TargetTalk

Any advice on long-term storage? I've got about 20K rounds, stored indoors, that I want to prevent from going bad. It may be years before I use it all. Thanks.

(sheesh! that's only about 10 months worth...)

In all seriousness:
- avoid temperature variations: store somewhere that is not exposed to extremes.
- avoid vibration (I have seen case lots of ammo stored on top of the central air unit)
- keep it dry

Yeah, avoid temperature extremes, but really it's quite resistant stuff. The biggest thing is that over a long period, ammo like Eley with a beeswax coating, the wax can drip down so you get this lump at the front of the round instead of being spread evenly over the head. Not much you can do about that, apart from avoiding hot extremes which will probably soften the wax and make it "flow" quicker.

Backing up Hemmers' post, it can be very much 'resistant stuff'.

I have had 100% reliability when testing some WW2 production .22LR a few years ago - if only all the current production runs were as reliable as that 60+years old ammunition!

A number of brands of ammunition can give 'problems' if the lube gets too much heat - that waxy lube on CCI SV seems to 'droop' with heat (it's high summer here in AUS).

Don't leave your ammo in the car on a hot day!

20K rounds? Storage?

OK, I'll 'store' for you :-P

Anonymous wrote:20K rounds? Storage?

OK, I'll 'store' for you :-P

Do you PROMISE to return the empties?

Spencer wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20K rounds? Storage?

OK, I'll 'store' for you :-P

Do you PROMISE to return the empties?

Of course! I whole-heartedly believe in recycling.

Mike M. wrote:Any advice on long-term storage? I've got about 20K rounds, stored indoors, that I want to prevent from going bad. It may be years before I use it all. Thanks.

Hello Mike,

I would recommend you to vacuum seal and put silica gel packs in the rounds that you won't be using.

I have about 100.000K airgun pellets and they have more than 15 years storage with no signs of corrosion.

I have some 20 yr old Lapua and the lube oxidized and it will not feed properly in my Pardini when shooting timed and rapid. It was my knot lot for prone and then I switched to pistol and my usage dropped since I was not shooting 1600's. I expected the 2 cases I got to last me about 2 years.

So I would sell it and buy new later depending on what kind of lube it has.

Wipe the lube off and it will be fine.

A linen closet is a fine place to store ammo---cool, dry and quiet. The State where I live recently required that ammo has to be under lock and key, so now it goes into a lockable filing cabinet.

I have a cigar box of 22 short gallery blackpowder shells that still fire. They were probably made in the 1890's. Also there were some 44 rimfires mixed in. I haven't figured out how I will fire them yet.
Chris

20,000 rounds, only 4 cases - sounds like time to order more!

We got some Aguila that the lube must have gotten warm. Had to clean it off or it would gum up the works in about 10 rounds. The lube was caked up all over the brass. If the round chambered it would stick and not extract.

SRichieR wrote:20,000 rounds, only 4 cases - sounds like time to order more!

We got some Aguila that the lube must have gotten warm. Had to clean it off or it would gum up the works in about 10 rounds. The lube was caked up all over the brass. If the round chambered it would stick and not extract.

That is very typical of Aquila ammo. We couldn't fire more then ten rounds through our pistols before the case would get stuck in the chamber. I had a case get stuck in my Walther and had to use a brass rod to get the case out of the chamber. Wiping off thousands of rounds of lube is not a very good use of a persons time. We bought different cases at different times, but they all had the same results, so we don't even bother using the ammo anymore. I did complain to the Aquila people at the Shot Show for a couple of years in a row, but in their opinion they had no problems. My mistake was recommending the ammo to some of my friends and they all had the same problem. For the price it shot pretty good, but if it isn't going to function in your gun reliably then accuracy isn't going to matter much.

Lately, I did try the Eley Sport which is produced in the same factory and it did have less of a problem.