Tennessee Firearms Assoc. Inc.

Looking for suggestions.
Which is better for long term storage,factory loaded ammo,or ammo components(primers,brass,powder,Bullets)
Whats the best storage method?

Butch Butler

I'll take a swag and say that loaded factory ammo is best for long-term.
In the early '90's I ran across some bargain .30-06 and .303 ammo that was all dated 1918 and 1919. It was all sealed in the original cases and was clean and bright when I opened the cases. Every single round fired perfectly, except for a few of the .303 which showed a very slight hesitation before going 'bang'. I have a bunch of WWII-dated 8mm, .30-06, .303, and 9mm which has all been very reliable and accurate. I also grab all the factory .250 Savage ammo I see for sale at decent prices. And a LOT of it is at least 60 years old.

But the oldest factory ammo I ever fired is some .56-56 rimfire Spencer ammo made in the 1880's a friend bought in the early '80's. We fired twenty-one rounds from three boxes selected at random from a case. All rounds fired perfectly. Imagine that!

The only times I have ever run across bad ammo is when it has been poorly stored and is discolored.

I dunno...but recently we dug out some .45 Auto-Rim pistol ammo I personally had loaded waaaay back in 1983 for an old revolver. We tried it out last week and 50 out of the 50 rds fired OK!! Been stored cool and dry in old metal military .50cal ammo boxes too.

I routinely shoot 30-40 yr old factory, mil-surp (US, Brit, S African, Israeli)rifle and pistol ammo...never had a problem except w some rare misfires w old .22LR. So..from my long experience, to me it seems storage quality trumps the other reasons.

My $0.20