Ammo shelf life - 20+ years if kept cool, dry, dark
This is a GREAT question and is also one I have some experience with.
Store reloading components and ammunition in a cool, dry place, protected from direct exposure to sunlight. DO NOT store ammo in the trunk of your car or in your attic. A dark corner of your basement or bedroom closet is fine, but off the floor and not in contact with outside walls where it could be affected by condensation or flooded if your basement sump pump fails.
Modern smokeless powder and primers are chemically stable for 20 years or more if kept in the original manufacturer's packaging. US military ammunition made since WWII is quite stable when properly stored. During Desert Storm mechanized units of the US Army expended the last stocks of WWII dated cal. .50 linked API M8 and APIT M20. I am still using TW54 headstamped .30-'06 Ball M2 and ECC43 WWII-era .45 ACP hardball.
The only instances I have personally experienced where "shelf life" of commercial ammo was an issue occurred in paper cased shotshells and .22 rimfire. I had both 12-gr. and .410 shotshells which developed pinholes or case splits above the brass upon firing. I also have experienced .22 rimfire ammo from the 1960s in which age-hardened brass caused burst rims upon firing. The resulting gas leakage caused no damage to the gun, and other than being startled from a blast of "heat" in my face, I was not injured because I always wear glasses, as you should too!
Another shelf life factor on .22 ammo with greased bullets is that some bullet lubricants "dry out" and flake off. This exposes the lead to ambient air and causes it to oxidize. Oxidation changes the dimensions of the exposed bullet so that rounds may not chamber. Loss of lubrication causes bore leading and poor accuracy.
All is not lost if you are frugal and patient. I salvaged several thousand rounds of a prized 1967lot of paper-boxed Eley Tenex which would have cost over a thousand dollars to replace at current prices. This required painstakingly wiping each cartridge carefully with a cotton cleaning patch VERY lightly moistened with Mineral Oil, USP from the drug store, wiping again with a clean patch and then applying a VERY thin coat of Mobil lithium wheel bearing grease with my fingers and re-boxing it. This labor intensive procedure is not cost effective for cheap ammo which is easily replaced. I was delighted to find that my salvaged batch of Eley still grouped 3/4 inch for ten shots at 25 yards from my 1936 Walther Olympia target pistol and the same at 50 yards from my scoped Ruger M77/.22 and that I had saved roughly $1000 for my determined effort.
I have since decided that the only .22 ammo I will save for long term storage is CCI brand, having unplated bullets lubricated with clear paraffin wax. I have several thousand rounds of CCI Standard Velocity ammo bought in the early 1980s "before Green Tag" and its familiar black bullets coated in "jelly jar wax" shoot every bit as well today as the day I bought it. The folks at Lewison, ID explained to me then that they used paraffin wax with a 160-degree melting point. In their lubricating process bullets are hot-dipped after they come off the knurling and crimping station, and the coating covers the case mouth so that the cartridge is waterproofed.
This was is not the process used in other brands of .22 ammo. Winchester T22 and Federal Champion I bought about the same time, had bullets lubricated with a water-soluable wax emulsion. In this process bullets are washed in the lube prior to loading and allowed to dry before being assembled on the loading machine. Knurling of the bullet is done on the crimper. This results in the lubricant coating being non-continuous where it is disturbed by the knurling tool, and cartridges are not waterproof. After long storage their lube turned to a "flaky fuzz." I blasted them up in my old Remington 550-1 autoloader which "eats anything" and has some split cases and barrel leading, but nothing a good soak in Ed's Red wouldn't cure.
These days I buy only two kinds of .22 LR ammo, CCI Subsonic Hollowpoint for hunting loads and CCI Blazer high velocity for plinking. These ammos give me the best bang for the buck.
Not all CCI Blazer ammo has the black bullets coated in jelly jar wax. Since ATK Tech Systems bought CCI, Federal and Speer, some .22 Blazer ammo is loaded by Federal and has unplated bright lead bullets which have a clear, almost invisible dry lube on them which resembles Rooster Jacket. "Shiny bullet" Federal-ATK (Anoka, MN) Blazer .22 ammo shoots just was well as the "black bullet" CCI (Lewiston, ID) stuff, but I don't know its shelf life.
Ask me again in 25 years.
This is a GREAT question and is also one I have some experience with.
Store reloading components and ammunition in a cool, dry place, protected from direct exposure to sunlight. DO NOT store ammo in the trunk of your car or in your attic. A dark corner of your basement or bedroom closet is fine, but off the floor and not in contact with outside walls where it could be affected by condensation or flooded if your basement sump pump fails.
Modern smokeless powder and primers are chemically stable for 20 years or more if kept in the original manufacturer's packaging. US military ammunition made since WWII is quite stable when properly stored. During Desert Storm mechanized units of the US Army expended the last stocks of WWII dated cal. .50 linked API M8 and APIT M20. I am still using TW54 headstamped .30-'06 Ball M2 and ECC43 WWII-era .45 ACP hardball.
The only instances I have personally experienced where "shelf life" of commercial ammo was an issue occurred in paper cased shotshells and .22 rimfire. I had both 12-gr. and .410 shotshells which developed pinholes or case splits above the brass upon firing. I also have experienced .22 rimfire ammo from the 1960s in which age-hardened brass caused burst rims upon firing. The resulting gas leakage caused no damage to the gun, and other than being startled from a blast of "heat" in my face, I was not injured because I always wear glasses, as you should too!
Another shelf life factor on .22 ammo with greased bullets is that some bullet lubricants "dry out" and flake off. This exposes the lead to ambient air and causes it to oxidize. Oxidation changes the dimensions of the exposed bullet so that rounds may not chamber. Loss of lubrication causes bore leading and poor accuracy.
All is not lost if you are frugal and patient. I salvaged several thousand rounds of a prized 1967lot of paper-boxed Eley Tenex which would have cost over a thousand dollars to replace at current prices. This required painstakingly wiping each cartridge carefully with a cotton cleaning patch VERY lightly moistened with Mineral Oil, USP from the drug store, wiping again with a clean patch and then applying a VERY thin coat of Mobil lithium wheel bearing grease with my fingers and re-boxing it. This labor intensive procedure is not cost effective for cheap ammo which is easily replaced. I was delighted to find that my salvaged batch of Eley still grouped 3/4 inch for ten shots at 25 yards from my 1936 Walther Olympia target pistol and the same at 50 yards from my scoped Ruger M77/.22 and that I had saved roughly $1000 for my determined effort.
I have since decided that the only .22 ammo I will save for long term storage is CCI brand, having unplated bullets lubricated with clear paraffin wax. I have several thousand rounds of CCI Standard Velocity ammo bought in the early 1980s "before Green Tag" and its familiar black bullets coated in "jelly jar wax" shoot every bit as well today as the day I bought it. The folks at Lewison, ID explained to me then that they used paraffin wax with a 160-degree melting point. In their lubricating process bullets are hot-dipped after they come off the knurling and crimping station, and the coating covers the case mouth so that the cartridge is waterproofed.
This was is not the process used in other brands of .22 ammo. Winchester T22 and Federal Champion I bought about the same time, had bullets lubricated with a water-soluable wax emulsion. In this process bullets are washed in the lube prior to loading and allowed to dry before being assembled on the loading machine. Knurling of the bullet is done on the crimper. This results in the lubricant coating being non-continuous where it is disturbed by the knurling tool, and cartridges are not waterproof. After long storage their lube turned to a "flaky fuzz." I blasted them up in my old Remington 550-1 autoloader which "eats anything" and has some split cases and barrel leading, but nothing a good soak in Ed's Red wouldn't cure.
These days I buy only two kinds of .22 LR ammo, CCI Subsonic Hollowpoint for hunting loads and CCI Blazer high velocity for plinking. These ammos give me the best bang for the buck.
Not all CCI Blazer ammo has the black bullets coated in jelly jar wax. Since ATK Tech Systems bought CCI, Federal and Speer, some .22 Blazer ammo is loaded by Federal and has unplated bright lead bullets which have a clear, almost invisible dry lube on them which resembles Rooster Jacket. "Shiny bullet" Federal-ATK (Anoka, MN) Blazer .22 ammo shoots just was well as the "black bullet" CCI (Lewiston, ID) stuff, but I don't know its shelf life.
Ask me again in 25 years.
