do bullets expire?

>>27934783
Depends on how they're stored. Most ammo manufacturers recommend that you don't store ammo for more than a year, but if it's stored in a good moisture free area then theoretically it can be stored indefinitely. I've shot ammo stored for more than 20 years out of my dad's safe before and all but 2 rounds fired just fine. So really the answer is it depends, but it's always worth trying to shoot as long as it's not visibly damaged in any way. Hope that helped OP.

Everything expires given the correct time and circumstances.

Properly stored, ammo will generally last longer than you'll live. Leave it underwater and it will become useless pretty quickly.

>>27934834
>>27934849

that leads me to me second question:

what is the best way to store ammo?

>>27934909
In your safe with a fuckton of desiccants

>>27934909
In any location and container that is going to repel moisture. I live in Utah so it's considerably easier to deal with moisture here then say in like Louisiana in the summer, so your climate factors into ease of storage. I just use surplus ammo cans for my ammo stage outside of what I keep in my safe and they work fine for my climate.

>>27934909

Metal ammo can that's airtight, with desiccant packets. Will probably last 100+ years no problem.

>>27934909
The old GI green ammo boxes have a thin rubber lining on the lid which helps keep them waterproof. That, and, since I don't have much ammo to begin with, I have one of those pouches that absorbs water in there as well (for the life of me, I can't remember the name)

>>27934849
>Leave it underwater and it will become useless pretty quickly.

You can probably leave hermetically sealed spam cans underwater for quite a bit, depending on how long it takes to corrode through the can.

What is most liable to go bad: the primer or powder?

>>27934909
Very long term? Stored in heavy oil. It won't penetrate the case, keep out moisture and retard oxidation.

>>27935570
I would also like to know this.

If its the primer I could just replace it no problem right? Or might as well reload the whole thing?

>>27935757
It's possible replace the primer???

>>27935672

Heavy oil WILL wick into the case in the long term. How long? It really depends. Could be 20 years, could be 200. But oil, no matter how thick, has a tendency to do this.

You really want a very chemically and thermally stable solid grease-type inhibitor. Cosmoline for example.

>>27935784
Eh nevermind it looks like all tools to remove primers involve taking the powder out.

>>27935813
Would you really want to be fucking around with some live ammunition's primer?

>>27935757

The only way to put in a new primer is to punch the old one out, which can't be done without pulling the bullet and dumping the powder.

>>27934783
Yes, especially if not properly stored. Why do you think they seal them in cans like perishable food?

My dad had some .22 from the 90s that had some green rust on it, gunked up the mag beyond further use.

>>27935838
Well its not really live if it goes click when you pull the trigger.

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>>27934783
yes and depends on what kind. if it's the murricunt brass case surplus then expect the brass get corrosion damage in the bullet casings after 3 years even inside the sealed cans. The vodka steel casing 7.62 can last a fucking long time in their seal cans and looking like new when open.
I bought a case of 3 years old 5.56 US army surplus still sealed in the original can from "US army approved" dealer , open the can and half of them are instant trashed because there were either green color holes ate away on the side of those bullets or some white dry foam formed around the neck of the bullets; what pissed me off even more was that 1/3 of the ones that seems ok are ded and won't fire. Mean while, I bought a can/box of 7.62 from ebay that was stated to be from the cold war era, opened it and every steel case round looks like new and most of them fire no problem.

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>>27936208
Back to /pol/
>>>/pol/

>>27935812
>Some dipshit boils his ammo to get the cosmoline off.

>>27934975
This.
I bag my ammo in ziplocks and put a pack in each one, bags of 100.
They then go in the cans which have a few packs in there to.
>Live innadesert.
>This may be overkill.
>But so is my collection.

>>27936370
oy vey anodda shoah

Yeah they do. I just came back from firing some old 22lr bullets. The bullets failed to fire maybe 30% of the time. I got some bad diarrhea when I came home.

>>27934909
i just grabbed a non-fucked surplus ammo can with intact rubber gasket.
Threw some silica gel packets in there, put it in a cool place, and try not to open that box too many times other than to get ammo.

>>27936391
what kind of cans do you use.

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When stored properly, Not really.
Now what they hit on the other hand...

>>27934834
Manufacturers putting a 1 year limit on ammo is fucking hilarious. They might as well just ask you to give them money for nothing.
Modern noncorrosive/nonmercury primers begin to break down after a few decades... Corrosive primers may be good for centuries. The oldest ammo I've shot was from the mid 30s with Nazi proofs, a couple years ago, so about 80 year old ammo. I have a lot of 8mm mauser, .303 brit and nugget food of ww2 or just after ww2 and it's all been pretty flawless, except for splitting Hungarian case necks (not really a big deal) and split second hangfires from the radway green .303 (cordite has an interesting smell, fyi). I even got a can of 1950s 7.62x54r that had been punctured at some point in its life, the brass was more of a grayish-brown color and it was getting brittle and some of the necks had split. I threw away the rounds that were split and made sure all the remaining cartridges bullets were snug and decided to try to shoot it. Every single one of those rounds (300) worked flawlessly. And, those don't even have sealant on them.

Tl;dr ammo lasts a long time.

>>27937041
The punctured nugget food can was Bulgarian.

>>27935108
>>27935106

yup, this is the best way.

maybe once a year check the rubber seal to make sure it isnt dry rotted.

you can also vacuum seal the ammo in areas prone to flooding.

just dont suck ALL the air out of the plastic as there is some conjecture as to whether or not the vacuum sealer is powerful enough to unseat bullets due to pressure difference

Lets say you have your rig set up, 6+ mags, its been a warm day in the Bush and there is sweat all up and . Inaide the magazines. What are the sweat causes the ammunition to go sour?

Found some old 12 gauge shells in grandpa's barn awhile back. The were old. Like non-smokeless powder and paper wads old. Prolly been there since the 50's or earlier.

They all fired. Every one without fail.

>>27934783
Op,
Police departments require new ammo every two years, that is they give it their own expiration date of two years from purchase. Most departments I know of do this.

I have had a fail rate that is pretty high with my handloads, 2%, from primers not working. I can only assume I bought old primers buy who knows.

I have had shotgun shells go bad after a decade of storage where the box, shoebox, got some oil on it.

Properly stored brass ammo should last a very very long time.

Those are the facts.

>>27936903
Surplus cans, check the seal before I buy them.

>do bullets expire
All the do turns to the ground though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

>>27935570
The powder is much more easily degraded.

Trying to get rid of unwanted primers, I've soaked them in water and oil for several days. In both cases, they'd still go boom when hit with a hammer.

>>27936208
I suspect the 5.56 was stored improperly (maybe flooded? I've seen some flooded out ammo that looked like that), or else somehow was not packed right in the first place (moisture, shit on the casings, etc.)

Soviet ammo tends to be very well packaged, and the coating over the steel case also helps prevent corrosion

>>27936370
I hope you realize that you contributed less to this thread than the individual you replied to

>do bullets expire

A couple of .22 subsonics i had past their use by date.

80% of the time, the primer would either go off and not burn enough powder to push the bullet out the barrel, or not even go off after 3 hits.

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In soviet russia, bullet expires you!
>pls no b&

>>27937197
If you have them in those conditions for years then maybe. milspec ammo is sealed at the primer and the bullet so you should be fine short term. If you wear the same rig with the same mags and the same ammo day in and day out for a few years without cycling you may have an issue but mostly because of the temp changes causing accelerated decomposition of the gunpowder.

with today's powder and round design you could throw your ammo into a dank garage and come back in twenty years and it may have some corrosion but it will still work just fine.

Buy new production ammo, throw it into an airtight ammo can, grease the seal and pop in a few desiccant packs. provided you don't open it that shit will outlive your kids.

>>27940131
>Surplus cans
Where do you buy these in person? I've only seen them at gun shows at gun show prices.

>>27934909

Vacuum sealed packing

Can't corrode if no air or moisture can touch it

>>27943452

Gun show. bought a .30 cal can for $5 one time.

You can probably get them cheaper, I just only have the one can. I use it to store .22lr

>>27943473
Solid. Thanks.

>>27934783
I fired off 12 30+ year old 30-40 rounds my grandfather had sitting in a desk drawer in his damp basement. All 12 fired. The brass looked like shit, but there was a blue-green sealant over the primer and around the neck, so that probably helped. Funny looking round. Big ass silver dildo sticking out the front of the brass.

>>27940683
YOUR MA BOY BLUE!

>>27935672
No don't do this. This is how you deactivate live rounds.

>>27934783
They can rust if left in water and when exposed to extreme heat can explode the only real way for them to expire is if there left out of there storage for a LONG time