it.

Shiloh

[gumpy]

Not surprised, recently found some old .45 acp 230 cast boolit loads marked 1965, I remember loading them, but thought had used.

They fed through my 1911A1 and were as accurate as way back when. They went from AZ 120 degree heat, seven years 50 below in AK, WY 10 years, four years in CA, back to WY one more year (I then retired) and for last 20 years back in AZ heat. So I now have no qualms about my old handloaded ammo whatsoever.

a few years ago there was a large quanity of french m2 ball ammo obtained. This was headstamped in the 50's and stored in a garage in phoenix, not air conditioned from that time frame until a couple of years ago. French m2ball had bad primers/brass, but the cupernickel bullets/powder was pulled. both were then reloaded into new 30.06 casings, and 7.5 schmidt rubin casings and fired through a chronometer. Right where then should be velocity wise, and about a 20fps standard deviation. For what it's worth. I have also german ammo made in 1938 stamped with the swaztiga and eagle, and the few rounds i have fired it all went boom.
now if i really wanted to get serious, i would use a box of civil war vintage ammo for a spencer, but i don't think that is going to happen

[gumpy]

i have a certain amount of powder from the 60's in the original cans, and primers from that period. One of the things i haven't gotten around to is loading some .45colt with that old unique, and using the same combination with new unique and running through a chrony. It would be interesting

[yottey]

I shot some 32-20s that were from back in the 30s a few years back and they grouped well and took a big doe with one shot to center lungs.