How long have you stored reloads with boolits

[sst04]

Was just wondering how long ammo would be good for. Would bullet lube on the base of the boolit affect the powder and how long it last?

I also remember reading something about lead becoming softer over time.

So, how long have you guys stored ammo?

[Lead Fred]

Stored upside down, in a cool dry place. 30 years easy.

I have a 1882 45-70 and a 1972 45-70 round on my desk.

Id fire either one. Cept they just for looking at.

[ETG]

Two weeks ago I took some 44mag rounds that I loaded back around 1974. Bullets were lubed with alox with a lyman lubrisizer. Couldn't detect any degradation - all went boom with a heavy recoil :mrgreen: Hard to believe it was over 30 years since I shot that super blackhawk!

[Jim]

It ain't quite the same, but I have some 1940s vintage WWII ammo that's still just as good as the day it came off the line.

[armyrat1970]

Was just wondering how long ammo would be good for. Would bullet lube on the base of the boolit affect the powder and how long it last?

I also remember reading something about lead becoming softer over time.

So, how long have you guys stored ammo?

As Jim stated, not quite the same but, I have some 1943 vintage 8x57, and later vintage, and it all goes boom everytime I fire them. Also vintage Ecuadorian from the '50s and Rominian. They all go boom.
There may be a problem with powder contamination if left on the base of a cast boolit, depending on the boolit lube. I have not yet run into this and all I use is Lee Sizing lube and LLA boolit lube but don't take that to the bank as I have read that LLA has caused powder contamination when left on the base. It is not supposed to.
Water dropped or heat treated WWS will take a couple of weeks maybe to reach their full hardness and over many years may lose some of that hardness, but it will take many years. I don't really know but I believe if you let any cast alloy air cool it will stay the same for?????
I have some Remington 185grJHP 45ACP that I bought almost 15 yrs ago. I don't shoot them much as I keep them for personal and home defense and shoot 230gr hardball mostly for target, until I work up a cast load to replace them. Everytime I do shoot them they go boom with no problems. I have some AA#5 and AA#7 powder that I have kept in the same containers through the 15 or so years that I bought them and they still go boom with every cartridge I load and fire them in. I have primers that are 15 or so years old and give the same results.
It will all store for a lifetime if kept free from moisture and excessive temp changes. But the later may not even present a problem.

[deltaenterprizes]

25 years

[KCSO]

For testing purposes I fired a bunch of 45-70's from FA 88 to FA 92 a wile back. The lube had dried and hardened and with B/P they required cleaning between shots but all the powder was good. The primers all went bang and as long as I cleaned out the poewder fouling they didn't lead. For velocity testing I did clean out the lube grooves and re lube the bullets with B/P lube, but other than dryng out over 120 years they were still good.

By the way each case had from 68 to 71 grains of powder depending on headstamp. They all went over the chrony at riht around 1300 fps from a Trapdoor rifle and the powder granulation was for the most part what we would call between F and FFg. With either FFFg from compression or possibly a blend to achieve the desired velocity.

[fredj338]

I've got some 45colt stuff that is 10yrs old, still shootss fine. I do see more case splits in ammo w/ lead bullets stored over a long time vs jacketed. I don't know why, just noticed a greater number of cases splitting.

[fecmech]

30 years with some 50/50 alox lubed .357's, no problems.

[Shiloh]

Two weeks ago I took some 44mag rounds that I loaded back around 1974. Bullets were lubed with alox with a lyman lubrisizer. Couldn't detect any degradation - all went boom with a heavy recoil :mrgreen: Hard to believe it was over 30 years since I shot that super blackhawk!

Store properly that is not hard to beleive at all. That you didn't shoot it for 35 years, now thats hard to beleive!!


It ain't quite the same, but I have some 1940s vintage WWII ammo that's still just as good as the day it came off the line.

Back in the 90's, I fired some 1944 vintage .30 carbine ammo. 50+ years old. all went bang and all cycled the carbine. No surprize to me. Properly stored, in this case cool, dry, consistant, it'll last a long, long time.

Shiloh

[Shiloh]

If ammo is store properly, it'll last a long time. Keep it in the shed out back, exposed to temperature extremes and swings, dampness and humidity then drying out, all bets are off. I woulld think that after several years, it would show deterioration.

I had some 1938 Turkish 8x57 that seemed to be stored well and it fired. A lot of split cases, serious recoil, noise and muzzle flash. I also saw some still in bandoleers with corroded cases and powder spilling out.

Remember when Turkish Surplus 8x57 was almost free??

Shiloh

[mdi]

My .44 Mag. handloads (cast boolit, 2400 and H110 powders) loaded in 1995 still go bang! A divorce and a large sailboat got in the way of my reloading/shooting for a while.

[sst04]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It had me wondering if I need to start cleaning off the small amount of lube that gets on the base of the boolit when ran through the sizer. If it is a small glob I have been scraping it off on a empty primer container(seems to work ok, and just toss it when done). But I know it is not getting it all off.

[Recluse]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It had me wondering if I need to start cleaning off the small amount of lube that gets on the base of the boolit when ran through the sizer. If it is a small glob I have been scraping it off on a empty primer container(seems to work ok, and just toss it when done). But I know it is not getting it all off.

I've never worried about it and never had a re-load that I loaded fail to fire or shoot properly, and I've used a variety of lubes--and some of my reloads have been packed up and moved all over the country and stored in all sorts of conditions.

I've been shooting some .38 Special 158grRN stuff lubed with the old NRA formula that I loaded back in the mid-80's. Cannot see one iota of degradation whatsover in how they shoot and perform.

:coffee:

[Kraschenbirn]

I'm still shooting .38 Spl and .45 ACP "practice ammo" loaded in the early '90s, back when I was shooting a lot of combat-style matches. Loose rounds have been stored in .50 Cal. ammo cans and still shoot as well as they did the day after they dropped off the last station of my Dillon. (Noticed last week that I'm going to have to run off some more .38s...down to my last 1/2 ammo can of 148 gr WCs.)

Bill

[rhbrink]

I've got some 45colt stuff that is 10yrs old, still shootss fine. I do see more case splits in ammo w/ lead bullets stored over a long time vs jacketed. I don't know why, just noticed a greater number of cases splitting.

I pulled some cast boolits a while back that had been loaded 20 years ago and pushed back and never shot, for what ever reason. I was kind of worried about the lube not even sure of what it was. What I did notice was that the lube had turned green like it had absorbed something from the brass. The brass appeared ok but I will keep these seperate and see what happens to them.

[Marlin Hunter]

I have shot someone else's reloaded boolits from the 60's and 70's. They went bang. Since I didn't know what they loaded, I only shot them to get the brass. Only one was a no-powder squib.

[Big Country]

25 years

[lwknight]

All I can verify is at least 29 years. I have several different loads that I put together in 1980 and they are still just as good today.

[nonferrous]

I just burned up 2 boxes of .38 Spl Wadcutter reloads that were dated 1972, they worked fine.

[leadeye]

I still shoot 45 ACP that I reloaded with cast back in 1984. No problem.

[buck1]

I shot some that was about 30ish years old. I cant recall exaxtly but it was close to even a bit older than that. No trouble what so ever.
I also had some OLD 303 brit ammo I pulled down. The powder was that old cordite stuff or something close to it. I was spooked to shoot it. I pulled it down and tested the powder and primers. Everything flashed and burned fine. That stuff had to be 60-70+years old(guessing).
I have NO doubt it would have fired but would have been corrosive to my gun as primers were back then....Buck

[sst04]

I think now I will do what I have been wanting, that is get a couple of thousand pieces of brass and load them to put away, maybe rotate them out.

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Loaded cast boolits seem to disappear around here:Fire::Fire:
some very few might of made it to 18 mo. or possibly:Fire::Fire: 2yrs.
Can't understand why .[smilie=1:

[lurch]

Not boolits but...I have access to some 1936 vintage German 8mm ammo. It only goes bang on New years at midnight and has not let us down yet. As has been said, stored well, ammo last a long time.

[Jack Stanley]

I've shot ammo that I loaded twenty years earlier and it performed just the same as it did back then .

If I remember right lead tin alloys that are very heavy on tin do tend to soften after the initial hardness . Alloys of thirty to one are affected less than ten to one . And , just to further muddy the water , If an alloy has more antimony than lead such as linotype it tends to stay hard for a very long time .

Jack

[Dave C.]

I'm shooting T22 (winchetster white box 22 ammo) I bought at Perry and it was manufactured in 1979, holds the X-ring at 50 yds out of my Marvel.

[gwilliams2]

I just shot a couple hundred 9mm boolits yesterday that I reloaded somewhere around 1995... 124 gr RN with Trap 100, don't remember what kind of lube. These had been stored in the garage in plastic ammo boxes inside a cardboard box exposed to temps in excess of 100 degrees for at least the last ten years of storage. Every boolit went bang and hit the target... I've shot other factory rnds that have been stored indoors in excess of 20 years.

[beagle]

Around 1992, I cleaned out dad's attic and found several boxes of .45 ACP that I'd loaded in 1962 with Unique and Lyman 452423s and CCI primers. Now, considering an attic goes through drastic temp changes, every one fired and I noted no loss of potency or accuracy.

Based on this and 300 primed .30/30 cases that I had in that same batch all primed with CCI primers that all fired after 2000, I'd say that 40 years is safe and maybe even longer./beagle