TargetTalk

Col Swartz says
"Best for the useful life of the ammo: "

I have had some 22 ammo for 25-30 or more years. Haven't touched it until recently. It is .22 LR High velocity. CCI MiniMags, Rem and Win HV, etc. I don't know if there is a useful life of ammo stored well.

The recent use is with an Advantage Arms conversion set up with the strong spring on the Hardball lower for winter practice.

All I can say is when I stopped shooting some 25 years ago I had about 5000 rnd. of .22 target ammo. When I started shooting BE again last year, I used it and have been since. Not one mis-fire or glitz of any kind. But now I've got to replenish my supply....bob v

I really can't say what the useful life may be. I was limited to a batch of world war 11 steal case that broke about two extractors per week yet hit a streach of three weeks where I was exceeding the then current national record on averace for the entire period. All I can sugest is shoot the stuff and see. Good Shooting Bill Horton

I also have some Remington SV from the 70s. It is still as good as ever. Back then it was very common on the line. Todays Rem is junk for BE.

jackh wrote:I also have some Remington SV from the 70s. It is still as good as ever. Back then it was very common on the line. Todays Rem is junk for BE.

That's what I'm shooting ,Jack....bob v

I have some Eley Club and Tenex in the little cardboard boxes - bacl from my rifle shooting days in the 70s. I have used some of it recently in my 208S and everything was fine - including the group size

As long as you keep the ammo within reasonable temperature ranges (35-100 deg F) modern propellants can pretty much last, well, we don't know how long as you all have noted!

However, store your ammo outdoors in a shed somewhere (because you are worried about the danger of rounds cooking off in a house fire) and the integrity of the ammo can be sketchy.

Not just because of the powder (which would seem obvious) but some loads use a variety of sealants, lubricants, etc. which can be affected by temperature extremes.

IIRC (ed Hall may have the true story) the USAF national pistol team had about 100 cases of Federal match 45 that got too hot in a warehouse (in San Antonio Texas) once.

Of course, the ammo was also in storage during a big flood as well; but the cases did not look like qnything had gotten wet so that wasn't suspected as a factor.

1-2 rounds *in every box* had split cases. Yep, split cases! The theory was the different rates of thermal expansion between the case and the bullet were at fault. At least, that's what Federal said (no, we didn't get our money back!).

The rounds were fine - even on the long line - as "single shot" loads. Powder apparently not affected- and they were accurate as hell in our BE guns. But they tended not to feed as well!

Steve Swartz