I've got another question about the old-timers

[44minimum]

I don't know who I should ask this question to, but I will give it a shot here. If the year was 1890 and you had just reloaded some cartridges for your Buffalo gun, how long do you think they would keep in storage and still function perfectly? If they were stored inside a cabin, do you think they would still shoot perfectly fine eight years later? Or do you think the black powder would clump up inside the cartridge? Or what? Anybody have experience with this?

[johnson1942]

many a 45/70 from that day was pulled apart about 20 years ago. the powder was like new and better than we have today. it was reloaded into modern 45/70 brass and worked very very well. wish i could tell you where to find the article but i cant, just remember the content. ive seen some what i think was 45/110 paper patch sharps from that day that looked like new. they remained intact. they were sharps. the gun they were with was a special order sharps or rebuilt. it was very fancy and highly ingraved. if the case is sealed the powder should be good.

[Outpost75]

johnson1942 is correct.

In 1972 I fired a long range blackpowder match sponsored by the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association at a military range along the river just outside Ottawa. I was offered the opportunity to shoot an original museum-quality .577 Snider 3-band rifle using original service coil wrapped copper cased blackpowder ammunition loaded with paper-patched bullets, which at that time was over 95 years old. The ammunition was sure-fire, and thanks to the coaching I received from Maj. Donald C. Holmes, retired, of the Canadian Forces Rifle Team, I did fairly well at 600 and 800 yards, and did not embarrass myself at 1000 yards, finishing firmly in the middle of the upper half of the competitor list. I took some of the original ammunition back to Washington with me, which was later tested at the FBI laboratory, under the supervision of Craddick Gowens, then curator of military history at the Smithsonian Institution. The old Snider ammunition gave normal performance in accordance to the parameters published for it during the time of Queen Victoria.

[Lead pot]

It's not the powder that will fail, it's the primers from back then that fail.

[johnson1942]

thanks outpost 75. remember the movie ZULU, i loved that movie because of the paperpatched guns that were used. my favorite line from that movie was when they were talking about how the zulu could run 20 miles to a battle then fight. a british soldier replyed, why ever would you run to a battle when you could walk to it? my favorite line any where ever. back in the 50/s a gun author wrote about takeing his grandfathers 50/70 sharps to a gravel pit and shooting up a large amount of ammo and how well it shot. later he was sorry as it was probably worth something as being original. in the 50/s i was helping my uncle tear apart a kitchen to remodel. behind the wall of the pantry we found a very very old box of .22 ammo. we went outside and shot the ammo up in his winchester auto. it cycled well, smoked a lot and stunk bad but worked well.

[44minimum]

ah, so it's the primers that go bad. If the ammunition was stored indoors for eight years, you'd think it would be fine?

[bigted]

indoors where the moisture would be kept away it would last from 8 to 80 years easy!

[Larry Gibson]

ah, so it's the primers that go bad. If the ammunition was stored indoors for eight years, you'd think it would be fine?

The Ammunition would be fine.

Larry Gibson

[Lead pot]

When I was a Kid back in the 50's I had a .43 spanish and a .40 rem roller and some old original rounds in unopened boxes. They all failed going off except a very few. The .40's had iron head cases that you could unscrew from the brass upper part of the case and I pulled them apart and found the Berdan flash holes and the internal anvil was deteriorated.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

In the late '70s I bought a nearly new condition Trapdoor, an 1884 with Buffington sight at Moon's in Boise. $250, iirc. For an extra $100 I got a nearly full case of FA loaded rounds, circa 1887. It shot extremely well out as far as 500yds. Shot it all, just like I had an unlimited supply.