How long does ammo last?

[cherokeeprogressive]

I have a military ammo can that was passed to me a couple years ago. I got around to opening it last weekend and it's got, among other things, 30.06 ammo marked 1959. I'd bet money the can hadn't been opened in at least 30 years. It has .06, 30-30, .22 LR, and 12G double ought.

The can had a good seal. Is it still good and what's the risk of jacking a 30-30 round into the chamber and pulling the trigger?

[virginia mountainman]

1. They "should" be fine..

I have fired much older surplus ammunition.. It is all about condition in storage, if it is you described, it would be great "shoot'em up" ammo for informal target practice.

Before you go shooting though, you do know the proper procedure for dealing with a "hangfire" or "misfire"?

Here is a great video showing how to handle these occurrences safely.

Happy Shooting!!

[cherokeeprogressive]

3. Thanks!

[SeattleVet]

2. Most likely fine.

A couple of years ago I fired off a bunch of .30-06and 12Ga that my father had from many years ago. The last time he had been hunting was in 1963, so it was all at least 50 years old, and just stored in a range bag in the closet. Every round fired properly. I also used up some .30-30 that I had bought in 1975 or so.

I had more problems with some brand new Remington .22LR - at least 10 misfires out of the 500 round box. (All of those finally fired when I ran them through the rifle a second time, making sure that the firing pin hit a different section of the rim.)

[Eleanors38]

4. Ran some "turquoise specials" through my Model 94 without a hitch....

Those rounds had been around since Leslie Gore first charted.