How long do you keep Personal Defense Ammo?

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How long do you keep Personal Defense Ammo in service? I usually keep mine 4-5 years before it goes to the range, unless I notice a defect.
 
I used to keep my ammo for longer (say 7-9 years), changed my habits a few years ago. Now, I swap my ammo out every year, I think that may be a bit too paranoid though...Some facts on this would be nice.
 
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
People still die from ammunition from the WW1 in Europe.


Exactly. I have WW-II 30.06 Ball Ammo for my Garand, no problems to report.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
People still die from ammunition from the WW1 in Europe.


Exactly. I have WW-II 30.06 Ball Ammo for my Garand, no problems to report.

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
People still die from ammunition from the WW1 in Europe.

I know it will last almost indefinitely if keep reasonably will stored. I just wouldn't want to bet my or my families life on it.:)
 
Most of my .380, 9mm, and .38 ammo is 15-25 years old. Occasional test sessions at the range has never resulted in a misfire in either the semi-auto or revolver weapons.
 
The +P+ hydrashoks? I don't know how old they are honestly. They've been stored in a cool dry place. I'm not worried about them.
 
Originally Posted By: Hallmark
Most of my .380, 9mm, and .38 ammo is 15-25 years old. Occasional test sessions at the range has never resulted in a misfire in either the semi-auto or revolver weapons.


+1 I Have my Home defense Ammo (Corbon, GoldDot, HydraShock) in cool dry place and never had a problem they are around 7 years old. I think the Humidity and temp make THE difference. If I kept them in my garage I would be worried.
 
Shot some WW2 military .45 FMJ ammo a few years ago. Out of 100 rounds..never a bad cartridge. Burned clean too.

If your ammo is kept dry..I think your great-grandchildren could use it.

Hope this is so..Uncle Sam dose not like an armed law abiding citizen. Probably our great-grandchildren wont be able to buy ammo.
 
If one cycles the rounds in and out of an auto loader enough, the bullet can be set back into the case and cause pressure issues and other problems. Please be aware of this as I have seen this in the past, all with Federal ammo.

As long as the ammo is stored in good condition I don't worry about it. Ammo I loaded 20 years ago still goes bang.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest
If one cycles the rounds in and out of an auto loader enough, the bullet can be set back into the case and cause pressure issues and other problems. Please be aware of this as I have seen this in the past, all with Federal ammo.

As long as the ammo is stored in good condition I don't worry about it. Ammo I loaded 20 years ago still goes bang.
Good to post this!!!
 
ammo can in fact last for long periods of time, however when you consider the amount of people using auto loading pistols the constant heat cycling of ammo reaching 140* maybe more inside a dash ?? I think 1 year is cheap enough for self defense ammo carried in the gun, also it does not hurt to shoot plenty of what you intend to carry before using that ammo make sure it will cycle reliable
 
^^ Well don't rechamber a round more than couple times
smile.gif
 
If you have never had a misfire from old or poorly stored ammo....... you have not been shooting enough to give me advice on ammo that I trust my life to!

I have had plenty of duds in my surplus ammo from WW2 and from ammo as recent as the 1970s-1980s. I just had a Federal HP 9x18mm round go PFFTTT and stick a bullet in the bore of my E German Makarov a few weeks ago. This IS MY carry ammo and the stuff is 2 or 3 years old.

Carry ammo..for sure CAR gun ammo should be rotated thru the gun in a year..two at the most.
 
Originally Posted By: ammolab
If you have never had a misfire from old or poorly stored ammo....... you have not been shooting enough to give me advice on ammo that I trust my life to!

I have had plenty of duds in my surplus ammo from WW2 and from ammo as recent as the 1970s-1980s. I just had a Federal HP 9x18mm round go PFFTTT and stick a bullet in the bore of my E German Makarov a few weeks ago. This IS MY carry ammo and the stuff is 2 or 3 years old.

Carry ammo..for sure CAR gun ammo should be rotated thru the gun in a year..two at the most.


One variable is storage conditions. Especially with mil surplus ammo. Some of that surplus stuff you're getting has been sitting in sheds/warehouses that have no temperature or humidity control for years on end (at best - some of it might have sat outside in ammo cans on pallets for an extended period of time). The other variable is country of origin. Old Soviet/Eastern Bloc ammo simply wasn't made to the same standards as Western ammo. I've had new production 9x18 and 7.26x39 ammo from former Soviet Bloc countries that fizzled when fired. No ammo, even new, is guaranteed to go bang every time you pull the trigger. Good quality ammo has a very, very low failure rate. Lesser quality ammo, has a higher though usually quite low failure rate.

Good quality ammo that has been reasonably stored (no temperature extremes and low humidity) should last a very long time with little to no increase in failure rate. This assumes that you know the entire storage history of the ammo, which takes old production mil surplus ammo off the table (though even then, if I did extensive lot sample testing I might feel ok depending on the manufacture date and country of origin).

I store newly purchased self defense ammo (that isn't loaded in a magazine) in 50 cal ammo boxes with silica gel desiccant in an inside closet that stays in a 70F ~ 75F temperature range. I would have no issues relying on that ammo 20 years from now, however it is very unlikely that I will not have shot it up and rotated new stock in anyway.

Ammo loaded for a carry gun kept in a car is a different story. In our hot climate I wouldn't want it to get more than a couple of years old, but if you're shooting your weapon (which you should be doing anyway to maintain competency) that shouldn't be a problem.

I've shot thousands and thousands of rounds and had very few duds. Of the few that I did have a couple were new Russian production 7.62x39 that simply had no powder in them. The primer went bang and pushed the bullet halfway down the barrel (thank God I didn't fire the round behind it). I've seen no correlation between age and duds provided that it was ammo that I reasonably suspected to have been stored properly.
 
A true story a cop told me. He routinely cleaned his service revolver with WD-40, about once a week. He would than wipe it down and put the same cartridges back in the cylinder. After a year, he had to re-qualify, so he used the ammo that was in his gun. They didn't go off. He took them apart and found that the WD-40 did what it was suppose to do; it penetrated into the cartridge and soaked the primer making them useless. I am guessing that WD-40 got into the hammer/firing pin area, and when he put the cartridges back in and holstered his gun, the WD-40 dripped from the hammer/firing pin area onto the primer.
 
Originally Posted By: Loobed


A true story a cop told me. He routinely cleaned his service revolver with WD-40, about once a week. He would than wipe it down and put the same cartridges back in the cylinder. After a year, he had to re-qualify, so he used the ammo that was in his gun. They didn't go off. He took them apart and found that the WD-40 did what it was suppose to do; it penetrated into the cartridge and soaked the primer making them useless. I am guessing that WD-40 got into the hammer/firing pin area, and when he put the cartridges back in and holstered his gun, the WD-40 dripped from the hammer/firing pin area onto the primer.



That's one lucky cop! He basically had a 3lb brick in his holster for a year.
shocked.gif
 
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